Bush, Kerry campaigns cost $400m as polls draw near
From Laolu Akande New York
IT is still regarded as the best democracy in the world, but the United States presidential election is a very costly affair.
At the last count, in July, both candidates for the coveted position of U.S. President had raised a total sum of $400 million and would have spent at least an additional $150 million government grant by next week Tuesday when the election proper will be held.
The Guardian learnt that incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush, who is running for a second term, had raised $220 million by July ending. His opponent Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry at about the same time also raised $180 million.
The Bush campaign raised $105 million in 2000 for the primaries.
It is not surprising that an incumbent is raising more money and especially being a Republican, the party that more often caters to the need of the upper income class in the American society. But while Kerry is not raising as much as Bush, he nonetheless is also breaking new grounds for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Kerry now has the record as the first democratic candidate for president who refused to take a public matching grant for the primary campaign so that he can raise as much as he wanted. Bush has also refused public grant for his primaries, just as he did in 2000.
Under U.S. electoral laws, candidates who want to benefit from government funding in the primaries cannot raise more than $45 million for presidential election, so that the government would then make a matching grant.
Kerry refused the $45 million cap and raised $180 million instead, including a $6 million personal loan that he took out during the party primaries.
But both Bush and Kerry have indicated that they will accept government funding of about $75 million each which is all they can spend after their parties have nominated them signalling the end of the primaries.
The U.S. government partly funds the presidential campaigns through a voluntary contribution that taxpayers are asked to make yearly. Under the law, taxpayers get the option of donating up to $3 of their taxes to finance presidential candidates in primary and general elections as well as subsidising the Democratic and Republican parties' national conventions where the candidates are formally nominated.
In 2000, that donation came up to $60.6 million lower than the $71.3 million raised in the period before 2000. And in that year Bush and Gore each received $67.5 million. In 2004, each candidate will receive $74 million. No major party member has ever skipped public funding for the general elections.
Meanwhile, both Kerry and Bush have continued feverish campaigns as the election draws closer by the day. The Democrats are relishing the fact that former President Bill Clinton was with the Kerry campaign on Tuesday. Al-Gore, the winner of the 2000 popular votes, campaigned for the opposition candidate on Monday in Florida.
The Republicans are also using people like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who became very famous after the September 11 attacks and California State Governor Arnold Schwazzenegar, the famous actor.
Clinton's appearance in Philadelphia drew a very huge crowd, a move many say could secure the state of Pennsylvania, one of the hotly contested states for Kerry. Philadelphia is the biggest city in the state and Bush is also actively gunning for the state, which he lost to Al Gore in 2000.
Other hotly contested states are Florida, where Bush won narrowly in 2000 by a difference of 537 votes; Ohio, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Reporters in local newspapers in these states are worried that there has been much tension, especially in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Fear of an outbreak of violence on election day is being nursed. There are in those states several accusations and counter-accusations of voter frauds, obstruction and intimidation.
As the campaigns hot up, Kerry accused Bush of hiding bad decisions, a criticism aimed at undermining voters' confidence in their chief executive.
"When the President is faced with the consequences of his own bad decisions, he doesn't confront them, he tries to hide them," Kerry said in a speech in Green Bay. "The truth is, President Bush isn't levelling with the American people about why we went to war, how the war is going, or what he is doing to put Iraq on track."
And Kerry broadened the attack to declare, "just as he has been warned about his mistakes in Iraq, George Bush has been warned time and time again about the vulnerability of our homeland security."
Kerry said he would spend an additional $60 billion over 10 years on homeland security, using the money to screen cargo for nuclear materials at ports and borders, add border patrol agents and more.
On the other hand, Bush was trying to get Democrats to vote for him in speeches on Monday.
"The party of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and John Kennedy is rightly remembered for confidence and resolve in times of war and in hours of crisis," Bush said. "Senator Kerry has turned his back on 'pay any price' and 'bear any burden.'"
"And he has replaced those commitments with 'wait and see' and 'cut and run.' Many Democrats in this country do not recognise their party any more. And today, I want to speak to every one of them: If you believe that America should lead with strength and purpose and confidence in our ideals, I would be honoured to have your support, and I'm asking for your vote."`****okay
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