Kerry is urged to forgo public financing...

When Kerry accepts the nomination at the end of July in Boston he will immediately be forced to stop raising money and will be forced to turn over any excess money his campaign has to the DNC. In exchange, he will receive a check for $75 million from the federal government.

The problem is, Kerry accepts his nomination a month before Bush does and there is concern that this will disadvantage Kerry heading into the crucial fall months of the campaign. This is what lead to the whole debate about whether Kerry ought to delay accepting the nomination. In the end, consideration of a delay became too much of a distraction and Kerry abandoned the idea.

However, in an interesting article in tomorrow's NY Times, top donors to the Kerry campaign are quoted urging the Senator to reject public financing so he can continue raising the $30 million or so a month the campaign has averaged since Kerry effectivewly wrapped up the nomination in March.

"With Kerry and Edwards, I think there's not going to be a problem raising money,'' said Manuel Ortiz, a Washington lobbyist who has helped Mr. Kerry's campaign raise more than $500,000. "I think they should consider it; I know they probably will consider it."

Another prominent fund-raiser for Mr. Kerry's campaign said: "I think they ought to opt out. I don't think it makes sense to stay in the system. I think you could raise $30 million a month based on current trends.''

However, whatever the benefits maybe, the Kerry campaign, as of yet, doesn't seem to be buying it...

A spokeswoman for Mr. Kerry, Stephanie Cutter, said he would not abandon public financing.

"We are not going to opt out of the system,'' Ms. Cutter said.

She added that she did not know whether the finance team or Mr. Kerry had seriously considered rejecting public financing as they had in the primaries, but that she was sure it was not an alternative.

If nothing else, the story shows how unprecedented the Kerry fundraising machine has been that such ideas could even be considered.