WASHINGTON: The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate reform hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York became the first candidate since the public financing was introduced in the 1970s to forgo public financing for both the primaries and the general election because of the spending limits that come with the government money.

By declaring her confidence that she can raise far more than the roughly $150 million the system would provide for her in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries and general election, Clinton makes it difficult for other serious candidates to participate in the system without putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Officials of the Federal Election Commission and advisers to several campaigns say they expect that the two candidates who reach Election Day 2008 will raise more than $500 million apiece, pushing the total spent on the presidential election well over $1 billion.

International Herald Tribune