• by Paul Gough , November 10, 2003

When Howard Dean decided whether he should forgo public funding of his presidential campaign in an effort to raise more money, he consulted the oracle that helped him surge ahead of the pack of Democratic candidates.

The former Vermont governor announced Saturday that he wouldn't accept public matching funds, which would have limited the amount of money his campaign could raise. From the beginning of the campaign through nomination, candidates who accept up to $18.6 million in matching funds are forbidden to spend more than $45 million. If candidates don't accept matching funds, then they are limited only by what can be raised. Dean joins President Bush in passing up public funding, as Bush - who faces no primary challenger - could spend as much as $200 million in winning his second term. Bush and his eventual Democratic challenger can still get $74.4 million in matching funds for the campaign that runs into the November election.

All that's a political story. What makes this an Internet story is how Dean came to the conclusion that he would pass up on matching funds. It's the same way he generated buzz and garnered $25 million in donations so far.

Dean turned to the Internet.

Although campaign strategists believed staying out of public financing was the only way to win, the campaign also asked its constituents whether they supported the move. They did so in an Internet poll on the campaign's Web site, and not only asked yes or no but solicited comments.

More than 600,000 ballots were sent to supporters, the campaign said. Some were sent by e-mail, others by mail and others got a code via telephone where they could only vote once. Eighty-five percent of 105,000 who voted agreed that Dean shouldn't take public funds. The Dean campaign released 36,486 comments from poll participants. We won't bore you with the comments, which are predominantly Bush bashing. (You can find them at Dean's Web site.) But there's also a certain resignation evident in some of the comments: "A sad but necessary choice."

Or this: "I think it is the greatest irony that the campaign finance laws have become an obstacle to free participation and an aid to the wealthy. Thank God that Gov. Dean can compete, thanks to the Internet. Let's reform these reform laws after he gets elected."

Dean's campaign hopes to continue its pace of fund-raising, which it will count on 2 million Americans to give $100 each. Unlike the bulk of the president's contributions, which are primarily $1,000 or more, more than half of Dean's have been less than $200 and only 22 percent are more than $1,000 each.

-- Paul J. Gough