Can You Raise Money To Run For Office If You Have Not Filed
This story was originally published past The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news arrangement in Washington, D.C.
Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, won her U.Due south. Business firm race in New York. Only on her road to condign a heroine of progressives and media darling, she had to dip into her savings, leaving her with less than $7,000 stashed away. Her 2017 income: less than $27,000.
Democrat Abby Finkenauer, 29, won her U.S. House race in Iowa, continuing on her fast rails up the political ladder after securing a land House seat at age 25. She prevailed while paying off roughly $twenty,000 worth of debt after attending Drake Academy in Des Moines. Her 2017 income was $25,000.
These women are the exception to the rule: Most members of Congress are rich.
But many detect that troubling. If candidates by and large demand to be wealthy to run, is that good for republic?
What if y'all want to run for Congress merely are broke, or immature and saddled with thousands of dollars of pupil loans? You're entering a realm where the campaign with the virtually money usually wins. Being rich also means y'all probable know other rich people who tin can write big checks to your entrada. And no public financing plan exists — like on the presidential level and in some states — to help congressional political prospects with large brains and full hearts … simply empty wallets.
Click here to read the Center for Public Integrity's version of this story
Here are several means pauper politicos tin subsist and go along themselves solvent when campaigning becomes their full-time gig:
Pay yourself a wage
If yous're not an incumbent federal lawmaker, yous're allowed to take a salary from the entrada funds you raise.
Really.
The Federal Ballot Commission passed this measure back in 2002 to help "candidates of modest ways [who] too oftentimes have been crowded out of running for office." The rule "may allow people like blue-collar workers, schoolhouse teachers and others who don't brand 6-figure salaries to run for function," Republican FEC Commissioner Michael Toner said at the time.
How much tin can you pay yourself? Whichever is less money: Your income from the previous year — so Finkenauer could pay herself $25,000 — or the bacon of the position you're running for, which is $174,000 for a rank-and-file member of the U.South. House or U.Due south. Senate.
Most candidates don't have advantage of this provision. But a Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal campaign finance disclosures identified at to the lowest degree 22 candidates running in the 2017-2018 election cycle that together paid themselves well-nigh $155,000 from campaign funds. None of the candidates the Center for Public Integrity identified this wheel appeared to collect a $174,000 salary.
Ocasio-Cortez's campaign paid her $6,199.42 over the last few months of the campaign, while Finkenauer did not written report any salary from her campaign. Democratic musician Robert Quist, who ran and lost against Greg Gianforte for Montana'southward U.S. House seat in a 2017 special ballot, paid himself a salary totaling $nine,000.
Work … and run
Laura Lombard, 34, kept her job equally the primary executive officeholder of ImEpik LLC, an online training visitor, while she unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in Kansas' 4th District, both during a 2017 special election and a 2018 Democratic primary ahead of November'southward election.
Lombard ran her company from her dwelling house during morning time hours, starting at 6 a.m. She'd usually pivot to congressional campaign work during the afternoons and fundraise, canvass and attend events into the evening. Federal laws don't generally forestall unelected congressional candidates from belongings jobs.
"I don't think a lot of people realized that I was doing both," Lombard said. "I tried to go far look like I was fully campaigning, and to my chore, I had to evidence them it had my full attention. Information technology definitely took a concrete and financial toll on me."
In all, Lombard reported that she personally gave or loaned her congressional campaign commission most $10,000, which "hurts," she said.
"I would rather have not accept washed that," she said. "But is it recoverable? Aye. I have my salary."
Hire family unit members
You may put a family member on your congressional campaign payroll — which would help boost your household income — as long as you're paying fair market value for the services they're providing.
Hiring relatives may make sense, financially and otherwise: You trust them; they know you and the community well.
Only bug loom.
Hiring your spouse as a consultant or record keeper may reek of nepotism, which an opponent could use confronting you lot.
Employing a relative as well could generate awkwardness if things go sour. Exhibit A: California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was indicted in August for allegedly misusing more than $250,000 of entrada funds. In news reports, Hunter appeared to blame his married woman, Margaret (who was too indicted), for the financial mess. "She was likewise the campaign manager, then whatsoever she did that'll be looked at also, I'm sure," Hunter said.
Paying relatives to work on a congressional entrada occurs to some caste each election cycle. A USA Today investigation found that 32 members of Congress together paid relatives at least $2 million during the 2012 ballot bike. A 2017 analysis by The Loma identified at least 13 lawmakers with family unit members paid as campaign staffers.
Know what's off-white game
The basic rule of spending: "Using campaign funds for personal use is prohibited."
So what is considered "personal use?" Basically, don't utilize campaign funds for expenses that would have existed even if you weren't running for Congress. Think mortgage, rent, utility bills — even if you're running your campaign operation from your living room.
"Information technology's important to emphasize the reason for these limitations: If a candidate is using contributions merely to subsidize their lifestyle, that money poses a serious risk for corruption," said Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. "It'due south a necessary check on that influence."
In that location are, however, some curious exceptions, co-ordinate to federal election rules:
- Your congressional campaign can't pay for funeral, cremation and burial expenses for your family unit members. You may, however, pay for these services for a campaign worker "whose expiry arises out of, or in the class of, campaign action." For example, Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., paid more than than $five,300 to Dove Funeral Home and Garfield Waters Funeral Habitation in 2013 for "funeral of a campaign worker," according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
- If a candidate conducts a campaign activity, such every bit a fundraiser, at a sporting event, concert or a theater evidence, campaign funds tin can pay for the ticket. Only you ameliorate talk politics: The FEC warns that money tin can't exist used for "a leisure outing at which the discussion occasionally focuses on the campaign or official functions."
