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Individuals making donations to Wisconsin candidates will no longer have to limit themselves to $10,000 a year. A federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement agreement that will result in the state lifting a long standing aggregate cap on donations to all candidates.
The decision means that an individual can now give the maximum donation allowed under state law to as many candidates for public office as they desire. It follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that found such limits unconstitutional in federal races, which was largely expected to keep the state from continuing to enforce its own restrictions.
In a statement, Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy said the agency “will no longer enforce the aggregate annual limit on how much money an individual may give to all candidates and political committees. Statutory limits on contributions to individual candidate campaigns are still in place, but there are no longer any limits on how much an individual may give to political action committees and political parties.”
State law does still limit donations for individual Assembly candidates to $500 per election cycle and $1,000 for Senate candidates. Individual limits of $10,000 for statewide races, such as the governor’s office, also remain intact.