McCain's Campaign Finance Reform bites him on the ass

McCain is now trying to opt out of public financing for his primary campaign, but it may be too late.

Dean says McCain skirts election law with campaign loan - CNN.com

Back in the fall, when his campaign was out of cash and flagging, he applied for public financing, and accepted the spending cap that would come with it. He didn't actually recieve any Federal money yet, so now that he is recieving donations, he wants to back out of public financing and the spending cap that comes with it. However, even though he didn't receive money directly from the government yet, having the public financing allowed him to be automatically placed on the ballots in the various states, a benefit worth several million dollars. He may have also secured some loans using the promise of public financing as collateral.

The problem for McCain is that the spending cap is $54 million, and he has already spent over $50 million, so it would be crippling if he couldn't spend any more until the General Election. That's why he wants out, but it may already be too late. The FEC needs to vote on whether he can be released, and one of the rules is that if you use the federal assistance as collateral for loans, then you are stuck. He may have done so, in which case he would be screwed. The FEC will need to rule on the loans.

One of the ironies is that McCain was a strong champion of campaign finance reform, something I also believe in. But now the very law that he pushed through the Senate may doom his own candidacy. I think even if he does manage to get out of the program and the spending cap, he may have some trouble from this because it may look like he is skirting one of his very own rules. I'm sure someone will use this to make a case for hypocrisy.

McCain has already had some trouble with his base because of his support for campaign finance reform --- it's not very popular with some of the conservative base, so they already hold it against him. They'll really hold it against him if it gets him in a spending bind.