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Unpaid 1992 Campaign Debts - Keyes Denies Responsibility
Keyes was happy to take $100,000/year as salary from his 1992 Senate campaign, but when it
came time to pay that same campaign's debts, he said: "I personally do not owe the debt that was owed
by the campaign." That was about $45,000, which was unpaid from 1992 through the end
of 1996, according to the FEC. Of course, if he hadn't paid himself so much money, he would have had plenty to pay off that debt.
Keyes told a reporter that the money will be paid off -- by the
campaign, not by him of course -- but several creditors said Keyes
hadn't communicated with them years later. In 1995-1996, for example, his 1992 Senate campaign
received $34,821 and spent over $15,000, but he couldn't manage to pay off any of that debt.
Finally, some time during 1997-1998, Keyes paid off most of this money. The FEC reports show that
he spent $49,544 during that time, and reimbursed $41,094 worth of loans, but somehow he managed to end up still
owing more than $34,000 for his 1992 Senate race at the end of the reporting period. Presumably he took on new loans to pay the old ones
(though the FEC data doesn't give enough detail to be sure.)
Incidentally, Keyes still owes over $200,000 on his 1996 presidential campaign as well. At the end of 1996,
he owed $350,000; since then, he has raised over $1,000,000 for a campaign that is over, but spent even more
($1,099,972) and only reduced his debt by $150,000.
In 1995, his campaign wrote over $20,000 in bad checks, which his spokesman blamed on a former campaign aide.
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Alan Keyes