If a political candidate has advertising credit leftover can he/she use it for personal use?
Monday, February 4th, 2008Can a political candidate who buys billboards for example use a balance left over with the billboard company for personal use? So, for example, let’s say the candidate uses campaign money in the amount of ,000 to advertise his campaign but only uses ,000 of or gets a credit from the billboard company for whatever reason, can the candidate use it to promote a personal business after the campaign is over considering that the money from the billboard company is not refundable and the remaining balance can only be used for billboard advertising?
Actually, the previous answer is wrong. Teh campaign must keep its money separate from the candidate’s personal or toher businesses.
In fact, probably, each campaign must be kept separate, unless the money was given specifically for the candidate to decide which campaign to apply it to.
Many campaigns end in debt, and then even losers have to find a way to raise the money to pay for the services already used. This can be difficult for a losing campaign, but it happens. I think McCain ended the last Presidential campaig n in deep dept (don’t quote me on it though) and had to go on the rubber chicken circuit to raise money, even though he had plenty in other "war chests".