SOME RULES FOR LEFTOVER CAMPAIGN CASH
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission has a 147page manual detailing when and where a campaign committee can raise and spend its money, but here are some of the highlights on using extra cash:
Campaign funds may be used to make contributions to other candidates and committees.
Campaign funds may be used to make donations or loans to bona fide charitable, educational, civic, religious, or similar tax- exempt, nonprofit organizations so long as the donation or loan is reasonably related to a political, legislative or governmental purpose.
Campaign funds can be returned to the original contributors.
Until a campaign’s funds become surplus — when the officeholder leaves the office for which the funds were raised, or at the end of the semiannual reporting period after a candidate’s defeat, whichever comes first — money can be transferred to another committee controlled by the same candidate for a future election.
Campaign funds can’t be returned to a candidate unless they were originally given as a loan, and not a contribution.