Or, Where Campaign Donations Go When the Candidate Drops Out

With a primary or caucus nearly every week, the presidential field is thinning – but the candidates’ penny banks are nowhere near empty. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group, by the end of September, the 2008 presidential candidates set aside over .6 million for the general election. But that’s a race only two of them will see; the rest will be left to pack up their offices, kiss their volunteers goodbye, and redistribute the wealth of their campaign.

“The money the candidates have raised for the general [election] is equivalent to the cost of putting 28,000 new Apple computers in schools that need them, buying a MacDonald’s Big Mac for every resident of Michigan, or donating the entire Harry Potter book series to nearly every household in New Hampshire and Maine,” Lindsay Renick Mayer said. Mayer is the editor of Capital Eye, a money-in-poli¬tics newsletter. But New Hampshire households will have to make do; money from former candidates won’t be funding a book drive anytime soon.

“If I give money to a candidate and he then drops out of the race, where does my money go?,” my friend Andres asked me as Super Tuesday wrapped up. “If I supported Edwards before he dropped out, can he just go do what he wants, buy a house or something, with my donation?”

He can’t buy a house, but he does have options. “It’s a little complicated depending on the candidate,” explained George Smragdis, a public information officer for the Federal Elections Committee. “But there are always choices, particularly with general election funds.” FEC regulations divide presidential campaign contributions into two categories: money to be spent on the primaries and money to be spent in the general election. It’s like having two separate bank accounts, and money saved for the general can’t be touched for a primary.

The first candidates to exit the race are usually the lowest on funds, and this year, Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Tom Tancredo (R-CO) had yet to raise any funds for a general election campaign. But with Obama-mania taking the nation by storm, Hillary Clinton’s record .7 million tucked away for the November race might be up for grabs.

Because she did not accept FEC matching dollars - only Edwards and Tancredo chose to do so – Clinton would escape the audit that a candidate usually undergoes.

It’s no surprise that the minute the supporters leave the IRS comes knocking.

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