Kerry is broke

The Boston Globe has an article on the money race today with the best explanation I’ve seen so far as to how Kerry must repay that loan he took on “his” Boston townhouse:

The note requires an interest-only payment of $15,000 each month for the first 10 years, a payment the senator had his campaign make in January, as is allowed by FEC law. The committee said future decisions on how to pay the bill would be made on a monthly basis.

Under campaign finance law, Kerry can continue to have his committee repay the loan until July 29, the night he is expected to be formally crowned the Democratic nominee in Boston. After that, there is a limit on the amount of campaign cash that can be used to repay such loans. The law states that it can be no more than whatever cash on hand the committee has as of that night, plus an additional $250,000.

After those funds are exhausted, Kerry will be personally liable for the loan.

Kerry will have to decide whether to pay down the loan before then with campaign funds, at a time when he will be traveling the country, hat in hand, appealing for money to ward off Bush and an advertising onslaught that begins tomorrow.

There is no way that Kerry will take on that debt, but I also doubt he’ll divert critical campaign resources to pay off the loan. Watch for some cash infusions from Teresa or some clever accounting down the road.

Extra fun - The Globe also has this article: “DNC fundraising slows dramatically”