Presidential campaign expenses nearly $500 million

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Democratic nominee-to-be John Kerry are on track to spend nearly a half-billion dollars vying for the White House this year, making it the most expensive presidential race in history.

Bush has already reached his goal of raising a record $170 million, with more fund raising to come. His supporters believe he could easily reach $200 million or more -- and that's before he gets a government grant of about $75 million in September for his general-election campaign.

Kerry has set a fund-raising goal of about $105 million and is expected to take the $75 million in full public financing for the general election.

That would put presidential spending in the $455 million range -- not counting the tens of millions of dollars the Democratic and Republican parties and outside groups will pour in.

The 2000 race holds the record -- Bush and Democratic nominee Al Gore raised about $290 million total -- mostly because Bush skipped public financing and its spending limit in the primaries. Bush raised a record $106 million for the primaries while Gore took public money and was limited to about $49 million in primary spending.

No to public financing

This time, both Bush and Kerry are skipping public financing for the primary season, leaving them free to spend as much as they can raise until they are officially nominated at their party conventions in late summer and receive full government funding for the rest of the race.

Bush started March with $110 million in the bank, a campaign finance report Bush filed Friday showed. Kerry's February campaign finance report is due Saturday at the Federal Election Commission.

The Bush campaign spent $49.4 million from its launch last May through February, mostly on overhead such as offices and salaries, along with fund-raising costs and other groundwork as Bush prepared to face his Democratic opponent. That included $8 million spent last month.

Bush has spent at least $17.5 million on TV and radio ads this month. That first big wave of spending won't be fully detailed until he files his March campaign finance report late next month.

Bush took in $13.7 million in February and has raised more than $8 million this month, his latest finance report and donations posted on his campaign Web site through March 9 show. The campaign held several fund-raisers in the past week and continued raising money online, putting it safely at or possibly even over the $170 million mark.

Kerry, emerging from the primaries with his campaign treasury largely spent, plans a 20-city fund-raising tour over the next few months and is aggressively pursuing donations over the Internet to try to counter Bush's fortune, taking in more than $13.6 million online in March. Kerry hopes to hit about $105 million by his party's nominating convention, a total that would include $80 million this year and about $25 million last year.

Bush is expected to shift more of his time to Republican Party fund raising, though Bush spokesmen have declined to say whether Bush will soon stop holding fund-raisers for himself.

Campaign officials have noted that outside groups are running millions of dollars worth of ads in battleground states supporting Kerry and opposing Bush.

"It's clear that those groups have a lot of money potentially," Bush spokesman Terry Holt said. "We have to be prepared to get our message out in that context."

One pro-Kerry group, the Media Fund, on Friday disclosed the names of its individual donors. It has raised at least $3.4 million from them since November, including $1 million each from Ohio business executive Peter Lewis and Hollywood executive Steve Bing. Other givers included actors Paul Newman, $25,000; Kevin Bacon, $7,500; and Chevy Chase, $2,500.