Four years after a federal appeals court eliminated Alaska’s limits on political campaign contributions, the Alaska House of Representatives has taken a step toward reimposing them.
The House voted 22-18 on April 28 to approve House Bill 16, which mirrors the language of a ballot measure slated to go before voters in 2026. The bill moves next to the Senate, with the Legislature facing a May 21 adjournment deadline.
Bills that don’t pass both chambers this session will still be alive for consideration next year.
Alaskans are expected to approve the 2026 ballot measure by a wide margin, based on historical trends, but that approval would bring new limits into effect for the 2028 elections at the earliest.
However, if the Legislature approves a substantially similar bill, it would allow limits for the 2026 election and remove the initiative from the ballot.
“This is something that Alaskans very clearly want,” said Anchorage Rep. Calvin Schrage, sponsor of HB 16. Schrage is also a co-sponsor of the ballot measure.
HB 16 proposes to limit Alaskans to $2,000 in donations per candidate in each election cycle. For the governor’s race, where a lieutenant governor candidate and governor candidate run together on a single ticket, the limit would be $4,000. The limit for donations from one person to a political party or group would be $5,000.
If a group wants to donate to a candidate, the limit is $4,000, or $8,000 for the governor’s race.
Those limits would be adjusted for inflation every 10 years.
Alaska’s politicians have been able to collect unlimited amounts of campaign contributions since a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found the state’s prior limits were unconstitutional.
In 2021, a three-judge panel of the court ruled that a $500 annual limit — amounting to $1,000 over a two-year cycle — was too low.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration declined to appeal the 2021 decision, and the Alaska Public Offices Commission implemented it starting with the 2022 election.
“This bill would allow us to reinstate those limits and again provide that protection to Alaskans — and frankly to us as elected officials — in helping to ensure that there is some faith and confidence among Alaskans in their elected officials, acting with integrity and not having undue influence on them by outsized donations,” Schrage said.
Each time ballot measures have proposed new limits for political donations, Alaskans have approved them by large margins. Public polling has shown continued large support for new restrictions.
Voting against the bill were 18 members of the House’s Republican minority caucus. The only member of the caucus to vote in favor of it was Soldotna Rep. Justin Ruffridge.
Homer Rep. Sarah Vance spoke against the bill and urged lawmakers to reject it. “I believe in Alaskans’ right to free speech, and the courts have ruled that political contributions are free speech,” she said.
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