McCain continues to refuse to pledge to make public financing for all federal races a priority

Washington, DC – Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is in Jacksonville, FL today to raise large contributions from wealthy area residents, just one day after the Florida House of Representatives voted to place a repeal of campaign spending limits on the November ballot.

“John McCain has distanced himself from his past support of public financing of federal elections,” said David Donnelly, National Campaigns Director for Public Campaign Action Fund. “With the Florida Republicans moving to repeal campaign finance reform just yesterday, will McCain continue his silence or speak out against it?”

Yesterday, the Florida House passed a measure by 82-34 that would place before voters a repeal of the state constitutional mandate for campaign spending limits and public financing for statewide offices. When pressed on what he would think of Sen. McCain’s reaction to having the anti-reform repeal measure on the ballot this November, sponsor Rep. Alan Hays (R-Umatilla) said, "To be very blunt, no, I don't care what John McCain thinks about public campaign financing.''

On Monday, Public Campaign Action Fund called for the GOP presidential candidate to make passage of public financing of all federal elections a priority with an email to its list of activists to ask them to sign a letter to Sen. McCain. The letter can be found at http://www.campaignmoney.org/mccainletter.

“At a minimum, Sen. McCain ought to publicly condemn the vote yesterday, and urge the Florida Senate to reject this ill-conceived and anti-reform measure,” continued Donnelly. “Failing to do that will send yet another signal that McCain is walking away from real reform.”

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Public Campaign Action Fund is a national nonpartisan organization dedicated to passing comprehensive public financing of state and federal elections. The group also campaigns to hold politicians accountable for opposing reform and doing favors for their big money contributors.