More On John Edwards' Decision to Adopt Public Financing - Chris Bowers

Chris Bowers chimes in:

Edwards raised $7M, and currently has $12M cash on hand. Including the $10M the campaign is expected to receive in public funds, the unlimited spending that can be made on field, and that Edwards so far has only spent $23K on paid media in Iowa, and he is clearly financially well-posited for the primaries. In fact, the Edwards campaign is still ahead of where Dean was at this point in 2003, and will probably complete non-field fundraising before Iowa given that he has an impressive 150,000 donors. All of this makes me wonder even more why he decided to opt into public financing. Some may argue it was principle, while others argue it was a short-term decision to achieve monetary parity in the primary season. While at one time I leaned toward the latter, after seeing this strong total I now lean toward the former. With $12M cash on hand, he certainly didn't need to opt in to win Iowa and New Hampshire. Whatever it is, it hurts his otherwise strong case for electability. Also, the Edwards campaign will use opting in to public funds as part of its campaign messaging and attacks against other candidates.

Chris Bowers seems to disagree with the narrative as well.