McCain loan stirs questions

WASHINGTON - The government's top campaign-finance regulator says John McCain cannot drop out of the primary election's public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kick-start his once-faltering presidential campaign.

Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needed to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.

McCain's lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain had withdrawn from the system and that the FEC could not stop him. Potter, who was FEC chairman in 1994, said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.

"It was done before in another campaign," McCain said at a news conference yesterday. ". . . We think it's perfectly legal."

McCain, a longtime advocate of stricter limits on money in politics, was one of the few leading presidential candidates to seek FEC certification for public money during the primaries. The FEC determined he was entitled to at least $5.8 million. McCain did not obtain the money, and he notified the FEC this month that he would bypass the system, freeing him from its spending limits.

But just as McCain was beginning to turn his attention to a likely Democratic opponent, Mason, a Republican appointee to the commission, essentially said: "Not so fast."

By accepting the public money, McCain would be limited to spending about $54 million for the primaries, a ceiling his campaign is near. That would significantly hinder his ability to finance his campaign between now and the Republican National Convention in September.

Complicating the dispute is the FEC's current lack of a quorum. The six-member panel has four vacancies, and Senate Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads over how to fill them.

- AP

WASHINGTON - The new Change to Win labor federation gave its first presidential endorsement to Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, saying its six million members could help push him over the top and into the general election as the Democratic nominee.

"We think we can make a difference," chair Anna Burger said. "We think it's time to bring this nomination to a close."

The endorsement came after a teleconference between Change to Win's leaders and the heads of the seven unions that make up the federation. The federation's members now head to Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island for the March 4 primaries, as well as Pennsylvania on April 22.

- AP