In the “good old day” (pre-2004), the norm was that the major party candidates accepted public financing. That changed in 2004, when several candidates in the Democratic Primary decided that they could raise enough on their own without accepting the partial matching funds (and the attached per state limits on spending). (The per state limits are probably the most arbitrary and dysfunctional part of the current rules on matching funds.) In 2012, both major party nominees opted against taking public financing for the general election.
This year, Donald Trump just might be taking a very long and hard look at accepting public financing. There are several reasons why public financing might look very good to the Donald. First, he has proven completely unable to raise funds on his own. In slightly over twelve months, he raised a total of $17 million (tossing in $45 million of his own money for the primary). Given that the public funding for the general election is $96 million, it’s in his personal financial interest to let you and I pay for his campaign. Second, the only way that he has any shot at raising that type of money on his own is to beg for money from lobbyists — which would contradict the image that he is trying to present. Third, in the Citizens United era. it is easy to farm out the campaign tasks. Given Trump’s distaste for polling, data analysis and field operations, it is very conceivable that the official campaign will just dump those responsibilities on the Republican National Committee (which would be exempt form the spending limit) and just use the campaign for ads and appearances (and a skeleton staff.) Even if later in the race, the campaign decides that it needs to spend more on ads, it can just farm that out to a Super PAC. Finally, there is Trump’s perception that, with his celebrity status. he doesn’t really need to do much in terms of campaigning — a “run and they will vote for you” type of delusion.
Now, I haven’t heard on the internet or the news suggesting that Trump is planning to take public financing for the general election. I am just saying that — with public funding available immediately after the convention and the Clinton campaign getting a free-ride on ads in swing states due to Trump’s campaign being broke — you would think somebody in that campaign is running the numbers.
I thought to myself, reading this article, that the levels would be low.. but it’s almost #100 million http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/pubfund_limits_2016.shtml
Huh. It might behove the Donald to do so, EXCEPT….Clinton has already raised 3 times that amount, 2/3 of which is her war chest, the rest is PAC monies — so he’d really be at YET ANOTHER disadvantage.
My reasoning — of course before today’s news release about June’s fundraising — which still mostly applies is that there are campaign funds and then there are other funds. While the campaign has some advantages (lower ad rates on tv and radio), most of the rest of the campaigning stuff can be farmed out. Unless the Donald is willing to blow another $40 million of his own money, he is going to have trouble going dollar for dollar with Clinton. The risk, of course, is that the RNC and Republican-affiliated Super PACS decide to write-off the White House and concentrate on down ballot races.