Where does accrued campaign contribution money ( war chest ) go after a Congressman or Senator retires ?
The story you heard is probably a rumor. For a very simple reason: a congressional campaign doesn’t cost that much. $50 million used to be enough for a much more expensive presidential campaign, until G.W. Bush broke the record with two $100+ million campaigns… $50 million sounds more like the total of what Phil Gramm raised (and spent) over his career as a legislator. To answer your question, though, when a legislator retires (or loses the race, or withdraws from one), the unused campaign funds cannot be used for personal expenses (whenever that happens, a big scandal erupts). Generally, retired legislators give their unused campaign funds to their party, or to other campaigns they want to support, or to charity. There are, of course, gray areas; this NY Times piece, for example, talks about some questionable (although seemingly legal) unused campaign funds disposition decisions
