Sen. Michael Bennet disclosed a $950,000 loan to his campaign for governor of Colorado this week, which campaign finance experts say creates a significant risk of quid pro quo corruption.

In Colorado and at the federal level after a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, candidates who loan their campaigns money have the right to solicit post-campaign contributions from donors in perpetuity and without limits to retire that debt. That means that as an elected governor, Bennet can ask donors to pay off his loan and enrich him personally, even if those donors are pushing legislation that Bennet would have to sign into law, seeking appointments from him, or have any other business before the state.

Because of Bennet’s peculiar circumstances, this potential conflict of interest would stick around even if he loses the Democratic gubernatorial primary, scheduled for June 30. Bennet is a sitting senator who is not up for re-election until 2028. A loss in the governor’s race would return him to the Senate. From there, he can solicit donors to pay off his gubernatorial campaign debt. “Federal law does not restrict federal officeholders from soliciting funds to campaign for a nonfederal office,” notes Saurav Ghosh, a director at the Federal Campaign Finance Reform program at Campaign Legal Center.

Therefore, anyone seeking to influence Bennet as a U.S. senator could effectively give him money directly. And since Bennet is one of the senior members of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care policy and the entire U.S. tax code, the list of possible donors with business before him as a senator is practically endless.

“This raises serious conflict-of-interest concerns for any incumbent, including Bennet, who may continually turn to private donors and ask for more and more special-interest money,” said Craig Holman, campaign finance expert with Public Citizen.