Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
McCain to Help Pay Giuliani's Debt Rudolph Giuliani ran a one-state campaign that ended with a thud. Though he raised a lot of money, it now appears that he needs to pay some debt, and it looks like he needs help doing it.by Chris Johns
(libertarian)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
First of all, if McCain is having trouble raising money, and if you look at both of the democrats' fundraising achievements, he is, why would reluctant donors give to Giuliani? Is a former candidate that spent 57 million dollars on a single delegate that important to the McCain campaign?
Second, I thought that we just established that the Giuliani campaign has more cash than debt. Maybe I'm missing something here, but having more money than you owe used to mean that you could pay your debt and have money left over. Maybe this is the newest version of "New Math" that I haven't heard about yet.
Third, maybe I don't know the rules, but when Giuliani decided to give refunds to his donors, did he intend to give a refund to all donors or just the ones with last names that begin with an A? While he is passing checks out in $2300 chunks (the maximum donation) to his A list supporters, are some donors left holding the bag?
Finally, isn't this part of the risk of running for President? Tapping the public for money to pay off somebody's debt after he spent so much for so little might seem a bit presumptive. It sounds even worse if you're left with the impression that he already has enough money to pay the debt off.
Let me see if I have it straight. So Giuliani refunds his donors' money, then McCain directs his donors to help Giuliani pay off his debt while Giuliani reports that he has more cash than debt. I really do hate to show my green side, but I seem to have misplaced my campaign contribution calculator. Do you use a + sign or a - sign for this type of calculation. I forget.
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While this McCain-Giuliani-Romney-Huckabee love fest reported in the WSJ story does a sound a bit strange, the question why Rudy first refunds donations, and then reports a debt, has a simple answer:
Donors are allowed to give a candidate a maximum of $2300 for the primaries, plus $2300 for the general election. Giuliani circumvented the cap by raising funds, at the same time, for both campaigns. When he withdrew from the race, he then had to refund everything he had raised for the general election campaign - that is, every penny more than $2300 that any one donor had given him.
There's a simple answer to your question, too, Lloyd: you'll get your $25 back the day after Don Black gets his $500.
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