Candidates’ Surplus Funds – Frequently Asked Questions
What are surplus funds? Any monetary contribution that was received for an
election, not spent on the election, still in your possession and control after the
election is held, and not needed to pay campaign debt from the election.
What can I do with my surplus funds? You have seven options:
1. Refund the contribution(s). Don’t return more money to a contributor than
you received from that source!;
2. Reimburse yourself for earnings lost as a result of your campaign
activities. Lost earnings must be verifiable as unpaid salary, or if you are
not salaried, the amount reimbursed should not exceed income received
by you for services rendered during an appropriate, corresponding time
period;
3. Transfer the surplus without limit to a political party or to a caucus political
committee;
4. Make a charitable donation;
5. Give it to the state treasurer for the state’s general fund, the oral history,
state library, and archives account, or the legislative international trade
account;
6. Spend it on nonreimbursed public office-related expenses if you are
elected. You must register a surplus funds account with the Public
Disclosure Commission and file surplus funds account expenditure reports
if you choose this option; and/or
7. You may leave the surplus funds in the campaign account for possible use
in a future election campaign for the same office that you were
campaigning for when the contributions were received. In order to use the
contribution for a campaign for a different office, you’ll first have to receive
the contributor’s written approval.
Can I give my surplus funds to another candidate? No.
Do I have to open a separate bank account for surplus funds? Only if you
are spending your surplus funds on nonreimbursed public-office related
expenses. A surplus funds bank account is a perpetual account – each time you
run for office and are left with surplus funds, they may be deposited into the
surplus funds bank acco