Former Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu plans to spend some of the nearly $150,000 leftover in her campaign fund to help former Senate colleagues run for re-election.
Landrieu, who lost her own re-election bid to Republican Bill Cassidy last year and now works as a senior policy adviser at a Washington lobbying firm, tells USA Today that she particularly wants to help lawmakers who worked with her on issues important to Louisiana.
“I can use that money to help other Democratic candidates that helped Louisiana and that continue to be in a position to help Louisiana,” Landrieu says.
Landrieu has just a fraction of the $20 million she raised during the last election cycle remaining in her account: $146,261. She and Cassidy spent nearly $35 million combined on last year’s competitive Senate race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
“It’s not an awful lot,” Landrieu says of her leftover funds. Still, she says, she was glad not to end the campaign in debt.
At least 141 former members of Congress retain campaign accounts containing a total of more than $46 million, a USA Today analysis found. Twenty are linked to campaign committees with more than $500,000 each. Nearly one-third of the ex-lawmakers have been out of office at least five years.
Critics say some former lawmakers use leftover campaign money as political slush funds for their own purposes. Those who become lobbyists, for example, sometimes donate the money to current lawmakers whom they want to influence on behalf of clients.
“You get to continue to play in the political system without having to be a candidate yourself,” says Meredith McGehee, policy director at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center in Washington. And if you’re a lawmaker-turned-lobbyist, she says, “you’re benefiting your career.”
“They’re able to do that off of somebody else’s money,” she says.
Federal election law doesn’t limit how long a campaign committee may remain open. Committees generally are closed at the candidate’s request, after any remaining cash has been doled out and any debts resolved.
Leftover campaign funds can be given to authorized charities, political candidates or parties but are not supposed to be spent for personal use.
