"Public Financing & Serving Two Masters" by Bruce McF gets Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

Recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award


Cross-posted from John Edwards Blog

http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/10/7/165925/344#4

Public Financing & Serving Two Masters

user icon BruceMcF in Diaries Feed of BruceMcF's Diary
10/07/2007 at 4:59 PM EST

Crossposted from Ohio4Edwards

What is the real, strategic resource for a political campaign? Is it time? Money? Enthusiastic supporters? Insider support?

All of those are useful things to have, but the real strategic resource is priority. You cannot divide your message between too many contradictory messages without getting lost in the static. You cannot serve two or more masters, serve each with the same determination, and serve any of them well.

Join me after the fold to think more deeply about what John Edwards decision on public financing means about this campaign.

The priorities of the campaign is the main issue of the decision on public financing. After accepting public financing, John Edwards knows that he has a maximum amount he had to raise ... and then, he can simply be done with fund-raising on his own behalf, and give himself full time to the campaign and to building up his grassroots/netroots base. And if he wins the nomination, throw himself into leading fundraisers for the DNC and for individual candidates for the House and Senate, just as he did in 2006.

If he pushes a message that slows down contributions from big ticket donors, it just means that he has to keep fund raising a bit longer ... and if he pushes a message that speeds up contributions from federally matched small ticket donors, he can stop fund raising a bit sooner. But either way, there is an actual end to it.

Senators Clinton and Obama, locked in a fund-raising arms race, cannot upset the apple cart. They have to keep modulating their message so that it can appeal both to primary voters and to big ticket contributers. We see this most clearly with Senator Clinton, who is for ending the war in Iraq, except not really (see clip above), and wouldn't give Bush support for going to war if she knew then what she knows now, except not really, and waited six months, long after the positive reviews were in for John Edwards plan for Universal health care, before she proposed the same basic plan herself.

John Edwards has a fixed amount of money to aim for, and an uncapped amount of volunteer grassroots and netroots support to mobilize.

He has, in short, decided which Master comes first, and its us. We are the ones who are going to be driving grassroots/netroots 527's to take the fight to the Republican nominee in the summer. We are the ones who will change the face of DNC fundraising. We are the ones who are going to be hustling to get out the crowd when John Edwards is headlining a Small Change for Big Change event, fund-raising directly for our own candidates to get over the Blue Dogs in the House and the Republican master of Stalling tactics in the Senate.

And in the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, that's the way its supposed to be.

[NB. The final paragraph is focused on an important issue in Ohio in particular, but the point is relevant to many "battleground" states.]

Finally, its no secret that in the districts where we will be fighting to overcome the Republican gerrymander of our state, John Edwards will do much more good for our candidates than Senator Clinton. And the commitment to public financing only reinforces that ... instead of flying in to fundraisers through the summer, before the convention, taking money out of safe districts, John Edwards will be free to raise resources and profile for our candidates in tough districts.