Okay guys, this is the first of many pitches I’m gonna be making for people to donate to the Kerry campaign. Bush is swimming in money and Kerry’s practically broke. So if you wanna help out, click on the new button in the upper left corner of this page.

In case you need some reminding, here’s how much money the candidates have, via OpenSecrets.org :

Receipts :

George W. Bush (R)	$145,016,542
John Kerry (D)	$32,946,293

Spending :

George W. Bush (R)	$40,613,435
John Kerry (D)	$30,651,955

Cash on Hand :

George W. Bush (R)	$104,434,002
John Kerry (D)	$2,294,338

Take a while to let the facts behind the last set of numbers sink in. Bush has spent more money than Kerry already and he didn’t have a primary to campaign in. There’s no telling what kind of organization Bush has been building up with that $40 million. If we stand any chance of getting rid of Bush in November, we need to at least be able to level the playing field.

And before the thoughts of money and politics start making you feel dirty, let’s not forget that Kerry is one of the good guys :

According to a Jan. 31 Washington Post story, presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is beholden to the very special interests he says he will dismiss from the White House if elected. The Post based its erroneous conclusion on an analysis of the money Kerry has raised from lobbyists while he was a senator.

But the Post paints an inaccurate picture using an arbitrary statistic. A more accurate indicator of whether a candidate has ties to special interests is whether that candidate receives political action committee (PAC) as well as lobbyist money, and if so, how much. An analysis of PAC and lobbying contributions combined shows Kerry is near the bottom in receiving such funds when PAC money is averaged from 1993 through the present and lobbyist money is averaged from 1990 through present. Further, the lobbyist money that Kerry has taken in the presidential campaign is less than 1 percent of his total money raised.

Not only has Kerry historically refused to take PAC money, but his record shows that he been a leader for more than a decade in full reform of campaign financing, advocating for clean public money not only for presidential but also congressional campaigns.

Kerry was the lead sponsor with the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) on a measure that would have authorized clean money in all federal congressional elections and was a leader in pressing for congressional public financing in the 1992 and 1993 campaign finance reform bills. Although those bills passed, they were not enacted.

Other senate presidential candidates such as former Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards also have endorsed campaign finance reform. Dean has endorsed public financing and reform of the presidential public funding system. Edwards played a leadership role in the effort to pass the McCain-Feingold bill and has endorsed reform of the presidential public funding system. President Bush has not endorsed either.

True, he’s not perfect, but he’s not the corporate whore that Bush is.