In shift, Edwards agrees to accept public funds
CONWAY, N.H. - Democrat John Edwards yesterday changed course and announced that he would accept public campaign financing, which was once the standard approach for presidential candidates but has in the last two elections become a last refuge among those unable to raise enough from private donors.
The move, announced just before the end of the third-quarter fund-raising period on Sunday, allows Edwards to take up to about $21 million in matching funds in exchange for abiding by a primary-season spending limit of $50 million. But the move is likely to be perceived as an acknowledgment that he has been unable to compete with senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the fight for Democratic dollars.
"I'm not holier-than-thou about this," Edwards said last evening after a town-hall meeting. "What's become clear to me over time is that Washington is awash in money and that the system is corrupt and needs to be changed."
The Edwards campaign presented the move as a principled decision in line with his calls to reduce the political sway of private money. As with a previous challenge to his opponents not to accept contributions from lobbyists, which was refused by Clinton, the Edwards campaign called upon Clinton and Obama to follow his lead.
"He's doing his part to curb the influence of money on politics," spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told reporters.
Following a well-regarded debate performance Wednesday night at Dartmouth College, the former North Carolina senator kept the decision under wraps during his first two appearances of the day, in which he kicked off his "Economic Fairness Tour" to draw attention to disadvantaged communities in rural parts of the state.
But he may have hinted at his plans in an unusual tribute to a Republican president.
"I want to be like Teddy Roosevelt," Edwards said at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Edwards cited the former president's model on antitrust issues and support for family farms. But Roosevelt, after banning corporate contributions to candidates in 1905, set his sights on a more ambitious reform: the first calls for full public financing of elections.
As of June 30, Edwards had raised $23 million, but that was far behind Clinton's $63 million (including $10 million she transferred from her Senate account) and Obama's $59 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Under the public financing system, federal money, which comes from income tax checkoffs, will match up to $250 of an individual's contributions. To become eligible, a candidate must raise more than $5,000 of matchable contributions in each of at least 20 states. A candidate must also agree to limit spending for all primary elections, campaign spending in each state, and spending from personal funds to $50,000.
The spending limit, based on voting-age population, is just more than $818,000 in New Hampshire - and could curtail his campaigning there.
Sasha Issenberg can be reached at sissenberg@globe.com. 