Best response to this?

[globalvillage]

It's from the kos diary. How much was primary money? Who has the best answer?

Only thing I would like Kerry to apologize for (0 / 0)
is not spending the 14 million he had before election night 2004. I donated some hard-earned cash because I believed in him, and I think it would have made a difference--even with Blackwell's election shenanigans that no doubt occurred in Ohio.

[_dynamicdems]

1. Wasn't he holding on to some money in case the race was close enough

for a recount and there was a prolonged legal battle? As is, Senator Kerry's still fighting yet another law suit over that Swiftboater film.

And in one interview, he did mention that his campaign did not ask for any more money: they felt they had what they needed.

So if the campaign thought they had spent enough, what was wrong with holding the rest aside in case a legal battle ensued?

[fedupinBushcountry]

2. I went to the FEC site

and have just started looking and JK is right so far just on the first form I have viewed there is only 3 million and some in the GELAC fund.

Here's the link: http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00385070

More info here: http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg

[blm]

3. It was ILLEGAL for Kerry to spend any leftover primary money during General election cycle.

Their beef is with CAPAIGN FINANCING LAW - if they want it changed they should work to change it, instead of wasting energy pointing in the wrong direction.

[MH1]

4. But - wasn't the $14 mil

the total of eligible funds, i.e. not counting the leftover primary funds?

I know a significant sum - at least half I think - was in the GELAC account, which I've come to find out, is standard practice, because - if I understand correctly - after the election, those would be the only funds allowed to be used for follow-up challenges and other activities. So a lot of funds were moved to GELAC near the end, in case of a very close election like in 2000 (i.e. hundreds or a few thousand vote difference, not 120,000 with a large popular vote deficit).

As for the non-GELAC funds, there are a variety of reasons that money would have been left unspent, and I suspect if one compares it to previous campaigns, it would not be a particularly unusual sum. There's a resident Gore promoter at dailykos who likes to claim JK was wrong on this but Gore wasn't, yet throws out the number $12 million as what Gore had leftover after December. Making it all the more, um, interesting that it was Donna Brazile, Gore's campaign manager, who chose to jump JK's shit less than 2 weeks after the election. (Earning my disdain forever for her total lack of class, let alone party teamwork).

Now, since the 2004 election JK has spent a lot of that money in support of 2005 and 2006 candidates. So to continually use the $14 mil figure is incorrect to start - at the very least, the poster should acknowledge what has been "given back" to the party already from that sum. What is left may come to around 7 or 8 mil, I think, and that may be fair game for discussion from the perspective of what people think a candidate should do with such leftover funds. (Whether it is a useful or productive topic for discussion is another matter).

[Mass]

5. Most of this money was pre-primary left overs and GELAC funds

None could be used between the primary and the general election.

Kerry gave most of what he had left to the DSCC, DCCC, and DNC (10s of millions)before the election and kept some of this money for accounting reasons. He since has given a large chunk of it to the committees and to different recount effort like in WA for the governor's race. As for the GELAC funds, they obviously used part of it, but, given that they did not need a full blown effort, they did not use all of it.

[Mass]

6. Here is the explanation

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/071906/kerry.html

Kerry has $8.2 million in his John Kerry for President account and $5.4 million in his Kerry-Edwards 2004 Inc. General Election Legal and Accounting Compliance (GELAC) Fund. The sums were almost entirely raised after it became clear that Kerry would be the 2004 Democratic nominee against President Bush.

Note the use of the word "raise". After the nomination, Kerry was not able to raise money for himself, so this money is definitively from the primary season before the convention.

And a fairly extensive account of what he gave to the DNC before the election.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/19/content_393021.htm

They argued that he donated $40.5 million to Democratic causes in 2004, including $3 million each to the party's House and Senate campaign committees. More than $32 million went to the Democratic National Committee, including $9 million targeted to state parties.

DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera said that was the largest contribution the DNC has ever received, and the first from a presidential primary campaign.

"With this donation, the campaign more than fulfilled its commitment to our general election plan," he said.

Obviously, some questions on why he did not spend this money before or why he did not opt out of public financing are valid questions if they are posed in an honest way, but, once he had opted for public financing and he had accepted the nomination, this money was untouchable.