State of West Virginia Campaign Financial Statement
(Long Form) in Relation to the 2012 Election Year

West Virginia Code: §3-8-5f. Loans to candidates, organizations or persons for election purposes.

"Every candidate, financial agent, person or association of persons or organization advocating or opposing the nomination or election of any candidate or the passage or defeat of any issue or item to be voted upon may not receive any money or any other thing of value toward election expenses except from the candidate, his or her spouse or a lending institution. All loans shall be evidenced by a written agreement executed by the lender, whether the candidate, his or her spouse, or the lending institution. Such agreement shall state the date and amount of the loan, the terms, including interest and repayment schedule, and a description of the collateral, if any, and the full names and addresses of all parties to the agreement. A copy of the agreement shall be filed with the financial statement next required after the loan is executed."

The loan agreement must include all items asked for in the statute. (See above.) The loan agreement does not have to follow a certain format; generally, if all the required information is listed, any format is acceptable. Candidates or political committees that take out a loan for the campaign through a bank or other commercial lending institution must include a copy of the loan agreement executed with that bank or institution. Candidates should not take out loans which are partially for personal use and partially for the campaign. It is almost impossible to keep reporting straight in this case. Any money a candidate contributes to his or her campaign committee with the hope of repayment must be treated as a loan and reported in this section. When a candidate determines that no further repayment can be expected, the loan can be reported as repaid in this section by entering the amount left to repay in the repayments column and reporting the same amount as a contribution from the candidate on Page 2. These loans must be executed in writing. Caution: Candidates may not carry outstanding loans from one campaign to the next. Each campaign is separate. Funds from a current campaign cannot be used to repay a loan from a previous campaign.