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The Money Trail
Failed political campaigns leave many things in their wake, including, often, a lot of money. In the case of the three unsuccessful Democratic candidates for attorney general, each has campaign funds left. Now that the race is over and the dust has settled, they get to decide what to do with it. And there are not many rules that apply.
While neither Mark Green, Charlie King, nor Sean Patrick Maloney ever had anywhere near the $2 million Andrew Cuomo had in his war chest after the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, they were still left with sizable sums. According to their last filings, Green had the most of the three campaigns, with a little more than $350,000 on hand. King, who raised the second most amount of money during the primary, had roughly $213,000, and Maloney had about $104,000.
Short of cashing a check and pocketing the money, almost anything goes when it comes to distributing or using these leftover campaign funds. Because state laws are so vague, former candidates have wide latitude when it comes to their campaign money.
Campaign accounts can either be kept open indefinitely or converted into political action committees. In either case, former candidates can continue accepting contributions. Money can also be transferred into interest bearing accounts or invested, as a recent New York Times article revealed that Cuomo had done by putting half his campaign treasury in a hedge fund.
Not surprisingly, the sparse regulations governing campaign money have sometimes led to questionable spending by former candidates and elected officials. Former State Sen. Roy Goodman (R-Manhattan) has come under scrutiny for continuing to use $800,000 in campaign funds left after his late 2001 resignation, putting cash towards expensive lunches, car payments and political contributions. Goodman, who is now president and CEO of the United Nations Development Corporation, has said in the past that he uses money to promote his brand of Republicanism, as well as to develop relationships with people who could help him if he ever runs again. He has said that people have encouraged him to run for statewide office in 2010. He would be 80.
Howard Mills, the former Republican Assembly member who ran against Sen. Charles Schumer (D) in 2004, was publicly chastised by Governor Pataki after it was reported that Mills was using campaign funds for such things as paying for a new car. Mills is currently the superintendent of the insurance department in the Pataki administration.
Some advocacy groups say the current laws need to be rewritten to create more restrictive rules regarding leftover funds.
Rachel Leon, executive director of Common Cause New York, a government watchdog, said that loopholes in the current law should be closed in order to limit how campaign funds can be spent once a race is over.
“There’s no standard right now,” she said. “Historically we’ve seen candidates hanging on to war chests and using them, the way New York State law reads, on anything and everything.”
Leon said that candidates should be given time to decide where remaining money will go, but that ideally, campaign accounts should be closed as soon as possible after a race concludes.
None of this appears to be of much concern for the three Democrats who lost to Cuomo in the attorney general primary.
Green, who said in his primary night concession speech that he would never seek elected office again, would not comment on how he plans to use his campaign’s remaining money. An aide, Lauren Strayer, said, “He really has no plans at all right now” about what he will do with what remains.
Maloney has said that he intends to keep some of the structure of his campaign office and staff together, though the number for that office has been disconnected.
However, he has continued to receive donations and travel the state even after his third-place showing on Sept. 12. Though many political observers expect him to run for something in the future, he has put off any discussion on this line.
King, who before this year’s race ran for lieutenant governor in 1998 and 2002, said he remained undecided about his campaign’s money, adding he had not given much thought to it. His campaign office is still open with a skeleton staff, but he said he does not plan for this to continue for long.
Over the course of the year, King made contributions of thousands of dollars to the congressional campaigns of José E. Serrano and Charles Barron, among others, and a cumulative $60,000 to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.
But he says that he does not plan to spend any more of the money, even as he campaigns for the statewide Democratic ticket.
As for what will become of whatever is left after all the campaign’s debts were cleared, King was uncertain.
He said, “The answer is I just don’t know.”