foolmenot.comIn the article below you will read all you ever wanted to know about Michigan campaign funding… Not quite!
Shucks, you don’t have to have to raise any campaign funds at all if you can figure out how to get all the union dues money available in Michigan. Granholm has that in her pocket, of course. If you stay on top of things you will know that most tax spending proposals she suggests all lead to an eventual group/union payoff… I love the “more money for education” line…
Oh, speaking of education, have you heard the National Education Association is going to give it’s OK for locals, such as the MEA, to join AFL-CIO? This will merge fragmented unions into the hugest political street gang in Michigan. With this happening in the next few months, Granholm will have an easier time doling out [our] tax dollars.
Additional impetus reported to have encouraged the NEA to move in this direction is that they are reporting to be losing the “public relations” battle over Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act”, which has proven to be highly successful- although you won’t hear it reported that way on CNN!
Full article follows…
Published February 21, 2006
[ From the Lansing State
Journal ]
Granholm, DeVos could turn down $1M state match
By Kathy Barks Hoffman
Associated Press
Thirty years ago, at a time of widespread concern about the Watergate scandal and unregulated campaign money pouring in from special interests, clean government advocates passed laws in Congress and Michigan giving public tax dollars to candidates running for top offices.
Nearly every candidate running for Michigan governor since then has taken advantage of the money. This year may be the first in which neither candidate accepts state matching funds, turning down about $1 million. Neither Republican Dick DeVos nor Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm faces a primary opponent but would be eligible for the money in the general election.
DeVos, who had given his campaign $766,288 by the end of 2005, became ineligible for public dollars once he hit $340,000 in contributions from himself and immediate family members. He already has sent a letter to the state noting that he's over the limit and won't be taking state dollars.
Granholm isn't saying what she's planning to do this year. In 2002, she didn't accept state matching funds in the primary, so she didn't have to abide by the $2 million spending limit. She won the three-way Democratic primary but then went back to the public financing system for her general election race against GOP Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus.
Matches bring limits
To qualify for the maximum amount of matching funds, gubernatorial candidates are required to raise $500,000 from Michigan residents over 18 years old who give a maximum of $100 per year. Each dollar they raise in contributions of $100 or less is matched by $2 in state funds.
If both candidates take matching funds in the general election, they have to abide by the $2 million spending limit. But in 1998, when Democrat Geoffrey Fieger didn't accept public money, the $2 million spending limit no longer applied to GOP Gov. John Engler even though he accepted state matching funds.
That allowed Engler to receive $2 million in state matching funds and raise $4.2 million in private contributions by the late-November end of the reporting period. Fieger largely funded his own campaign, pumping in nearly $5.4 million of his money between March and early November, accounting for most of the money he raised.
Granholm could follow Engler's strategy in the general election, knowing she could spend more than $2 million while also accepting matching funds. She also would be eligible for bigger contributions from some outside donors such as political parties if she took matching funds than if she didn't.
But there are some downsides to that strategy if DeVos raises tremendous amounts or contributes a lot of his own money to his campaign. Granholm campaign spokesman Chris De Witt declined to say which way the governor may be leaning. "We are not going to discuss strategic decisions such as the public financing question at this time," he added.
An election first?
No gubernatorial race since 1978 has featured an election in which no one took public money, state elections director Chris Thomas said.
"It would be the first time no one has taken public money in both the primary and the general," he said. "What that does is blow the (spending) cap off."
State taxpayers check a box on their tax returns if they want $3 to go to providing matching funds to gubernatorial candidates. In 2002, when three Democrats and two Republicans ran for the seat being vacated by Engler, the state gave the candidates a total of $5 million in matching funds for both the primary and general elections. In 1998, the total came to about $3.4 million, Thomas said.
If no candidate takes public dollars this election, donations still would be capped at $3,400 for each individual and $34,000 for political action committees. But the limits don't apply to immediate family members, Thomas said. That could be useful for DeVos, whose father is the billionaire owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team and whose brother, Doug, is president of Alticor Inc., parent company of Amway Corp.
On the other hand, Dick DeVos has said he won't take any money from political action committees. Granholm has gotten at least $30,000 so far this election cycle from groups such as the United Auto Workers union's Michigan Community Action Program, the Michigan Manufactured Housing PAC and the DTE Energy Co. PAC, campaign finance records show.
End of an era
Tom Shields, a consultant who has worked on Republican campaigns, said the era of public financing may be over unless state law is changed to raise the spending cap for those taking matching funds. Candidates can spend only $2 million in the primary election and $2 million in the general election if they take public money.
"Unfortunately, I think we've had our last election where the public finance (rule) controls how much money is spent," said Shields, president of Marketing Resource Group in Lansing. He said the spending limits are too low if a candidate faces someone who doesn't take state matching funds.
"You have to be able to compete," Shields said. "You can't let the other side get ahead."
In a nutshell
Gubernatorial candidates Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos face funding
decisions as the election approaches.
• What's new: It could be the first election since public financing of
gubernatorial campaigns took effect in 1978 in which no candidate accepts state
matching funds.
• What Granholm says: She won't say yet if she plans to take matching funds in
the primary or general elections. In 2002, she took them in the general election
but not in the primary election.
• What Devos says: He's already given his campaign more money than allowed for
candidates accepting matching funds, so he won't participate in the public
finance system.