Box check. (Data).Public financing for presidential elections is nearing collapse, reported USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. in a breathless breath·less adj. 1. Breathing with difficulty; gasping: was breathless from running. 2. Marked by the suspension of regular breathing, as from tension or excitement: late-January cover story. Just ii percent of taxpayers in 2000--compared to 27.5 percent when the system was established in 1976--checked the box on their returns that siphons $3 of their tax money into a federal election kitty. The take in 2000 totaled $210 million. USA Today's experts portray por·tray tr.v. por·trayed, por·tray·ing, por·trays 1. To depict or represent pictorially; make a picture of. 2. To depict or describe in words. 3. To represent dramatically, as on the stage. the decline in participation as a major civic Code Red, since it suggests "eroding public awareness and support" for the presidential campaign financing system. "It would be a disaster for the country to lose the system," Fred Wertheimer Fredric Michael "Fred" Wertheimer (born 1939) is an American activist notable for his work on campaign finance reform. He served as president of Common Cause and is currently the President and CEO of Democracy 21 and Democracy 21 Education Fund, which he founded in 1997. of the reform group Democracy 21 told the paper. "It would put the presidency right back on the auction block." But maybe taxpayers merely have noticed the obvious: The public financing system never took the presidency off the block. It does add coin to the till of established, major-party candidates--if they want it. President Bush didn't accept public funds See Fund, 3. See also: Public for his 2000 presidential primary, preferring to sidestep side·step v. side·stepped, side·step·ping, side·steps v.intr. 1. To step aside: sidestepped to make way for the runner. 2. the $40.5 million spending limit participation would have required. Meanwhile, the Federal Election Commission doles out general presidential election funds only to parties that received at least ~ percent of the vote in the previous election. So, far from leveling the playing field, the system socks the smallest parties with an added financial disadvantage. [GRAPH OMITTED] |
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