FOR NEARLY EVERYONE else, a half-million dollars would be a pretty healthy retirement account. But for Mitt Romney, who has an estimated worth of $250 million, it’s akin to change under the couch cushions.
When Romney was running for governor in 2002, he loaned his campaign $550,000, a sum that included $150,000 to clean up outstanding bills after he won the election in November. The amount represented about 6 percent of the $9.8 million he raised and spent on winning his campaign.
After carrying the debt for nearly 10 years, Romney finally forgave himself the loan he either forgot about or couldn’t be bothered to collect. During his one term in the corner office, Romney raised and spent an additional $4.3 million, including about $80,000 that was used to retire outstanding debt from his 2002 campaign.
But Romney never paid himself back, reporting the $550,000 in loans as a liability on each year’s filing with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance even as his campaign account balance dwindled down to under $1,300.
Finally, in February of this year, about a month before the presidential primary in Massachusetts, Romney dissolved his campaign and in the process wrote off the loan.
He also donated the remaining $1,262 in his account to the American Red Cross in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the swing states in this year’s presidential election.
