Tuesday, June 24, 2014
11:39 AM
Conservative group files lawsuit over limits on PAC contributions
The conservative CRG Network has filed a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's limits on how much candidates can collectively receive from political action committees.
The suit, filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, argues the PAC contribution limit does not meet the new standards handed down in recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The suit argues those rulings restrict the government's ability to limit campaign contributions "beyond actual financial quid pro quo corruption."
It's the latest challenge to one of the state's campaign contribution limits and follows the state agreeing not to enforce its annual aggregate limit on how much donors can give to multiple candidates after a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a similar restriction.
The CRG Network filed the suit after it donated $250 each to GOP Reps. Dan Knodl of Germantown, Robin Vos of Rochester, John Nygren of Marinette and Dale Kooyenga of Brookfield.
According to the suit, Knodl accepted the contribution. But the other three returned at least part of the money because they had hit the PAC contribution limit of $7,763 for Assembly candidates. Those limits range up to $485,190 for gubernatorial candidates.
The suit notes the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the limits in 1990, but that case was decided before the string of recent federal decisions.
It argues it is unconstitutional to permit one PAC's contribution to be accepted but another's to be denied.
"How can a $500 donation from Committee A be non-corruptive but a $250 donation from CRG Network be corruptive? To ask the question is to answer it. It cannot," the suit argues.
A GAB spokesman noted the 1990 state Supreme Court decision upholding the limit, but referred further comment to the attorney general's office. A DOJ spokesman said the agency would review the suit and respond in court.
-- By Staff
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