With Virg Bernero gearing up his gubernatorial campaign, I got to thinking of an old topic: His federal 527 fund, the City Administrative Account.
LSJ readers may recall that Bernero has used this fund to raise more than 200,000 since 2005, which he has used on a variety of supposedly city-related expenses such as meals and travel.
Bernero’s latest 527 report, which covers the last six months of 2009 is routine stuff. He did return the $2,500 check from BWL that was never supposed to be in that account. And he did get another $5,000 donation from Blue Cross Blue Shield.
For the period, he raised $15,500 and spent almost $10,000. I got wondering what role, if any, the 527 could play in his gubernatorial bid.
Pretty much none, judging by what Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network tells me.
By e-mail, Robinson informed me “He can’t move money from the City Administrative Account to his gubernatorial committee. Nor can he use it for gubernatorial campaign activity — e.g., gas to get to a campaign event. He might be able to use it for ‘independent expenditures,’ although he’d have to make some kind of display of letting go control of it.”
So, if the folks at Blue Cross or Tetra Tech -- two sources of large donations to Bernero’s account -- want Bernero to be governor, they’ll be better off spending money on their own as a “third party” to tout the mayor’s prospects.
