Getting to keep massive campaign chests?

[Javaman]

I was speaking to a new friend this past week and he told me something that gave me pause. (the kind of pause that induces night terrors)

If a long time senator or rep retires or gets beaten, what happens to their massive campaign chests?

He told me that the former candidate/congress person gets to keep that money.

Is this true?

[Andy823]

1. I don't know.

I have been wondering that myself. If it is true then it should be changed. This could be a motivator for Palin running in 2012 if she did get to keep her "war chest" since for her it's all about the MONEY!

[Skink]

2. It goes directly into debt reduction.

[beyurslf]

3. I believe they can keep it in the sense that they can use it for another election

to something else or they can give it to other campaigns. It does not become their personal money though.

[RC]

4. Maybe I should run for office

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/24/nyregion/24retire.html

When Michael J. Bragman, a onetime Assembly majority leader, retired from the New York State Legislature in 2001, his campaign committee had about $1 million in the bank. Six years later, Mr. Bragman is still retired, and $400,000 of that money is gone.

Mr. Bragman did not run for office again. But he did pay his wife $24,000 a year to work for a campaign committee that did no campaigning. And he spent thousands more on bottles of wine, meals at a yacht club, Christmas gifts and office rental payments to a company that he appears to control.

Mr. Bragman, a Democrat who represented a district in the Syracuse area for 21 years, offers an unusually vivid example of how New York’s campaign finance laws allow former candidates to keep spending contributions long after their campaigns end. And he is not alone.

[Tippy]

5. Politicians Have Numerous Options for Unused Campaign Cash After Leaving Elected Office

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/03/the-retirement-announcement-la.html