Kerry To Postpone Nomination?
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry may delay accepting his party's nomination to gain time to raise and spend private contributions and lessen President Bush's multimillion-dollar financial advantage, campaign officials said Friday.
The proposal would let Kerry hold off on spending his $75 million general-election budget for an extra month. The Democratic Party would still stage its national convention in Boston at the end of July, five weeks before the Republican National Convention in New York.
Kerry and President Bush both are expected to accept $75 million in full federal funding for their general election campaigns. Once nominated, the candidates will be limited to spending the government money and can no longer raise or spend private contributions on the campaign.
The Kerry campaign "won't fight with one hand behind our back," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Friday.
"Never in Democratic Party history has any nominee raised as much money as John Kerry," she said. "We're going to continue to ambitiously fund-raise and we believe our support will only grow."
Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee are still considering the specifics of such a plan. Cutter said the nomination officially takes place after the delegate roll-call vote, so Democrats could have to find a way to recreate that or change the party rules to delay the vote's effect for a month.
A Democratic official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one way it could work is by changing party rules to provide that the nomination will take place Sept. 1, having Kerry give a convention speech to delegates that stops short of accepting the nomination, then recessing the convention until Sept. 1, when delegates could vote by Internet or proxy.
Kerry, meanwhile, has raised roughly $1 million a day last month, building his presidential campaign total to a Democratic record $117 million but still trailing President Bush's cash reserves.
Kerry began May with $28 million in the bank after devoting millions to his first major ad buys since the Democratic primaries. In all, Kerry spent $35 million last month and at least $89 million since January 2003, says a campaign finance report filed late Thursday.
Mr. Bush opened the month with nearly $72 million on hand. The Republican spent $31 million in April — much of it on ads — and has used up a presidential record of $126 million since officially starting his re-election effort last May, according to his new finance report to the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Bush raised $15 million last month, pushing his campaign total past $200 million.
Both candidates have set records for fund raising and spending: Kerry for his party, and President Bush overall.
They can do so in part because each skipped public financing for the primary-election season, enabling them to spend as much as they wish until their parties officially nominate them at conventions this summer.
Last month, Kerry raised $31 million. The Massachusetts senator's total of $117 million through April includes a loan of roughly $6 million.
Internet fund-raising has been a big part of Kerry's financial surge since he won the Democratic primaries. His campaign has taken in more than $35 million online this year and has been trying for $10 million in May alone.
Kerry and the president are expected to accept full government funding for the general-election phase of their campaigns. That means each will receive a taxpayer-financed check for about $75 million when they are nominated at their parties' conventions: Kerry in Boston in late July and Mr. Bush in New York in early September.
National party committees also filed fund-raising reports Thursday with the FEC. Among them: