Repaying campaign debt hard for losing side

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton faces some tough choices on erasing more than $20 million in campaign debts if she doesn't become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee.

Clinton had $10 million in unpaid bills — ranging from consultants' fees to catering costs — at the end of March. The New York senator also has loaned her struggling campaign more than $11 million.

"The problem is: Who wants to give money to a candidate who's not the nominee?" said Dennis Johnson, who teaches political management at George Washington University.

Campaign-finance experts say her key could be rival Barack Obama, who has shattered fundraising records as he has collected contributions from more than 1.5 million donors.

"It's not atypical for a winning candidate to assist financially in relieving some of the opposing campaign's debt," said Anthony Corrado, a campaign-finance expert at Colby College in Maine who is not affiliated with a campaign. "I would expect Sen. Obama to extend support."

Federal law bars Obama from transferring millions from his campaign coffers to Clinton's, but he "could point his donors toward her or headline a fundraiser on her behalf," said Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. For instance, dozens of Clinton's contributors donated money to help former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack reduce the debt he incurred before he dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in February 2007, citing money woes. Vilsack endorsed Clinton.

Another option open to Clinton: She could transfer $23 million she collected for the general election to her Senate campaign account, as long as the donors to her presidential race agree. Clinton, who is up for Senate re-election in 2012, then could use the Senate funds to help repay her presidential debts.

Clinton's aides have said that any talk of how to pay her outstanding bills is premature.

"When she's the nominee, we'll be in a position to retire our own debt," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said on Fox News Sunday.