ST. LOUIS – Food, drink, parties, airline flights.
It sounds like a pretty sweet life, right?
It turns out that's how some ex-politicians are spending the money you originally gave them to win elections.
Some former candidates — people who haven't held an office or even run for one in years — keep their campaign funds up and running and still accepting money that they spend on personal items.
We discovered local politicians who left office more than a decade ago, some who had even died, but their campaign accounts were still going. Still accepting and spending money tax-free on things that have nothing to do with getting elected.
You may remember former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl.
In 2015, he was one of the most powerful lawmakers in Missouri
His fall from grace came after he was found to be exchanging sexually charged text messages with a college freshmen intern. Diehl resigned in disgrace.
Diehl is not in office, and he's not running for office.
It's been years but he still has a campaign fund worth more than $160,000 even though he's not supposed to.
They call them zombie campaigns.
When a candidate loses the election or leaves office, their campaign fund is supposed to shut down, according to state law. But the I-Team found many of these funds live on when the political career appears dead.
In other words, they're zombies.
And the members of the public that are aware of them, aren't impressed.
"Donors generally aren't willing to accept that," said Wally Siewert, Director of Civic Engagement with Focus St. Louis.
Siewert is also an ethics and campaign finance expert.
"We want to make sure that money goes where it was intended to go," said Siewert.
Siewert says money in a zombie campaign fund can be a temptation.
"If it sits in an account for ten years and the former candidate, who's no longer worried about what you think as a constituent, then spends that money how he or she sees fit that, in my sense, is a miscarriage of justice," said Siewert.
Take Jay Nixon, the former governor of Missouri.
He left office in 2017.
But his campaign fund is still open — paying for travel, food, and even to rent an entire banquet hall
at the Tiger Hotel in Columbia Missouri for a party for his former colleagues at a cost of $14,000.
Nixon's fund also forked out $600 for a visit to Big Cedar Lodge which was hosting a major golf event.
Even when they go from politician to lobbyist, they can use money from their campaign fund to curry favor with other politicians.
Steven Tilley resigned in 2012 and registered as a lobbyist. He then used his campaign fund as a piggy bank to influence politicians he was now lobbying. He spent roughly $172,000 in campaign donations.
So why is this happening?
Turns out, there's a loophole in the state law that makes it hard to put a stop to it.
Simply, as long as a former candidate says he or she may run for office again, even in the far future, the fund can stay open.
And they can push that future campaign back, indefinitely.
Even more outrageous are the zombie campaigns for federal politicians.
Take Ron Paul. After his campaign for president failed, he retired in 2012, but his campaign fund continues to pay his daughter thousands of dollars every year to manage his non-existent campaign.
Former federal prosecutor Noah Bookbinder says these abuses often go unnoticed.
Now, Bookbinder heads the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"It's the kind of abuse that people only perpetrate when they're sure nobody is watching and they can get away with anything," said Bookbinder.
Closer to home- Illinois Congressmen Jerry F. Costello (D), and Thomas W. Ewing (R) left office in 2001 and 2013 respectively.
Yet they spent thousands of dollars in left over campaign money just last year.
But at least they're still alive.
The campaign fund of Hawaii congressman Mark Takai paid his consultant more than $80,000 a year after Takai died.
"It's really shameful when you see this many people exploiting the system," said Bookbinder.
There is no federal law requiring a candidate to close their account.
And despite Missouri law, the state can't force a candidate to close their campaign fund. They can only issue a fine and refer charges to the attorney general.
And the politicians we spoke with said they just don't feel they need to close their accounts.
Finally, Diehl tells us that he's inclined not to run again. If he decides not to try for public office, he promises to close his fund and donate the rest of the money to charity.
