Mark Foley donates more than $80K to charity as campaign account wind-down continues

Former GOP Rep. Mark Foley is sending another $82,000 to charitable causes as he works to close his congressional campaign account.

The latest filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show Foley spending nearly $90,000 in total from July 1 to Sept. 30. In addition to the charitable donations, Foley also gave $5,000 to the Palm Beach County Republican Party and a handful of donations to local candidates.

Foley’s contributions were first noted by Dave Levinthal of Business Insider.

The largest single sum Foley donated during the third quarter was $25,000 he gave to the Indian River State College Foundation for scholarship funds. That facility is in Fort Pierce, about an hour north of Palm Beach.

Foley’s account, “Friends of Mark Foley for Congress,” also sent $10,000 each to Adopt A Family in Lake Worth, the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County, and the Treasure Coast Food Bank.

Foley’s account still holds nearly $584,000 as of Sept. 30, according to the FEC. He has donated around two-thirds of the $1.7 million his account had remaining when he left Congress in 2006.

Foley has picked up the pace in dumping cash from the account after he announced this past June he would work to close his account for good. Foley previously said he was keeping that fund open for a potential congressional run once reapportionment occurs after the 2020 Census. That no longer appears to be the case.

Foley represented parts of Palm Beach County when he served in the U.S. House. He resigned in 2006 after sending sexually suggestive messages to a former congressional page living in California.

In 2018, the FEC announced it would increase reviews of so-called “zombie” campaign accounts. Last year, Foley was one of 50 campaigns to receive an FEC request about whether their respective accounts were truly “winding down.” That prompted Foley to begin shutting down the account, donating the bulk of the money to charity.

He did send a small fraction of his remaining cash to political causes. In addition to shipping $5,000 to the local Republican Party, Foley’s account also shipped $500 each to Brian Norton‘s Senate District 29 bid, as well as Rick Roth in House District 85 and Sayd Hussein in House District 91.