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US election question!

Idle curiosity - if a candidate ends a primary or the general with a big pile of unspent cash from contributions, what happens to it?

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 05:03:51 PM EST
Future Presidential library?

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 05:10:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
They keep it and do what they want with it.

No, I'm not kidding.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:00:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Wow.

I always suspected that but still - wow.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:04:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, as a practical matter, most of it winds up going to help other party members in competitive races, assuming the seat is safe.  Even in Obama's case, he'll likely wind up spending almost all of it to try to ensure victory by as large a margin as possible, and the rest will be transferred over to the DNC and other committees or to his PAC.

So it's still Wow but not as Wow as it sounds in practice.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:14:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It's more the thought that there's nothing to stop him buying a house or a personal jet with it, if that's what he wanted to do.

It makes the lobbying business even grubbier because the cash isn't necessarily ring-fenced for public service, which really - in nicey nicey world - it ought to be, to whatever extent that's practical.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:24:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
To be fair to all of them, I may be wrong about the legalities of it.  Ask me about how Milwaukee, WI, handles its sewerage and water supply, and I can tell you a lot.  Ask me the fine points of campaign finance law, and I'm bound to bullshit at least 20% of it. ;)

In the end, the model of lobbyists steering contributions is doomed, in my opinion, as far as it being a great way to gain influence goes.  It just can't compete with the small-donor model.  Both will go on, of course, but inevitably the influence of the lobbyist falls, especially when you can, as Obama has, run partly on not taking their money and perhaps get even more donations.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:42:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think you are generally correct.  But I have 2 caveats:

  1.  FEC laws are a bitch.  So much campaign money goes just for lawyers to answer questions like this.  It's worse at the state level.  But still, you can't just take the money and go home, there are lots of legalities and filings, and I think it also depends on where the money came from too, I mean, if you went for public financing or not.

  2.  Rarely does a campaign come away with a large surplus of contributions after an election.  Mostly, they come out in debt.  Campaigns are just so expensive.  When you hear about "war chests", those are often personal funds.


"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:50:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, I completely agree.  Campaigns are incredibly expensive to run, and the campaign finance laws -- hell, even just getting into a primary -- are offensive.  And you really couldn't run a proper national campaign on the public financing amounts.  The organizing alone, done well, would eat up at least a hundred mil.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Fri Oct 17th, 2008 at 06:55:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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