DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION -2004 
THE NEWS YOU WON'T SEE ON TV

KERRY WINS NOMINATION AT CONVENTION - 7-28-04

BUSH WON THE ELECTION - WAS IT LEGAL?
11-02-04
WHAT ABOUT FAULTY ELECTION MACHINES?
WHAT PART DID THAT PLAY IN THE TURNOUT?
WAS THE ELECTION STOLEN? AGAIN?

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AP

John Kerry’s family traced back to royalty Kingly connections run thick through maternal blood line, sparking political prediction from Burke’s Peerage Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's mother Rosemary Forbes Kerry, seen in this family photo from 1940, was a member of the affluent Forbes shipping family and a descendant of John Winthrop, who helped found Boston in 1630. She is the candidate's main link to royal personages of the past.

By NEDRA PICKLER and SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writers

BOSTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is considering delaying accepting his party's nomination to gain time to raise and spend private contributions and lessen President Bush's multimillion-dollar financial advantage, campaign officials said Friday.

The proposal would let Kerry hold off on spending his $75 million general-election budget for an extra month. The Democratic Party would still stage its national convention in Boston at the end of July, five weeks before the Republican National Convention in New York.

Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee are still considering the specifics of such a plan. Campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the nomination officially takes place after the delegate roll-call vote, so Democrats could have to find a way to recreate that or change the party rules to delay the vote's impact for a month.

Kerry and President Bush are each expected to accept $75 million in full federal funding for their general election campaigns. Once each is nominated, he will be limited to spending the government money and can no longer raise or spend private contributions on the campaign.

The Kerry campaign "won't fight with one hand behind our back," Cutter said.

"Never in Democratic Party history has any nominee raised as much money as John Kerry," she said. "We're going to continue to ambitiously fund-raise and we believe our support will only grow."

Television networks were uncertain Friday how Kerry's plan would affect their convention coverage, still in the planning stages. Over the past few conventions, broadcast networks have reduced their live coverage to a few hours per week.

"It's one more thing that's not happening at a convention," said Mark Lukasiewicz, in charge of special events coverage for NBC News. "It's one more thing to factor in as we decide how much resources — financial and editorial — we have to give to convention coverage."

A decision by the Kerry campaign could be weeks away. Other options being considered include having the DNC or local and state Democratic parties raise more money to support Kerry's candidacy, Cutter said. Kerry would have no control over much of the money raised by the party. By law, the DNC can coordinate up to roughly $16 million to $18 million in spending with Kerry's campaign in the general election.

Kerry himself declined to comment. Asked Friday whether he would accept his party's nomination in July, he smiled and said, "I will accept the nomination."

Kerry and Bush skipped public financing for the primary-election season, letting them spend as much as they wish until their parties officially nominate them at conventions this summer.

Since becoming the party's presumptive nominee in early March, Kerry has broken Democratic fund-raising and spending records. He raised roughly $31 million last month alone, pushing his campaign total to a Democratic record $117 million.

Kerry started May with $28 million in the bank, far less than Bush's $72 million but still a Democratic record. Bush has raised more than $200 million so far.

The crucial question, should Kerry try to stop the clock from ticking on his $75 million general-election financing, is when Kerry is considered nominated in the eyes of the Federal Election Commission. Is it when delegates vote? Or when Kerry accepts their vote?

The FEC and courts have traditionally deferred to party rules to determine how a candidate is nominated, said Larry Noble, former FEC general counsel. The FEC provides the general-election financing after the candidate is nominated according to the party's rules.

It's possible the DNC could change its nominating procedures before the convention, such as deciding to have delegates vote later by mail or by proxy.

"I don't see anything in the general election campaign laws that would stop the party from changing the nomination dates," said Noble, now head of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

However, delaying the nomination could have implications for the roughly $14 million in government financing the DNC received to hold its nominating convention, he said.

The convention is defined as when the nomination takes place, Noble said. Having delegates vote in Boston, but Kerry put off his acceptance, might not pass muster, he said.

"They would have to come up with an argument that would basically look at the convention as continuing past the convention dates," Noble said. "Could they do it? It's possible. In the end it would be up to the FEC and possibly the courts, if it's challenged."

The Kerry campaign and DNC would be wise to ask the FEC's advice before trying to change the nomination process, said FEC spokesman Bob Biersack, adding that the commission has not faced such a question before.

Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt said throwing a DNC convention with government money only to officially nominate Kerry later could amount to a "bait-and-switch tactic on the American taxpayer."

"Maybe they've found a way to manipulate the federal law in such a way as to avoid that, but fundamentally this is about John Kerry thinking the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to him," Holt said.

Asked about the possibility of Democrats losing the $14 million in convention funding, spokeswoman Cutter said there were pros and cons to all the possibilities.

If Kerry is nominated in late July as the party planned, he will have to make his $75 million check last a month longer than Bush will. Because the Republican convention is timed later than the Democratic gathering, Bush would have about a month more to raise money from private contributors than Kerry.

When the Democratic Party scheduled its convention, it didn't know it would have a nominee who opted out of public financing for the primaries and the $45 million spending limit the program imposes through the spring and summer.

At the time, the party anticipated it would face the same situation it has in previous elections: a nominee who emerged from the primaries hovering at the spending limit and had to limp through several months awaiting the convention and the campaign-sustaining government financing.

Interest groups running ads in the presidential race are keeping a close eye on Kerry's decision. The nation's campaign finance law bans them from using corporate or union money on ads mentioning Kerry a month before he is officially nominated, with the same rules applying to ads mentioning Bush in advance of his party convention.

If Kerry delays his nomination, that could give outside groups more times to run ads for and against him using the so-called soft money, said David Keating, executive director of the anti-tax group Club for Growth, which opposes many of Kerry's policies and supports many of Bush's.

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Associated Press Writers Liz Sidoti, Ron Fournier and David Bauder contributed to this report.