WASHINGTON (AP) — Trent Lott had nearly $1.3 million in political donations left over when he quit the Senate to become a lobbyist. Now the former majority leader is doling it out to lawmakers who hold sway over his clients.

It’s perfectly legal, and Lott is hardly the first to distribute unused campaign cash to former colleagues.

But his giving is drawing attention thanks to the magnitude of his campaign account and the high-profile matters he has been hired to promote, including the proposed Delta-Northwest airline merger and Northrop Grumman’s contested $35 billion Air Force tanker contract.

‘‘The purpose of it really is to benefit Trent Lott’s personal lobbying business at this point. There is no other benefit at all,’’ said Craig Holman, who lobbies for tighter campaign finance rules for Public Citizen.

Under congressional rules, campaign committees for former lawmakers — including those who retire, die or lose elections — are allowed to use leftover money for a variety of purposes so long as it is not spent for personal benefit. Lott says he’s just supporting like-minded Republicans.

More than 40 former members of Congress who are registered as lobbyists still have open campaign accounts or political action committees, some of them more than a decade after leaving office, according to a review of campaign finance records by The Associated Press.

Most of them, however, carry relatively small balances — often less than $50,000 — and report little financial activity. The accounts typically exhaust the leftover cash with contributions and operating expenses as donations dry up.

Holman and others who closely follow Washington lobbying, such as the Center for Responsive Politics, say Lott’s stockpile is the largest they can remember, and they say his ability to use it the way he does represents a loophole in campaign finance law that should be closed.

Congress passed legislation last year prohibiting former senators from personally lobbying members of Congress for two years after they leave office. Lott retired just days before the new rule went into effect and is subject to a previous one-year ban.

Until that expires late this year, he is free to do behind-the-scenes work, while others at the firm handle direct contacts with members.

Along with well-stocked Rolodexes and favors to call in from former colleagues, the money is just another advantage that ex-lawmakers have in influencing public policy for private interests, critics say.

Lott, a Mississippi Republican, retired from the Senate on Dec. 19 and opened his new lobbying shop shortly thereafter with former Democratic Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana.

Since then, he has used campaign money for more than a dozen donations to former colleagues and congressional candidates, and he is in the process of consolidating the money in the account into a political action committee that can make larger contributions.

Early this year, Lott wrote $5,000 checks to several influential Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

More recently, in March, he gave $4,000 each to GOP Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Lott’s replacement. Like McCain, both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has oversight on the Air Force tanker deal. The contract has been criticized because Northrop Grumman Corp. is teaming with the European maker of Airbus to make the planes.

Lott also has donated $2,000 to Duncan D. Hunter of California, who is running to succeed his father, retiring Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

So far, the contributions have been on par with those of some other ex-lawmakers who are now lobbying. Lott’s partner, Breaux, for example, spent the last of his old campaign account last year with $35,500 in political contributions.

But Lott still had about $1.1 million remaining as of March 31, and he makes no secret of his plans to continue giving much of it away to lawmakers he’s likely to be lobbying.

He defended the giving in an interview shortly after his hiring by Northrop Grumman, saying he would give the money to Republicans he thought well of whether he was a lobbyist or not.

‘‘You don’t think I’m going to be giving the money to Democrats, do you? No. I’m going to be giving it to friends and good candidates,’’ he said, noting that he also has given some to charity and to GOP challengers. ‘‘We’re very particular about this. It is campaign money.’’

His former chief of staff, Bret Boyles, also maintained that Lott’s contributions are aimed at advancing GOP electoral fortunes, not currying favor.

‘‘Trent Lott will do everything he can to get Republican candidates elected within the boundaries of what the FEC and the law allows, period,’’ said Boyles, who is now a lobbyist in the Breaux-Lott firm.

Lott’s work on the tanker contract already was raising eyebrows because in the Senate he was among Northrop Grumman’s chief patrons, particularly for its giant shipyard in his hometown of Pascagoula, where his father once worked. Lott helped the company win billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts over the years.

The company then became one of his first big clients just three months after he left office.

In February, the company also named Lott’s former national security adviser as its head of acquisition policy.

‘‘There’s no doubt that he’s leveraging it,’’ campaign finance attorney Larry Noble said of Lott’s leftover cash. ‘‘It’s going to raise appearance issues, but it is legal.’’

———

On the Net:

Breaux-Lott Leadership Group: www.breauxlott.com

Federal Election Commission reports search:

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/imaging—info.shtml



AP-CS-04-24-08 1515EDT