Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck refuses to answer questions about the campaign loans she received during her 1999 campaign.

For two weeks, The Sun Herald has tried to speak with Tuck about where she got more than $500,000 she loaned to her campaign and to ask about other loans shown on her campaign-finance reports.

But Tuck's only direct response has been a two-paragraph written statement about how expensive it is to run for office.

"Running for public office is an expensive undertaking," Tuck said. "You do the best you can with the resources available and... "

Through her spokeswoman, Liz Carroll, Tuck said no one has paid off her loans.

Tuck's campaign finance reports show the following loans:

• BancorpSouth (loan): $80,000 on July 16, 1999.

• BancorpSouth (loan): $20,000 on Aug. 30, 1999.

• Amy Tuck (loan): $300,000 on Oct. 12, 1999.

• Amy Tuck (loan): $60,000 on Oct. 26, 1999.

• Amy Tuck: $150,000 on Nov. 2, 1999.

The BancorpSouth loans were repaid with interest in October 1999. Campaign finance reports show Tuck reimbursed herself $50,000 from her campaign chest, leaving a balance of $460,000.

Ben Thompson, campaign manager for Tuck, said the $510,000 were personal loans.

"She gave that money to the campaign," Thompson said.

Tuck's financial records, filed with the state Ethics Commission, do not fully explain where the more than half a million dollars came from.

Before becoming lieutenant governor, a $60,000-a-year job, Tuck made $10,000 a year plus expenses as a state senator. She graduated from law school but hasn't practiced law. To augment her income as a senator, Tuck taught junior college. According to her 1999 and 2000 statements of economic interest filed with the state, Tuck had no other jobs or income.

State law says judicial candidates have to designate whether money contributed to a campaign is a bank loan or a personal loan, but state candidates do not. There also are no limits on the amount of money people can donate to statewide campaigns.

Thompson said the campaign has "met all campaign reporting requirements and will continue to do so."

Pat Smith, a professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi, said it is common for candidates to give money to their own campaigns. It is also not unusual for candidates' supporters to help secure loans by guaranteeing or co-signing for those loans.

Smith said that although he would prefer public financing of state elections, he believes that state-elected leaders should have the same reporting requirements as judges.

"In a way, the Legislature is the jury for Mississippi, because they write the laws," Smith said.

The issue of campaign loans and who paid them is a hot one this election cycle. Federal investigators are trying to determine whether millionaire trial attorneys paid off campaign and other loans for state court judges.

The investigation has touched not only judges and lawyers, but the state's top office holder.

The Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported in November that federal investigators are looking into Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's campaign finance reports to see whether judicial appointments and contributions were connected.

"I look to select a person who will make a good judge or who will do a good job in whatever the position," Musgrove said then.

Tuck was first elected state senator at age 26. Before running for lieutenant governor, she narrowly lost a 1995 bid for secretary of state.