The Alaska House of Representatives passed a bill that relates to political contributions. House Bill 234 was sponsored by Rep. Calvin Schrage (Anchorage) who said that the legislation would restore campaign contribution limits on politicians and stop out-of-state donors and special interest groups from taking over state and local elections. He cited the Thompson v. Hebdon court decision saying that the legislation would reinstate ‘fair and reasonable donation limits that were in place before the court decision and the Alaska Public Offices Commission decision not to implement limits proposed by commission staff.’
Rep. Ron Gillham (Kenai), who voted against the bill’s passing, said on the house floor:
“The campaign limits need to be put on these organizations, not on the private individual. I have donations as low as $2. I get very few maximum amount donations, but I have a lot of donations. When you start getting donations from the unions and from all these political organizations, that’s where you start to see people looking at perception of corruption. If you have a dozen donations of maximum amounts from unions, that’s when people look at, they’re being bought off. When you have 100 contributions of $10, $30, or even $100, they’re not looking at you as being bought off. I think we’re going about this the wrong way. If we want campaign contributions, it needs to be put on the large corporations, the big outside companies.”
HB 234 establishes contribution limits for individuals of up to $2,000 per election for state and local campaigns, while also establishing limits on out-of-state donations. The bill additionally requires these limits be adjusted every ten years based on inflation. It also changes campaign contribution limits to a ‘per campaign period’ instead of a ‘per year’ basis.
According to the Alaska House Coalition, until HB 234 is signed into law, individuals and special interest groups can give unlimited amounts of cash directly to politicians and political candidates.
The legislation passed the House Floor on a 21-18 vote.
Transcribed audio courtesy of KTOO 360TV.
