“And one of the ways we’re going to do it is, I’m going to work with my friend, John McCain, to further campaign finance reform so we get these incredible amounts of money out of the system and open it up to average people, so America is really represented by the people who make up America.”
Senator John Kerry
Tempe, Arizona
Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2004
Contest to break the billion dollar barrier
Kerry’s fundraising keeps pace with Bush’s as rich liberals reach for their chequebooks
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday October 14, 2004
The Guardian
The US presidential contest is set to be the first billion dollar election in political history.
According to the latest official figures, George Bush and John Kerry together have raised more than $500m, double the previous record set by Mr Bush and Al Gore in 2000.
Allies and surrogates operating through a loophole in the campaign finance laws have amassed a further $330m and are still rapidly sucking in cash, most of which will be thrown into the Bush-Kerry duel in the form of attack advertisements.
Add in the $150m in federal funds provided to the candidates, and the considerable funds spent on the presidential contest by the Republican and Democratic party machines, and it is clear that a once unthinkable financial benchmark – the equivalent of more than £558m – has fallen by the wayside.
“It’s fairly safe to say now that the billion dollar mark is going to be passed,” said Derek Willis, an expert on money in politics at the Centre for Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog group. “The combined total for the two of them is more than I ever thought two candidates would raise.”