Bush raised money up to that level, then stopped and allowed the party to take over the funding of the campaign and the advertising. After that point, public financing in Florida has not really been doing what it was meant to do in the beginning.
It's kind of typical campaign finance in Florida. You find these wealthy special interests who are giving to committees and candidates, people with power to help them. . . . They're doing it as an investment, hoping for a return on their investment.
Consumers aren't able to make significant campaign contributions - and certainly not in that league.
I think it would be significant campaign finance reform. It would be a serious attempt to deal with what we believe is the most common avenue for special interest contributions.
The most realistic situation could be is that potential challengers don't see the possibility of winning due to the campaign war chests that the incumbents build up.
The whole idea behind public financing was to hold down the cost of campaigns and encourage more people to participate. Now they've escalated campaign fund-raising to levels we've never seen.