McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and The Ohio Ballot
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain has not benefited from the FEC's matching funds program.
Unlike other presidential candidates who withdrew from the program, John McCain has already materially benefited from his participation in the public financing program. In addition to using the promise of public financing to help secure a private loan, McCain also used the fact that he qualified for the matching funds process to gain ballot access in Ohio and Delaware without having to spend the time and resources to collect signatures.
In both states, candidates are required to either collect signatures or demonstrate that they have qualified for matching funds to get on the primary ballots. In both instances, instead of going through the often time-consuming and costly process of gathering signatures, McCain chose the matching funds option. In Ohio, McCain submitted his certification letter from the FEC as evidence he had qualified for matching funds and in Delaware, he submitted the FEC press release announcing that he had qualified for public financing as evidence.
Apparently, John McCain thinks the law applies to him when he has something to gain, but doesn't apply to him when it's a problem for his campaign.
The McCain campaign's application for the Ohio ballot, which relies on his qualification for matching funds, is available on the DNC website at:
- http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20071002_mccain_ltr.pdf
- http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20080104_mccainfiling.pdf
- http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/mccaindistdelatlargeexample.pdf
To view McCain's application for the Delaware ballot, click here:
