Candidates' protection could cost $106.6M
BY CAROL EISENBERG
[email protected]
March 14, 2007
WASHINGTON - Democracy, it turns out, comes at a price. A hefty price.
It looks like the expanding field of presidential candidates is going to cost American taxpayers a dime or two. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said yesterday he expected to spend $85.2 million next year for bodyguards and bomb-sniffing dogs to protect the 2008 presidential candidates.
That's on top of this year's $21.4 million, bringing the total for this election cycle to $106.6 million - up from the $73.03 million spent when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ran for re-election in 2004.
The whopping 46 percent increase is a consequence of a wide-open race in which, for the first time since 1952, neither the president nor the vice president - both with full security details - is a candidate.
"With President Bush completing his final term, and with Vice President Cheney indicating that he will not be a candidate for president in 2008, the Service will face an unprecedented situation," according to the department's budget justification. " ... Consequently there will be a greater number of individuals receiving protection. "
And it's not just the candidates the Secret Service is concerned about. Sullivan said he plans to begin hiring and training an additional 103 agents to be ready to guard President George W. Bush as soon as he steps down Jan. 20, 2009.
An agency spokesman declined to say how the size of that detail compares with those of other former presidents. "In a post-911 world - and with the activity levels of former presidents being what they are - we have to plan accordingly," spokesman Eric Zahren said.
The Secret Service has been protecting major-party candidates ever since New York Sen. Robert Kennedy was gunned down in June 1968. Four years later, then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot five times while campaigning in Laurel, Md. He was left paralyzed.
Despite the unusually quick start of the campaign season, only New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to date, has received Secret Service protection, which she gets as a former first lady, not as a candidate, Zahren said.
"No candidate has been designated for protection so far, he said. "I don't know if anyone has asked. "
While media reports have indicated that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has received unspecified threats from white supremacist groups, his campaign declined to confirm those or to comment on whether he had sought federal protection.
Historically, Sullivan said, protection is usually given to major-party candidates beginning in late January or early February of the election year, but that is not an inviolable rule. For instance, the Rev. Jesse Jackson got bodyguards earlier because of death threats during his two campaigns in the 1980s.
A spokesman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff declined to say whether any candidate had sought Secret Service protection.
"Prior to protection being granted, as a matter of procedure, we do not discuss inquiries or requests received," said spokesman William Knocke.
HOW SECURITY DETAIL IS ASSIGNED
The decision to assign Secret Service protection to a presidential candidate is made by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on the advice of five members of Congress: House Speaker and Minority Leader, the Senate Majority and Minority Leader and one additional member selected by the others. Among the criteria, the candidate:
Must have publicly announced his or her candidacy.
Must be seeking the nomination of a party that received at least 10 percent of the popular vote in the previous election.
Must be entered in at least 10 primaries.
Must have registered at least 5 percent in polls conducted by ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, or 10 percent of the votes in two consecutive primaries or caucuses.
