Alaskans—not Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy—got the final word on unlimited campaign spending.
Months after the Republican vetoed a bipartisan bill attempting to reinstate campaign finance limits, Alaskans went to the polls en masse this week to approve similar limits in the form of Ballot Measure 1. According to preliminary results, the measure is passing with 71% of the vote—carrying all but one of the state’s 40 House districts—suggesting there’s a big disconnect between voters and Republican lawmakers who’ve fought to maintain unlimited spending.
The measure limits contributions from individual donors to $2,000 per candidate per election cycle, with automatic inflation adjustments every decade. It will go into effect after the 2026 election. The rules will affect only state races for governor and the Legislature, while federal races operate under their own campaign finance laws.
Alaska has held elections without any caps on the money people can give directly to candidates for state office since 2021, when a judge struck down the $500 limit that voters approved in 2006 as too low. But instead of fighting the ruling or pushing for updated limits that take into account inflation—the judge’s main issue—Dunleavy and his allies in the Legislature celebrated the ruling, claiming it was a win for free speech.
The Legislature’s bipartisan coalition majorities approved a bill enacting limits similar to Ballot Measure 1 earlier this year, but not without plenty of Republican pushback.
“I believe in Alaskans’ right to free speech, and the courts have ruled that political contributions are free speech,” said far-right Rep. Sarah Vance (R-Homer) during a House debate on campaign finance limits in April. “We’ve gone through an entire election cycle without any limits. And I have not once heard on record any specific Alaskan contributions that have given the appearance or showed proof of corruption.”
Dunleavy ultimately vetoed the bill, barring donation limits on this year’s elections and effectively allowing wealthy donors to buy an outsized role in candidates’ campaigns for the Legislature and governor.
According to The Alaska Current’s analysis of primary fundraising reports, more than half of the money that state candidates raised this year came from contributions that won’t be legal once Ballot Measure 1’s $2,000 cap goes into effect following the November general election.
Why it matters
The 40-point margin of victory for Ballot Measure 1 is only a few percentage points less than what the 2006 voter initiative passed by, meaning that voters’ attitudes about the influence of deep-pocketed political donors have changed little in two decades.
And it’d appear that advocating for unlimited campaign spending isn’t a winning strategy with voters, either, with voters in Rep. Vance’s district opting for her opponent, independent Brent Johnson, by a 10-point margin, 55% to 45%.
Ballot Measure 1 won’t mark the end of wealthy donors’ influence on politics. Donors will still be able to funnel unlimited amounts of cash into independent expenditure groups thanks to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United. Candidates will also continue to give their own campaigns unlimited cash—as long as it’s still within the legal window.
That said, self-funded campaigns generally performed poorly in Tuesday’s primary election. Republican Matt Heilala, who gave $1.5 million to his campaign for governor, got fewer than 4,000 votes, less than 3% of the vote.
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 Bluesky.
