After a judge struck down Alaska’s campaign finance limits in 2021, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his allies blocked legislative efforts to cap political spending in Alaska.
But that won’t be the final word on the issue.
Voters will get an opportunity to restore campaign contribution limits now that the Alaska Division of Elections has verified a voter initiative campaign collected enough signatures to put the issue on the 2026 ballot. The measure would cap individuals’ contributions to candidates at $2,000, four times the limit the court struck down.
The initiative group Citizens Against Money in Politics launched its signature-gathering effort last fall and turned in nearly 30,000 signatures earlier this year, surpassing the benchmark to bring the issue before voters.
Under the rules for voter initiatives, the Alaska Legislature can bump an initiative from the ballot by passing a materially similar bill. Initiative co-sponsor Bruce Botelho, a former Alaska attorney general, said he hopes that’s the case. Those limits could be in place for the 2026 election if the Legislature passes them with time to spare.
He said that will likely depend on how this year’s elections turn out. Will the bipartisan majority in the Senate hold together? Will the House go from a Republican majority to a moderate bipartisan coalition?
“It really comes down to the outcome of the Nov. 5 races,” he said. “The Senate was poised to pass it … and it just didn’t make the cut in terms of the final priority packages, given the obstruction within the House committees to moving a parallel bill. If there is a different coalition formed in the House, I expect the outcome to be the initiative language will pass.”
While conservative Republicans have generally supported unlimited political spending, it hasn’t been reflected in their campaign finance reports. Almost across the board in the state’s legislative races this year, Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans have raised several times more than their conservative Republican challengers.
Despite the dynamics of how unlimited campaign spending has played out in this year’s election cycle, Botelho said he doesn’t think it will dampen the existing support among Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans to instate limits.
“People are ideologically of the view that there should be limits, and I don’t expect this to change their behavior overall,” he said, “But I am hoping there are some Republicans who will rethink their opposition.”
He said Citizens Against Money in Politics will wind down its activities, and effort will be put into pushing for a legislative fix. If that doesn’t come to pass, he said, he said they are prepared to mount a campaign for 2026.
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.
