(1)
Use of campaign funds must be in accordance with Section
1-19-29.1
NMSA 1978. Candidates and committees must provide a purpose or description
detailed enough to associate the expense to the campaign. For example, an
expense of "taxi" is not appropriately descriptive to determine that it is
related to a campaign. Such an expense should be reported as "taxi for travel
to campaign meeting."
(2)
Expenditures that are reasonably attributable to the candidate's campaign and
not to personal use or personal living expenses are permissible campaign
expenditures. Personal use of campaign funds is any use of funds in a campaign
account to fulfill a commitment, obligation or expense of any candidate or
legislator that would exist regardless of the candidate's campaign or
responsibilities as a legislator. If the expense would exist even in the
absence of the candidacy, or even if the legislator were not in office, then it
is not considered to be a campaign-related expenditure. The following is a
non-exhaustive list of items considered to be per se personal use and are,
therefore, not allowable expenditures:
(a)
household food items or supplies;
(b) funeral, cremation, or burial expenses
except those incurred for a candidate or an employee or volunteer of an
authorized committee whose death arises out of, or in the course of, campaign
activity;
(c) clothing, other than
items of de minimis value that are used in the campaign, such as campaign
t-shirts or camps with campaign slogans;
(d) tuition payments, other than those
associated with training campaign staff;
(e) mortgage, rent or utility payments:
(1) for any part of any personal residence of
the candidate or a member of the candidate's family; or
(2) for real or personal property that is
owned by the candidate or a member of the candidate's family and is used for
campaign purposes, to the extent the payments exceed the fair market value of
the property usage.
(f)
admission to a sporting event, concert, theater or other form of entertainment,
unless part of a specific campaign or officeholder activity;
(g) dues, fees, or gratuities at a country
clubs, health club, recreational facility or other nonpolitical organizations,
unless they are part of the costs of a specific fundraising event that takes
place on the organization's premises;
(h) payments to candidate's family unless the
family member is providing a bona fide service to the campaign. If a family
member provides bona fide services to the campaign, any salary payment in
excess of the fair market value of the services provided is personal use; and
(i) a vacation.
(3) Legal expenses reasonably
attributable to the candidate's campaign are permissible campaign expenditures.
(4) Candidates and political
committees may use campaign funds to satisfy fines and other non-criminal
penalties as a result of violating a provision of the Campaign Reporting
Act.
(5) Wear and tear on a vehicle
is a permissible expense of the campaign and candidates shall claim mileage
rather than actual repairs for travel solely related to the campaign. Mileage
shall be calculated at no more than the published rate pursuant to the Mileage
and Per Diem Act. Candidates must keep a log for the candidate's own records
regarding miles traveled for campaign purposes and calculate the per diem based
on this log. Mileage rates are meant to account for both wear and tear on a
vehicle as well as costs for gas; therefore, candidates may not charge for both
gas and mileage.
