Many politicians rack up campaign debts, especially when running against well-healed opponents. Some even loan huge sums to their campaigns. My question is, when a candidate mortgages their home or empties their retirement account, possibly jeopardizing the financial future of their family, do they have an obligation to do everything they can to repay that debt? They cannot write it off their taxes as a bad debt, so what should they do?
I raise this point because there is a candidate for Insurance Commissioner who closed his previous political campaign with a $124K debt, all owed to himself. He has made no effort, from what I could tell, to repay this debt. Can we afford to have someone holding office who doesn’t pay his debts?