WASHINGTON — Barack Obama is abandoning public financing for his presidential campaign, reversing his earlier stance in bold certainty he can raise millions more on his own as the first major-party candidate to bypass the tax-checkoff system that was hurried into place after the Watergate scandal.
Obama has shattered fundraising records during the primary season, and he promptly showed off his financial muscle Thursday with his first commercial of the general election campaign. The ad, a 60-second biographical spot, will begin airing today in 18 states, including historically Republican strongholds.
Though it opens him to charges of hypocrisy, Obama’s fundraising decision was hardly a surprise, given his record in raising money from private sources. Some $85 million in public money is available to each major party nominee during the fall campaign if they agree to forgo other contributions.
McCain said in Minnesota on Thursday, “We will take public financing.”
As for his opponent, he said Obama “said he would stick to his word. He didn’t.”
Obama has proven himself to be a prodigious fundraiser who could easily raise more than the public fund supplies. And while he and his advisers know McCain and other Republicans will criticize his decision, they understand that issues of campaign finance do not rank high in most voters’ minds.
By releasing his first ad of the general election, Obama also diluted the impact of the money story with a strong visual that was likely to dominate television coverage of the campaign. Obama will draw attention to his finances again today, when his campaign files its May fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission.
Obama raked in more than $265 million as of the end of April.
Obama’s decision represents a significant milestone in the financing of presidential campaigns. President Bush was the first candidate to reject public financing of primaries when he ran in 2000. But no candidate has ignored the general election funds since the law setting up the presidential finance system was approved in 1976.
“It’s not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections,” Obama said Thursday. “But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system.”
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