Minnesota state Rep. Tom Emmer, who is running on a Tea Party-friendly platform of cutting government spending, has announced that he expects to take public financing for his campaign.
Emmer said Wednesday that he will sign the necessary paperwork before the late July deadline, barring a last-minute reversal. Under Minnesota’s public finance system, Emmer’s campaign would have access to more than $400,000 in subsidies, while committing to limit his total spending to about $2.8 million. The cap would be lifted however, if another candidate were to go over it — and Emmer would still keep the public money. The three-way Democratic primary currently features two self-financing candidates, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton and former state Rep. Matt Entenza, who would likely spend beyond the cap.
Emmer had previously criticized his former rival for the GOP nomination, state Rep. Marty Seifert, for signing up for the subsidy, on the grounds that the party shouldn’t limit its spending against a candidate like Dayton. Now, Emmer tells the Associated Press that at the time he had been “under the false impression” that signing up would have limited him financially.
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