I asked John Wildermuth of the SF Chronicle how it works when a campaign Donates $ to charity (Back when she was just gonna give 20+G to charity). He said he wasn’t sure how it worked with federal campaigns, but in California, donations Have to be made After the election-Wow!
Wow is right. I do hope this is a stipulation peculiar to California pushed through by gray davis 'cause he knew he and half the officials would need that little loophole.
If that's the setup at the federal level, it's a sweet deal. Kind of like the Soros ACT violations. Illegally collect and disburse $130M and get fined $700K--after the election. Now there's a return not even Hsu had the gall to promise his "investors."
Unless there's a provision requiring them to lock down the money in a fund they can't touch, they have full benefit of the money. They have more than a year to replace it (and then some). Once she's officially the nominee or worse, that will hardly be a problem.
We should all be asking the question you did. Kudos.