Politico: Inside the totally legal, fairly macabre, classically political world of the true Zombie PACs

In the latter half of 2021, Rep. Jerry Lewis’ campaign account-turned-PAC spent about $1,350 on PAC campaign compliance — a fairly small amount for a mundane task that would have been utterly boring if not for one curious fact. Lewis is dead.

The California Republican, who has been out of office almost a decade, died in July 2021. But his PAC — which has about $174,000 in the coffers — is still very much alive.

The Jerry Lewis Political Action Committee (which converted from a campaign account to a multicandidate committee once Lewis left office) is not the only account that is operating in the realm of the living, even as the candidate for which it was created has died. A POLITICO analysis found accounts associated with eight late politicians that still have money in the bank, some with hundreds of thousands of dollars, or debts that, according to Federal Election Commission records, remain unpaid. These zombie PACs and campaign committees have been paying for such things as communications consulting, campaign contributions, car rentals, or fees for former associates. All of it is quite legal.

The ability of the committees of dead politicians to continue paying out money highlights how donations from political supporters can find their way to entities, causes, and individuals far removed from the candidate’s election. Some lawmakers have introduced legislation to limit the time in which and how such money can be spent. But, in the absence of congressional action, experts said the money in a dead politician’s campaign committee can be used with very few guardrails. Funds cannot be used for personal use, but the FEC has not mandated that leadership PACs must abide by the same rule. For one, that money can go to a 501(c)3 charity or a political party committee. In certain cases, officials who worked for a candidate’s committee when he was living got paid after his death. …

The fundraising committee’s treasurer has responsibility over the remaining funds or debt in a given account once the candidate has passed, and akin to an executor of an estate, the treasurer can determine what the account spends its money on.

“Political committees are [standalone] — free-standing corporations … separate from the humans who set them up,” said Paul Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the watchdog group Common Cause. “While it’s entirely fair to think of them as the alter ego, in the case of candidate committees, … as a legal matter, they go on in existence even in the event of the death of the candidate or officeholder who set them up.”