Slate’s Explainer feature, usually written by Brendan Koerner, raised a really interesting question yesterday: Where do campaign war chests go when candidates quit? I’ve always wondered about that, but never knew the details.
Dick Gephardt, for example, withdrew yesterday with millions of dollars left his campaign accounts. Even after paying off some debts, he’s still estimated to have about $3 million left over. Does he get to keep it? Can I have some of it?
Apparently, the answer is no (to both questions). Gephardt and others like him, however, have a few options.
* Candidates can use that money for their own future political campaigns. Though this won’t apply in Gephardt’s case, since he’s not running again, some of these other candidates who won’t end up as the nominee will want to keep this in mind.
* The money can go to the candidate’s national and/or state party. Al Gore did after the 2000 race, when he donated $450,000 to the Tennessee Democratic Party. (I think it’s fair to call this one Terry McAuliffe’s favorite option.)
* A candidate can contribute the left over money to charity, so long as he or she doesn’t get compensation from the group.
* And lastly, candidates can give the money back to the contributors who donated it, but this doesn’t happen much. As Slate noted, no one wants to bother with the “bureaucratic headache of sending out $50 checks to thousands of individual donors.” Can’t say I blame them.
Koerner noted that there is a loophole in the election laws that allow candidates who are still in public office, such as Gephardt, to use leftover funds to “defray any ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the recipient’s duties as a holder of Federal office, if applicable.” What does this mean? Well, Gephardt could use the money to travel, for example, if the trips were part of his “official responsibilities.”
What candidates cannot do is simply transfer their war chests to a different campaign. Just as we’re limited to $2,000 contributions, so too are former candidates.