- Membership dues for a political organization are fair game. Simply you tin can't use entrada money to pay for country clubs, health clubs, recreational facilities or similar organizations. While his case didn't specifically involve a gym membership, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., agreed to pay a $63,000 civil fine to the FEC for using $vi,230 worth of campaign funds for a personal trainer, amidst other things.
There take been many FEC complaints dealing with this issue, but nearly are dismissed "on the theory that belonging to these clubs allows members to interact with their constituents," said Brett Kappel, a partner at Akerman LLP. One odd instance? Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., paid $805 for membership dues to the invite-only Shriner-linked Royal Order of Jesters, whose purpose is "spreading the gospel of mirth, merriment and cheerfulness." Bilirakis argued the group "is a Masonic fraternity that conspicuously qualifies every bit a civic or community organization." The FEC failed to find he violated the law and closed the file.
- Tuition payments are generally not allowed, merely there are special circumstances: In 1997, the FEC allowed Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., to pay for a language immersion programme to improve her Castilian, which would enable her to better communicate with her constituents.
- In 2017, the FEC said members of Congress could use campaign funds for home security organisation installations or upgrades. However, this opinion specifically covered federal legislators, not unelected candidates.
- You can purchase clothing with your campaign slogan, such as pins or shirts or "Make America Great Over again" hats, but you can't finance a wardrobe for political functions. Read: No shopping sprees at Nordstrom or Brooks Brothers. Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley, who lost to Republican Rep. Peter Rex in New York'south 2d Commune race, said she rotated through the aforementioned J. Crew dress in four different colors, mixing it upwardly with a new blazer or sweater. "You wear the same things over and over!" she said. "Someone came up to me and said, 'I beloved that you accept a signature dress.' That's ane manner to put it." What not to exercise: The Hunter indictment alleged Duncan and Margaret Hunter "bought personal vesture items at a golf course" and falsely reported the expense as "balls for the wounded warriors."
Go entrada-subsidized child care
For the start six months of Shirley'southward congressional campaign, she made fundraising calls from her business firm as she nursed her then-one-year-old son Nicholas. Three-year-old girl Mila would play with her pilus.
Shirley — formerly a nonprofit consultant who worked from home and took intendance of her kids — said her family relied on her husband's wage from engineering services firm WSP USA during her campaign. His bacon barely covered their bills and Shirley'due south $1,000-a-month student loan payment.
Then, in January, shortly later she began campaigning, her son tripped on a toy and broke his leg, which required a full torso cast. The hospital bills piled upwardly.
"I really wasn't sure how I was going to make it financially," Shirley said.
Then Shirley petitioned the FEC to allow her to use campaign funds to hire a role-time babysitter so she could get campaign.
In May, the FEC unanimously approved Shirley's asking.
This was the showtime fourth dimension the FEC gave such express permission to a female candidate: In 1996, the commission immune Republican Rep. Jim McCrery from Louisiana to hire a bodyguard, as he argued that it was vital that his wife — his infant son's primary caretaker — nourish certain campaign events with him. The FEC said yeah, "because the kid care expenses volition be incurred simply every bit a direct issue of campaign action and would not otherwise exist."
It's an important distinction: If a candidate already paid for a bodyguard before running for office, that particular entrada expense wouldn't fly.
Shirley reported spending $3,632 for child care services in her FEC filings, ane of nine candidates Whorl Phone call identified who reported taking reward of the FEC's child care conclusion this bike.
Employ volunteers to first expenses
Certain deportment with intrinsic value tin can be considered a "volunteer action" every bit opposed to a campaign contribution, which are capped at $two,700 per ballot.
If, for example, you have a well-continued friend willing to host a campaign fundraiser at his or her home, that friend may as well spend up to $1,000 on food, drinks and invitations before it must be reported to the FEC. That'south a $one,000 bill (plus the value of the venue) your campaign doesn't accept to human foot.
Your political backers may also send emails in support of you, or create and host a website that sings your praises, without having to financially account for such activity. The FEC is even because whether a supporter could mine bitcoin and donate the spoils to your campaign, calling the procedure a volunteer expense.
Every chip helps for a new candidate who lacks the political networks and infrastructure that most sitting lawmakers possess.
"There's a lot of footing that needs to exist fabricated up past first-time candidates," said Will Levitt, the co-founder of Foursquare I Politics, which aims to suspension down barriers to entry for new Democratic candidates. "It's important to brand sure they're aware of the financial rules and what some of their biggest roadblocks may be."
Lombard, the candidate from Kansas, may again run for Congress. She estimates she spent four hours a day making fundraising calls, and experts told her each call should last a minute if she's doing the job right. That'south inappreciably enough time to properly explain her entrada platform.
"I wish that coin was less of an issue, and then I could become out and come across the people in a stronger way," Lombard said. "That would make a huge difference, not only for the success of the candidate, merely for how our politics are done in this country."
The Eye for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news system in Washington, D.C.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/how-run-congress-if-you-re-broke-n945371
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