John Glenn's Presidential Campaign Debt

Twenty years ago, John Glenn ran against Walter Mondale to be the Democrat candidate for President, taking out a series of loans to finance his campaign. Unfortunately, poor showings in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire and Alabama primaries prompted him to withdraw from the running. Mondale went on to run against and lose to President Reagan. Except for one thing, none of this is news. The one thing is that John Glenn has yet to pay off his campaign loans.

According to this report, former Senator Glenn still owes $2,610,000 and it doesn't appear that there are any plans to repay. Larry Noble, Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, stated that the campaign debt could continue indefinitely.

"This is always a problem with candidates who lose who borrow a lot of money. It's hard to raise money after you've lost," he said.

There's a moral to this story. Don't loan money to a politician. If he's not popular enough for people to donate money, chances are he's not going to be popular enough to get elected. And, if he's not elected, chances are slim that money will be available to retire the loans.