Hillary Clinton Writes Off Campaign Debt to Self

It was big news when Hillary Clinton loaned her campaign millions of dollars to keep her machine running. I was pretty sure that if she lost that she would simply write off most of the debt to herself as a candidate contribution (which are unlimited). Well, she has written off $13.2 million in loans to her campaign.

Hillary Clinton formally wrote off the $13.2 million she lent her presidential campaign, closing a chapter on her failed race for the White House and helping ease the way for her Senate confirmation as U.S. secretary of state.

Forgiving the loan takes Clinton’s personal debt off the books, a step toward shutting down her presidential-campaign committee as she prepares to become the top U.S. diplomat.

“If you’re going to go into a position like that, you want to try to clear away whatever you can,” said Larry Noble, a former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission.

Clinton started lending money to her campaign in January while competing in Iowa and New Hampshire as she tried to keep pace financially with Barack Obama, who was on his way to raising more money than any candidate in history.

Not all that surprising, but not only does it close a chapter in the 2008 presidential campaign, it essentially forcloses any possibility that she will run again.