Alaskans vote Tuesday on restoring campaign contribution limits

Alaskans vote Tuesday on whether to cap what donors may give state and local campaigns. Individual giving to candidates has been uncapped since 2021, when a Ninth Circuit ruling in Thompson v. Hebdon struck down Alaska's $500 individual limit as unconstitutional. To explain the vote, the Division of Elections is mailing registered voter households a pamphlet, its first such mailing since 2014.

Ballot Measure 1 would restore caps. Individuals could give $2,000 to a candidate each election cycle and $5,000 to a political party. Groups other than parties could give $4,000 to a candidate and $5,000 to other parties or groups. Joint campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor could take $4,000 from individuals and $8,000 from groups. The limits would rise with inflation every 10 years beginning in 2031.

The measure follows a failed run through the Legislature: the Alaska House passed a bill with the same language, House Bill 16, on a 22-18 vote in April 2025, but it didn't clear the Senate. The pamphlet puts the state's cost of implementing the measure at $120,503.

The two sides frame it in opposite terms. Supporters argue unlimited giving distorts elections; at a public hearing, Rep. Calvin Schrage said it means "wealthy individuals and special interests have an outsized impact." Opponents argue the caps wouldn't remove big money but redirect it. Ben Carpenter told the same hearing the measure "does not take big money out of Alaskan elections. It changes the path big money takes." Those who challenged the old limits have argued that contribution caps can unconstitutionally restrict political speech and association under the First Amendment.

The pamphlet also carries the measure's full text, a neutral summary prepared by the Legislative Affairs Agency, statements for and against, and voter information, with translations in several Alaska Native languages and Tagalog. Copies are posted online and stocked at regional election and legislative offices.