Is it a gift if you don't get paid?

The Washington Post notes that Rick Santorum had $2.3 million in debt when he ended his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. Newt Gingrich threw in the towel with $4.8 million still owed to folks and companies that provided campaign services.

Maybe these debts will be repaid. Often, political campaign debts go unpaid for a long time.

For example, last year Rudy Giuliani still owed $2.6 million from his 2008 presidential bid, and Hillary Clinton still owes $245,000 from hers.

If you provide services to someone's political campaign, and you don't get paid, I think the straight way of saying it is that you made a gift to that campaign. If you have to wait a long time to get paid, you really made an interest-free loan to the campaign.

As far as I know, neither of these scenarios is covered by campaign finance law. They should be.