How Much Of Own Money To Run For Congress
This story was originally published past The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, won her U.South. House race in New York. But on her road to becoming 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 rail up the political ladder later on securing a state House seat at historic period 25. She prevailed while paying off roughly $20,000 worth of debt after attending Drake University in Des Moines. Her 2017 income was $25,000.
These women are the exception to the dominion: About members of Congress are rich.
Only many detect that troubling. If candidates more often than not demand to be wealthy to run, is that good for democracy?
What if you desire to run for Congress but are bankrupt, or immature and saddled with thousands of dollars of student loans? Y'all're inbound a realm where the campaign with the most money usually wins. Being rich also ways you likely know other rich people who tin write large checks to your entrada. And no public financing program exists — like on the presidential level and in some states — to assist congressional political prospects with big brains and full hearts … simply empty wallets.
Click here to read the Center for Public Integrity's version of this story
Here are several ways pauper politicos can subsist and keep themselves solvent when campaigning becomes their full-fourth dimension gig:
Pay yourself a wage
If y'all're non an incumbent federal lawmaker, you're allowed to take a salary from the entrada funds you raise.
Really.
The Federal Ballot Commission passed this measure dorsum in 2002 to help "candidates of pocket-sized means [who] likewise often accept been crowded out of running for office." The rule "may allow people like blue-collar workers, schoolhouse teachers and others who don't make six-figure salaries to run for office," Republican FEC Commissioner Michael Toner said at the fourth dimension.
How much can you pay yourself? Whichever is less money: Your income from the previous yr — so Finkenauer could pay herself $25,000 — or the salary of the position you're running for, which is $174,000 for a rank-and-file fellow member of the U.S. House or U.S. Senate.
Most candidates don't accept advantage of this provision. But a Middle for Public Integrity analysis of federal campaign finance disclosures identified at least 22 candidates running in the 2017-2018 election cycle that together paid themselves about $155,000 from entrada 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 report any bacon from her entrada. Democratic musician Robert Quist, who ran and lost against Greg Gianforte for Montana'southward U.South. House seat in a 2017 special election, paid himself a bacon totaling $9,000.
Work … and run
Laura Lombard, 34, kept her task every bit the chief executive officer of ImEpik LLC, an online training visitor, while she unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in Kansas' fourth District, both during a 2017 special election and a 2018 Democratic primary ahead of November'due south election.
Lombard ran her visitor from her abode during morning hours, starting at half-dozen a.m. She'd usually pin to congressional campaign work during the afternoons and fundraise, canvass and nourish events into the evening. Federal laws don't by and large foreclose unelected congressional candidates from property jobs.
"I don't call up a lot of people realized that I was doing both," Lombard said. "I tried to make it look like I was fully campaigning, and to my job, I had to testify them information technology had my full attention. It definitely took a physical and fiscal price on me."
In all, Lombard reported that she personally gave or loaned her congressional campaign commission nigh $10,000, which "hurts," she said.
"I would rather have non have done that," she said. "But is it recoverable? Yes. I have my bacon."
Hire family members
Yous may put a family fellow member on your congressional campaign payroll — which would help boost your household income — as long as yous're paying fair market value for the services they're providing.
Hiring relatives may make sense, financially and otherwise: Yous trust them; they know y'all and the customs well.
But problems loom.
Hiring your spouse as a consultant or tape keeper may reek of nepotism, which an opponent could utilise against you.
Employing a relative also could generate awkwardness if things go sour. Exhibit A: California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was indicted in August for allegedly misusing more than than $250,000 of campaign funds. In news reports, Hunter appeared to blame his wife, Margaret (who was also indicted), for the fiscal mess. "She was also the entrada manager, so whatever she did that'll be looked at too, I'm sure," Hunter said.
Paying relatives to work on a congressional campaign occurs to some caste each ballot bike. A USA Today investigation found that 32 members of Congress together paid relatives at least $2 million during the 2012 election cycle. A 2017 analysis past The Hill identified at least 13 lawmakers with family members paid equally entrada staffers.
Know what'south off-white game
The bones rule of spending: "Using campaign funds for personal use is prohibited."
So what is considered "personal use?" Basically, don't apply entrada funds for expenses that would take existed fifty-fifty if you weren't running for Congress. Recall mortgage, rent, utility bills — fifty-fifty if you're running your campaign operation from your living room.
"It'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 run a risk for corruption," said Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Eye. "It's a necessary check on that influence."
