Brace yourselves!

[ProSense]

Sen. Kerry ponders uses of his $14 million
By Alexander Bolton

Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) is willing to use nearly $14 million left over from his 2004 presidential bid to narrow the fundraising lead of his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

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His 2004 nest egg has given Kerry the luxury of focusing his efforts on raising money for Democratic candidates rather than worrying about money for his own 2008 Senate reelection race or about courting donors for another presidential run.

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“John Kerry has been relentlessly active during these last couple of years raising money for other campaigns,” said Steve Grossman, a former DNC chairman and close adviser to the current chairman, Howard Dean. “It seems to me John Kerry is playing a strong leadership role. He has been as strong an asset as this party has.”

Grossman noted that Kerry raised most of the money in the John Kerry for President and the GELAC accounts and that the money was given to elect him president.

“To the extent the Kerry campaign raised money, it seems to me that that money is to be used by John Kerry for his own political purposes,” he said.

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Counting the $14 million in the two 2004 presidential campaign accounts and $179,000 in his Friends of John Kerry Senate reelection account, Kerry could have the largest war chest at the start of the 2008 presidential primary. Whether he does will depend how much Clinton raises and spends in her reelection race.

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

Run Senator! Run!

The $269.6 million raised by President Bush prior to the convention was nearly three times his fundraising total in 2000, when he also declined to accept public funds. John Kerry raised $234.6 million, nearly six times more than had ever been raised by a Democratic nominee under the public funding program, which imposes spending limits on candidates who accept matching funds and limits the total amount of public funds available.

The extraordinary fundraising by the two nominees led to some disbursements that were also unusual for candidate committees. The Kerry primary committee, for example, transferred more than $40 million to Democratic Party committees at both the national and state levels, with $23.6 million going to the DNC. The Bush primary committee transferred $11.3 million to the RNC in mid October.

[TayTay]

1. It's his money to do with as he pleases

If other people don't like it, then change the rules. Geesh!

Gawd, this should n't even be an issue. When people freely choose to give money to political groups, it becomes the property of the recipients to do with as they please. Sen. Kerry has seen fit to spread the wealth around and has done a lot of fundraising for others. This seems fair to me.

[BlueIris]

3. I'm with you, TayTay. nt

[demdiva]

2. Gosh that's depressing .... we spent nearly half a billion dollars

to elect Bush POTUS???

But good for Kerry. I'm happy he's been supporting other Dems. A stronger party is more important then anything right now. AND I do hope he uses this money for 2008. Don't make the poor guy mortgage his house again!!! For heaven's sake!!!!