John McCain to rely on party money

Although Mr. Obama suggested recently that he might consider capping donations for the general election, his campaign manager, David Plouffe, said in an interview that there had been “no real discussions” about the possibility.

“We honestly haven’t had a rigorous discussion about it,” Mr. Plouffe said.

Although Mr. Obama has collected three times as much money as Mr. McCain, Mr. Plouffe said he “would not accept the proposition” that Mr. Obama would outspend Mr. McCain.

“I think they’re going to have a lot of money,” Mr. Plouffe said.

Mr. Plouffe said that Mr. McCain might not raise as much money through his campaign but will get substantial support through the Republican National Committee and a “constellation” of so-called 527 groups, named for the part of the tax code they are organized under, and other independent efforts.

“I think what you’ll see is a sophisticated and well thought-out web of outside groups and the R.N.C. essentially being the main drivers of the McCain campaign,” Mr. Plouffe said.

Mr. McCain rebuked an independent group that financed television advertisements on his behalf last year before the South Carolina primary. Lately, however, his campaign has been saying that Mr. McCain cannot be expected to “referee” advertisements by outside groups beyond his control.

Mr. McCain drew accusations of hypocrisy this year when he backed out of public financing for the primary campaign, which he had initially sought when his campaign was struggling but then pulled back from after his fortunes rose. Critics argued that he had used the promise of public financing to secure a $4 million loan to keep his campaign afloat, something that would have bound him to the spending limits that come with the public system.

Loggyist ties draw scrutiny
Mr. McCain’s ties to lobbyists have also been drawing increasing scrutiny, a problem the campaign sought to address last week with the new conflict-of-interest policy. Mr. Loeffler, a lobbyist who was the general co-chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign, became the policy’s most high-profile casualty on Friday when he submitted his resignation. Mr. Loeffler’s firm did work for Saudi Arabia, which included a May 2006 meeting between Mr. Loeffler, Mr. McCain and the country’s ambassador, according to lobbying records. The meeting was first reported over the weekend by Newsweek.

Mr. McCain’s advisers say they hope their joint fund-raising efforts can raise $150 million, or just over $20 million a month until November. Coupled with the $84 million Mr. McCain would receive through public financing, which the campaign could spend in the two months after the Republican convention, his advisers insist they will have enough resources to compete with Mr. Obama.

The Republican National Committee raised roughly $20 million in April, said Mike Duncan, the committee’s chairman. Mr. McCain collected $18 million in April, his second full month as the presumptive Republican nominee, a campaign spokeswoman said.

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By way of comparison, Mr. Kerry raised $44 million in March 2004, the month he secured the Democratic nomination.

“It’s certainly below what one would expect for a Republican nominee at this stage in the race,” said Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College and a campaign finance expert.

Running a lean campaign, however, and shifting many functions to the national committee, Mr. McCain has amassed a war chest that left him more than $21 million in the bank at the end of April.

Frank Donatelli, the deputy chairman of the national committee and the chief liaison with the McCain campaign, predicted that the party would give more financial help to Mr. McCain that it has to past nominees.

“We intend to provide substantial, maybe unprecedented, resources to the McCain campaign,” Mr. Donatelli said.

Party reliance has limitations
But Mr. McCain’s heavy reliance on the party comes with limitations. Only a relatively small pool of money can be used in advertising that is coordinated between the party and the campaign. The party can also share the costs for generic advertisements that benefit other Republican candidates, but relying on such commercials could constrain Mr. McCain’s media strategists.

Mr. Obama has been collecting more than $40 million a month this year, without any help from the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Plouffe said it was hard to say whether Mr. Obama would be able to keep up that rate through the summer, but he said he expected Mr. Obama to get a bounce if he indeed became the nominee.

Last week, the Obama campaign signed its own joint fund-raising agreement with the national committee, as did Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. Party officials are hoping the agreements will give the party a much-needed boost, because it has seriously lagged in cash on hand. A spokeswoman for the party said it finished April with roughly $5 million in the bank, but its fund-raising usually surges once a nominee has been declared.

This article, McCain to Rely on Party Money, first appeared in Monday editions of The New York Times.

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