There are, even so, some curious exceptions, co-ordinate to federal election rules:
- Your congressional campaign can't pay for funeral, cremation and burying expenses for your family unit members. Yous may, nevertheless, pay for these services for a campaign worker "whose death arises out of, or in the grade of, entrada action." For case, Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., paid more than than $5,300 to Dove Funeral Dwelling house and Garfield Waters Funeral Home in 2013 for "funeral of a campaign worker," according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
- If a candidate conducts a campaign action, such as a fundraiser, at a sporting consequence, concert or a theater show, campaign funds can pay for the ticket. Simply you better talk politics: The FEC warns that money tin't exist used for "a leisure outing at which the discussion occasionally focuses on the campaign or official functions."
- Membership dues for a political organisation are off-white game. Just you can't use campaign coin to pay for country clubs, wellness 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 $6,230 worth of campaign funds for a personal trainer, among other things.
There have been many FEC complaints dealing with this issue, but most 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-simply Shriner-linked Royal Guild of Jesters, whose purpose is "spreading the gospel of mirth, merriment and cheerfulness." Bilirakis argued the group "is a Masonic fraternity that clearly qualifies as a civic or customs organization." The FEC failed to notice he violated the law and closed the file.
- Tuition payments are generally not allowed, but there are special circumstances: In 1997, the FEC immune Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., to pay for a linguistic communication immersion programme to ameliorate her Spanish, which would enable her to better communicate with her constituents.
- In 2017, the FEC said members of Congress could utilize campaign funds for abode security system installations or upgrades. Nevertheless, this opinion specifically covered federal legislators, non unelected candidates.
- You tin purchase clothing with your campaign slogan, such as pins or shirts or "Make America Slap-up Again" hats, but y'all tin'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 King in New York'south 2nd District race, said she rotated through the same J. Crew clothes in four unlike colors, mixing it up with a new blazer or sweater. "You vesture the same things over and over!" she said. "Someone came up to me and said, 'I love that you have a signature dress.' That'due south one manner to put it." What not to practise: The Hunter indictment alleged Duncan and Margaret Hunter "bought personal clothing items at a golf course" and falsely reported the expense as "balls for the wounded warriors."
Get entrada-subsidized child intendance
For the showtime vi months of Shirley'due south congressional entrada, she made fundraising calls from her firm as she nursed her and then-i-year-sometime son Nicholas. Three-year-sometime daughter Mila would play with her hair.
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 house WSP United states of america during her campaign. His bacon barely covered their bills and Shirley's $one,000-a-month student loan payment.
Then, in January, shortly after she began candidature, her son tripped on a toy and broke his leg, which required a full body cast. The hospital bills piled up.
"I actually wasn't sure how I was going to brand it financially," Shirley said.
So Shirley petitioned the FEC to allow her to employ campaign funds to rent a part-time bodyguard so she could become entrada.
In May, the FEC unanimously canonical Shirley's request.
This was the first time the FEC gave such express permission to a female candidate: In 1996, the commission allowed Republican Rep. Jim McCrery from Louisiana to hire a babysitter, equally he argued that information technology was vital that his wife — his infant son'due south master caretaker — attend certain campaign events with him. The FEC said yes, "considering the child care expenses will be incurred merely every bit a direct result of campaign activity and would not otherwise be."
It's an important distinction: If a candidate already paid for a bodyguard before running for part, that particular campaign expense wouldn't fly.
Shirley reported spending $3,632 for child intendance services in her FEC filings, one of ix candidates Roll Call identified who reported taking advantage of the FEC'due south child care determination this cycle.
Utilise volunteers to start expenses
Certain deportment with intrinsic value can be considered a "volunteer activity" as opposed to a campaign contribution, which are capped at $two,700 per election.
If, for instance, y'all have a well-connected friend willing to host a campaign fundraiser at his or her dwelling house, that friend may too spend upwardly to $one,000 on food, drinks and invitations before it must be reported to the FEC. That's a $ane,000 bill (plus the value of the venue) your campaign doesn't have to pes.
Your political backers may also send emails in back up of yous, 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 bit helps for a new candidate who lacks the political networks and infrastructure that most sitting lawmakers possess.
"There'south a lot of ground that needs to be made upward by offset-time candidates," said Will Levitt, the co-founder of Square One Politics, which aims to break downwardly barriers to entry for new Democratic candidates. "It's of import to make sure they're aware of the financial rules and what some of their biggest roadblocks may exist."
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'southward doing the task right. That'south inappreciably plenty time to properly explain her campaign platform.
"I wish that money was less of an issue, so I could get out and see the people in a stronger fashion," Lombard said. "That would make a huge difference, not just for the success of the candidate, but for how our politics are washed in this country."
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/how-run-congress-if-you-re-broke-n945371
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