Nobody really noticed this last week, but the FEC dished out the next tranche of public funds to the primary campaigns of Buddy Roemer and Gary Johnson – both of whom started leaving the Republican race in January.
The Federal Election Commission has certified payments of $66,490.99 in federal matching funds to presidential candidate Charles E. “Buddy” Roemer III and $130,058.91 to presidential candidate Gary Earl Johnson for the 2012 primary election. The U.S. Treasury Department transferred the amounts certified by the Commission on Tuesday, July 3.
These payments raise the total amount of federal funds certified to Roemer and Johnson to $351,961.10 and $230,058.91, respectively.
I mention that Johnson and Roemer were done with the GOP because, had they only run for the Americans Elect and Libertarian nominations, they wouldn’t have been eligible for the money. (Your party needs to score 5 percent in the last election before it’s eligible to enter the system.) Johnson, a devout free marketeer, has no stated problem with public funding. After all, it’s money that taxpayers voluntarily chip in if they sign an extra portion of their tax forms. Still, I don’t know how many people assumed the money would be paid out like this.
