RNC Piggy Bank: See how the money was spent

The host committee continued to spend long after the convention.

Though the bulk of the surplus donations went to charity, the host committee has paid out about $760,000 to individuals since the beginning of 2009. Other payments have gone to various companies, consulting firms, a thank-you event, and more.

Campaign finance experts who analyzed these expenditure records for City Pages say the pattern of spending so long after the convention -- more than two years, in some cases -- raises questions as to whether the committee is complying with federal election law.

"If the committee was set up specifically to provide host services for the 2008 Republican Convention, if it is now spending money and it's unrelated to that purpose, it's probably violating FEC laws, because it's not spending money appropriate for what it was set up to do," says David Schultz, a law professor at Hamline University.

The chart below illustrates all post-2008 spending. For more, check out our slideshow of Federal Election Committee documents detailing much of the spending outlined in the story.

Graphic by Mike Kooiman.