By Steve Mistler
In a letter to Republican Gov. Paul LePage, Attorney General Janet Mills, a Democrat, and legislative leaders, CCP urged state officials to either change or not enforce a state law preventing individual donors from spending more than $25,000 on candidate committees during an election cycle. The current law does not apply to individual limits to campaigns, which vary depending on the office sought. But it does prevent wealthy individual donors from spending more than $25,000 during an election by giving to a several campaigns.The U.S. Supreme Court in early April struck down the $123,200 aggregate limit in federal campaigns in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. The decision has raised questions about the legality of state aggregate limits. After the McCutcheon decision several states announced that they would either remove their laws on aggregate caps or stop enforcement.David Keating, president of CCP, is urging Maine officials to do the same or face potential legal action in a lawsuit that the group says it will argue pro bono.
