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Study Explores Removing State Limits On Aggregate Political Spending

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Finds That Eliminating Limits Could Lead To Influx Of Donations

By
QuidnuncQuixot (CC-BY-SA).

A new study by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a government watchdog group, suggests a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling could result in a huge influx of donations to Wisconsin’s state political campaigns.

Right now, state law limits aggregate donations to all Wisconsin candidates to $10,000. How donors divvy that up varies. They could give $10,000 to a candidate for governor or they could give ten $1,000 donations to different state Senate candidates.

But if the aggregate limit were removed, and the limits for each individual office still stood, WDC’s Mike McCabe says an individual donor could give more than $6.8 million if they maxed out to one candidate for every office. McCabe says there are only a few hundred people who hit the maximum right now and most of them come from out of state.

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“So what the loss of our $10,000 annual limit would do is give a few hundred individuals with the capacity to pour vast amounts of money into elections – most of whom don’t even live in our state – a vastly greater ability to influence our elections.”

The WDC’s study is just a “what if?” for the time being. The U.S. Supreme Court’s McCutcheon v. FEC decision eliminated the aggregate limits to federal campaigns, so Wisconsin’s limits still stand. But the state’s aggregate limits are being challenged in court, where observers say they’re now more likely to be struck down.