In Mississippi, retiring officials can pocket campaign cash

JACKSON, Miss. -- When former Mississippi lieutenant governor Amy Tuck shut down her campaign committee in the closing days of 2013, she took a parting gift -- the $158,342 remaining in the account.

Tuck already had withdrawn more than $103,000 from the account in late 2007 and early 2008, as she was going to work at Mississippi State University as special assistant to the president, initially making $160,000 a year.

She's hardly the only Mississippi official to cash out at the end of her career.

An Associated Press review shows of 99 elected officials who have left office in recent years, as many as 25 may have pocketed more than $1,000 when they closed their campaign accounts.

At least four others besides Tuck -- who now is vice president of campus services at Mississippi State and didn't respond to requests for comment -- took more than $50,000.

Mississippi is one of five states where withdrawals are legal so long as state and federal income taxes are paid, with no restrictions on how it's spent.

A proposal to end the practice consistently has failed to win support from lawmakers, dying again this year without even a committee vote.

Experts say the practice makes campaign contributions perilously close to bribes.

"Your office is a public office, and you should not benefit from it. You are personally gaining from your political office, and that is why they're giving to you. That's the fear," said Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based group that seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics.