Alaska on course to approve new campaign donation limits in Ballot Measure 1

More than 70% of participating voters approved the measure in early tallies published Tuesday night

Voters line up on Aug. 17, 2026, at the early voting station set up in Anchorage’s Midtown Mall. Voters reported waiting about an hour to cast their primary election ballots. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

Early tallies from Tuesday’s statewide primary election showed overwhelming support for a ballot measure that will restrict the amount of money that political candidates can accept from groups and individuals.

With 377 of 402 precincts reporting by 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Ballot Measure 1 had the support of 71.5% of participating voters. 

That’s only slightly less than the 73% margin that a similar ballot measure received in 2006. 

The limits imposed by that 2006 measure remained in place until 2021, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alaska’s limits on campaign contributions were so tight that they violated the First Amendment.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration declined to appeal that decision, and the state’s 2022, 2024 and 2026 elections have taken place without limits on the amount of money that candidates may accept. 

A poorly funded group called Citizens Against Money in Politics gathered thousands of signatures to put a measure on the ballot. The Alaska Legislature passed a substantially similar bill this year, but Dunleavy vetoed it, clearing the way for the measure to appear on the August primary ballot.

Vote-counting is expected to continue through Aug. 28, the deadline for mailed absentee ballots to reach the Alaska Division of Elections.

Barring legal challenge, the measure would take effect after this year’s elections.

When enacted, the new law would prohibit political donors from giving a candidate more than $2,000 per election. Groups would be allowed to give no more than $4,000 per candidate per election.

Both limits would be adjusted for inflation every 10 years, and they will only apply to state-level elections — for governor, state House and state Senate.

Candidates themselves would still be allowed to spend as much of their own money as they want on their own campaign.

Federal elections — those for President, U.S. Senate and U.S. House — operate under different limits in federal law.

The measure does not affect the amount of money that can be spent by groups operating independently of candidates’ campaigns.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that limiting those groups amounts to restricting their free speech. 

Also this year, the Supreme Court ruled that political parties may spend unlimited amounts of money in conjunction with candidates for federal office. That decision does not directly affect state candidates but could implicate them in the future.

• James Brooks Cascade is a longtime Alaska reporter who lives in Juneau. He previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.