Mr. Cuomo, un-candidate

Andrew Cuomo isn’t running for anything that anyone knows of, but he’s free to spend the $16 million left in his campaign account as if he is, says the state Board of Elections.

Of course it does. The Board of Elections is a wholly owned subsidiary of New York’s political class, which is perfectly happy to keep the system of legal bribery known as campaign contributions as unrestrained as it can get away with. How much it can get away with seems to depend on the ebb and flow of public outrage.

The public should be plenty outraged by this, regardless of people’s individual views on Mr. Cuomo. It’s one more indication of how loose this state’s laws are when it comes to campaign finance, even after attempts at reforms in recent years.

The issue here comes down to what campaign funds should be for. It has long been understood that they are generally for two things: the cost of running for public office, and the costs associated with holding that office that may not be covered by taxpayer-funded expense allowances.

We could spend a whole editorial, and then some, arguing all the nuances of those terms, especially what really qualifies as the cost of holding public office. But here is what doesn’t count: converting those funds to personal use, like trying to repair a reputation damaged by one’s misdeeds in office.

There are arguably fair uses of campaign funds that shouldn’t make the public’s blood boil, like covering the cost of a private car used on the campaign trail, paying for an event the person is invited to in their capacity as a public official, or hiring a lawyer to defend against a lawsuit that the politician wouldn’t have been hit with if they didn’t hold public office.

But, again, this is about people running for or holding a specific office. Mr. Cuomo is doing neither. He resigned. He has not declared an intent to run again for office, much less a specific one.

That’s not how the Board of Elections — run by commissioners from the Democratic and Republican parties — sees it. “Although former Gov. Cuomo has not announced any explicit plan to run for a specific public office, his conduct fits the definition of candidate set forth in Election Law,” says the board’s chief enforcement counsel, Michael Johnson, an appointee of — wait for it — Mr. Cuomo.

The decision leaves the disgraced ex-governor free to continue to use his ample campaign funds to rehabilitate his image and demean, discredit or otherwise attack those he perceives as enemies, from Attorney General Letitia James and lawmakers who threatened him with impeachment to the women who accused him of sexual misconduct and members of the media who keep reminding the public why he isn’t governor anymore. Because — if we follow the board’s logic here — this is how real political candidates act.

Ridiculous. The Legislature should end whatever vagueness exists here, and tighten the rules on campaign funds to make it clear that if there is no campaign, there should be no campaign fund. Require that the leftover money be refunded to donors, given to charity, or donated to a special state fund that helps support public financing of campaigns.

If Mr. Cuomo is running for office, let him declare his candidacy. Otherwise, the Board of Elections should tell him to cease and desist from spending campaign funds on a clearly personal quest for vindication.