POLITICS 88 : CAMPAIGN ’88 : Hart Can Use Funds

Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart can use some excess funds collected in his 1988 presidential campaign to pay $1.1 million in debts from his 1984 White House bid, the FEC said in a draft opinion released Wednesday.

In the opinion, which is scheduled to be reviewed by the FEC when it meets today, general counsel Lawrence Noble said the election law generally prohibits the use of 1988 presidential campaign funds to pay off debts from an earlier campaign.

But the opinion also concluded that there was a legal way for Hart, who dropped out of the Democratic race earlier this month, to use some of the money he raised for this campaign to pay off part of his $1.1 million 1984 campaign debt. Noble said that once Hart pays all campaign obligations and makes required reimbursements to the U.S. Treasury, he can use leftover “excess” funds to reduce the old debt.

“Once Hart 88 makes its required repayment to the U.S. Treasury of the appropriate portion of that unexpended balance and has satisfied all other repayment obligations or penalty payments, it may retain remaining funds in its accounts and use them to retire 1984 campaign debts,” Noble wrote in his draft opinion.

Attorney Bernard Schneider of Newport Beach, Calif., the Hart campaign’s former general counsel who asked the FEC for permission to use 1988 funds to pay off 1984 debts, said in a telephone interview that Hart set aside $110,000, or 10% of the $1.1 million in federal matching funds he received during his interrupted 1988 campaign, to help pay off his 1984 debt.

“We anticipate that there will be some excess funds available” for use in reducing the 1984 debt, Schneider said.