Bills to ban personal use of campaign funds clear Virginia legislature

RICHMOND — The Virginia House and Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to tighten Virginia’s notoriously loose campaign-finance laws by banning the personal use of campaign funds, something already banned in 48 states and in federal contests.

Passage of the twin House and Senate bills represents a breakthrough for a push that began in 2014 amid a gifts scandal involving former governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen. Bills to prohibit using campaign coffers as personal piggy banks have been filed in Richmond every year since 2014 but never made it out of the General Assembly until now.

The measures now head to the desk of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Del. Mike A. Cherry (R-Colonial Heights) told reporters at a news conference hours ahead of the vote that Youngkin’s office had assured him that the governor is “generally supportive of the idea.” Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez told The Washington Post only that the governor “will review any bills that come to his desk.”

“I could take everybody in this room on a Caribbean cruise [with campaign funds] if I wanted to and that would be perfectly legal,” Sen. Jennifer B. Boysko (D-Fairfax), who sponsored the Senate bill, said at the news conference. She called the legislation “a long-overdue first step toward restoring faith in our democracy and ending Virginia’s status as the Wild West, where anything goes where campaign finance is concerned.”






https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/19/virginia-campaign-finance-personal-use-bills/