The primary group supporting and defending Alaska’s open primaries and ranked-choice voting system is working to bring back a more traditional element of Alaska’s election system: contribution limits.
The new initiative, which was filed with the Division of Elections in May by members of Alaskans for Better Elections, would update the state’s contribution limit laws that a federal judge struck down as unconstitutional before the 2022 elections. The initiative would institute higher limits than the ones struck down. Those limits would be tied to inflation, which the federal judge raised.
The judge’s ruling found that the old limits, which were instituted in 2006 by voter initiative, were so low that they infringed on free speech. The judge suggested that higher limits that keep pace with inflation may be constitutional.
Efforts to institute those limits through the Legislature have fallen flat. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been vocally opposed to the return of campaign contribution limits, reaping massive direct contributions during his 2022 campaign.
Here’s how the limits would work:
- A $2,000 limit on how much individuals can contribute to a non-gubernatorial candidate during an election cycle (up from $500 per year)
- A $4,000 limit on how much non-political party groups can contribute to a non-gubernatorial candidate during an election cycle (up from $1,000 per year)
- A $4,000 limit on how much individuals can contribute to a gubernatorial campaign during an election cycle (up from $1,000 per year to candidates for governor and lieutenant governor)
- An $8,000 limit on how much groups can contribute to a gubernatorial campaign during an election cycle (up from $2,000 per year)
- A $5,000 limit on how much individuals can contribute to a political party or another group
- A $5,000 limit on non-political party group contributions to a political party or another group
The initiative is based on legislation proposed this legislative cycle by House Minority Caucus Leader Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage. That legislation, House Bill 36, was never heard by the House State Affairs Committee this year.
What’s next
Before Alaskans for Better Elections can begin gathering signatures for the initiative, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom will need to approve the initiative. That’s a process based on input from the Department of Law, and it hasn’t always come easy for issues that run contrary to Dunleavy’s politics. The Division of Elections greatly delayed the approval of the 2020 initiative that would have raised oil taxes and tried to reject the effort to recall the governor. In both cases, the courts ultimately found the Division of Elections had acted incorrectly.
Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom has until July 4 to make that determination. A court battle could obviously drag out that process for several additional months, eating into critical signature-gathering time that the group will need if they hope to get the 26,705 signatures needed in time to have the initiative appear on the 2024 ballot.
Even if the signatures are gathered, the Legislature could also head off the initiative (and the politics accompanying it) by passing their own reasonably similar campaign limits law before next year. However, even those hypothetical campaign limits would be unlikely to impact the 2024 election, given the timing of the measure becoming law.
Note: Alaskans for Better Elections’ board includes Pat Race, who does a hobby podcast with author Matt Buxton.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.