A bill aiming to limit donations to political action committees (PACs) was introduced in the State Legislature Wednesday following the validation of a citizens petition last week.
LD 2232 — An Act to Limit Contributions to Political Action Committees That Make Independent Expenditures — was formally brought before lawmakers Wednesday after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows validated the citizens petition signatures this past Thursday.
Unless the Legislature moves to adopt the bill exactly as it is written, the initiative will be placed on the ballot as a statewide referendum question this November.
[RELATED: Citizens Initiative Aiming to Limit PAC Spending Validated by Maine Secretary of State]
This petition first began circulation on October 27, 2023, and on January 23, 2024, 11,313 petition forms with 84,025 signatures submitted to the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions, of which 76,081 were determined to be signatures were valid.
The effort was spearheaded by Harvard Law Professor and political activist Lawrence Lessig.
According to the bill now under consideration by lawmakers, contributions made by both individuals and businesses to PACs “for the purpose of making independent expenditures” would be limited to a total of $5,000 per calendar year.
Maine state law currently defines an “independent expenditure” as any communication expense — such as for advertisements or phone banks — that clearly advocates for or against a particular candidate but is “not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, a candidate’s authorized political committee or an agent of either.”
This limit would be adjusted for inflation every two years beginning on December 1, 2024 and rounded to the nearest amount divisible by $25.
Click Here to Read the Full Text of LD 2232
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recognizes several types of PACs — each of which are subjected to a unique set of rules — including two categories particularly relevant to the bill currently before lawmakers in Augusta: traditional PACs and Super PACs.
While traditional PACs can make contributions to political candidates in addition to making independent expenditures, they can receive no more than $5,000 a year from any single donor.
Super PACs — more formally known as independent expenditure-only PACs — cannot donate to candidates but are eligible to receive unlimited contributions from their donors.
If the initiative currently under consideration in Maine were to be approved, however, it would present a challenge to this structure, as well as to existing legal precedent.
Super PACs first came about in 2010 in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC in which the Justices decided that placing limitations on “independent political spending” by both individuals and corporations violated the First Amendment, arguing that these expenditures did not present a sufficient enough threat of corruption warrant government intervention.
With the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ subsequent decision in the case of SpeechNow v. FEC, it was determined that placing any limitations on donations to PACs making only independent expenditures was an unconstitutional under the First Amendment, thus paving the way for the creation of Super PACs.
Because restrictions are currently in place for contributions to traditional PACs, the law proposed in Maine would primarily impact Super PACs and their ability to receive contributions of an unlimited size from their donors.
Equal Citizens — the non-profit founded by Lessig — played an active role in helping to raise funds in support of gathering the signatures needed to put this issue in front of Mainers.
According to Lessig, Equal Citizens will not involve itself should the measure end up on the ballot this November, suggesting that “whether Mainers ultimately choose to support the initiative or not is a question for Mainers.”
Both Equal Citizens and Maine Citizens to End Super PACs — the ballot question committee (BQC) responsible for the petition — have indicated that they anticipate this law, if approved, will spark legal challenges that will ultimately bring the issue before the Supreme Court.
On their Frequently Asked Questions page, the BQC posed the hypothetical question of “What is the rationale for the formation of Citizens to End SuperPACs?” to which they responded: “Because we want to end SuperPACS – and we believe the United States Supreme Court will agree!”
Going into more depth on the topic of potential legal challenges is Equal Citizens.
“When Maine passes its anti-SuperPAC initiative in November 2024,” the group writes, “the law will be challenged (and most likely stayed from enforcement during the litigation).”
“The First Circuit has not yet ruled on whether SpeechNow is correct,” Equal Citizens continues. “It will, therefore, have a chance to consider the matter without the burden of prior precedent. If Maine prevails in the First Circuit, then the United States Supreme Court will certainly take the case up.”
“And if things move quickly, then by July 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — the Supreme Court will either declare us free of SuperPACs or give us yet another reason for a (peaceful) revolution in constitutional law (through amendments! See the great work of American Promise),” they conclude.
Equal Citizens has been involved in similar efforts before, introducing bills in an attempt to get the courts to overturn the D.C. Circuit’s SpeechNow ruling in Alaska in 2018 and again in Massachusetts in 2022.
In a Newsweek article published in September of last year, Lessig explained why he believes the Supreme Court would have reason to declare limitations on Super PAC contributions constitutional if a they were presented with the opportunity.
Lessig’s argument is essentially that “contributions to super PACs create a risk of quid pro quo corruption just as contributions to candidates do,” and “nothing the Supreme Court has said gives us any reason to believe that they would strike down limits on contributions when such contributions plainly risk quid pro quo corruption. They told us — repeatedly — that that is the law.”
According to a major contributor report filed with the state earlier this year, Equal Citizens has raised more than $1 million that it then contributed to the Citizens to End SuperPACs BQC.
As of now, it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will adopt the text proposed by the citizens initiative exactly as it is currently written or if voters will be asked to decide its fate at the polls this November.
Lawmakers also have the option of introducing a competing proposal to appear alongside the citizens initiative on the November ballot.
Click Here for More Information on Maine’s Citizens Initiative Process
A public hearing on the bill has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at 1:05pm before the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee in State House Room 437.
