L'Italien discloses account used to help fund campaign
Four days after 3rd Congressional District candidate Barbara L'Italien said she failed to disclose a bank account from which she drew tens of thousands of campaign dollars, she clarified Tuesday that the money came from a joint account shared with her late mother.
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Candidates can provide as much money as they want to their campaigns so long as the money comes from pre-existing personal funds. They can also draw from joint accounts with spouses, but only whatever the candidate's share is.
"Say, for example, that a candidate had $140,000 in a joint bank account with her spouse (and their shares are not designated)," said Brendan Fischer, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan accountability group. "The candidate could loan or contribute up to $70,000 from that joint account to her campaign. Any use of jointly-held funds above that amount would have to be reported as a contribution from the spouse and could not exceed $2,700 per election."