McCain breaks spending limits
John McCain has officially broken the limits imposed by the presidential public financing system, according to spending reports filed last week by the campaign.
The senator from Arizona has spent $58.4 million on his Republican primary effort. Those who have committed to public financing can spend no more than $54 million on their primary bid.
McCain's lawyers contend that the spending cap no longer applies. The senator was certified to enter the matching-funds program last year when he was starved for cash. But once he started to win, he decided to hold off. On Feb. 6, after his Super Tuesday victories, he wrote to the Federal Election Commission to announce he would withdraw. His lawyers said that gave him freedom to spend as much as he wanted.
But David Mason, chairman of the commission, wrote to McCain's campaign last month to alert him that the commission had not yet granted that withdrawal request, and that the commission would first have to vote on the matter. One snag is that the commission has four vacancies and therefore lacks a quorum to consider the matter.
Meanwhile, McCain's fund-raising has surged, now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee. McCain's campaign said last week that it sees no ambiguity in the law. "The FEC regulations specifically state that candidates who do not receive public funding payments from the US Treasury are exempt from the primary spending ceiling," a senior McCain official said.
Bill Clinton flew to New Mexico to watch the Super Bowl with Richardson. The two talked and snacked on chips. Clinton reminded Richardson about the important jobs he had given him during the Clinton administration, including energy secretary and UN ambassador, and how important the Hispanic governor's endorsement would be for Hillary Clinton.
"I was about to do it," Richardson said on MSNBC. "He's very persuasive." Clinton left thinking that at least he had prevented Richardson from endorsing Obama.
But Richardson started leaning toward Obama. Less than two weeks ago, he told Obama he was "99 percent" with him. But he held back, worrying the Obama camp. Richardson said it was the candidate's speech on race last week that clinched it for him.
On Friday, Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, said that Richardson's endorsement was too late to matter anyway. Richardson told an interviewer that comment was "typical of many of the people in that campaign."
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Unwinding his once-promising campaign, the onetime Republican front-runner has been handing out refund checks amounting to $3.16 million in February alone to more than 1,400 of his wealthy presidential campaign donors.
In a campaign finance filing, Giuliani discloses that he raised a total of $64.94 million for his campaign and spent $56.95 million on his candidacy, which ended after his loss in the Florida primary.
The rest of the money is being returned, most in $2,300 chunks to more than 1,400 donors.
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