Loophole Lets Candidates Double Dip

Funds from other races, PACs, offer a way to evade limits
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2007 10:30 AM CDT
Loophole Lets Candidates Double Dip
Then Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, shakes the hands of supporters while answering his cell phone after leaving the Senate chambers at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., in this July 23, 2004, file photo. Ask those who served with him in the Illinois Senate if he is ready to be president...   (Associated Press)

A campaign finance loophole is allowing candidates to supplement funding of their presidential runs with cash raised for their current offices and PACs, the Washington Post reports. While barred from putting that money directly to presidential purposes, candidates have so far used it to pay salaries, organize local support, and donate to state allies, to the tune of $2 million.

By applying funds from her last, and next (she's already declared) Senate runs, Hillary Clinton has more than doubled the money she's allowed to collect from individual donors for a presidential campaign. Bill Richardson even has even been able to apply corporate funding, barred at the federal level, but legal for a governor to receive. (More campaign finance stories.)

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