ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have enacted new campaign contribution limits in Alaska ahead of the November election.

Lawmakers had narrowly passed the bill in the final hours of the legislative session that ended in May, looking to preempt a ballot measure that seeks to reinstate limits on contributions to Alaska political candidates, after previous limits were invalidated by a federal court in 2021.

In a message accompanying his veto, Dunleavy wrote that Alaska’s campaign finance laws “should not limit the ability of Alaskans to support candidates they believe in while preserving an advantage for candidates wealthy enough to fund their own campaigns.”

The bill “does nothing to address the advantage held by self-funded candidates. That is not fair balance,” Dunleavy wrote. “It restricts ordinary political participation while leaving personal wealth as a preferred path to political influence. This bill, if it became law, would radically tilt in the favor of the wealthy when it comes to elected office.”

The 2021 elimination of campaign contribution limits has transformed the way political candidates in Alaska fund their campaigns. While large contributions were once funneled to so-called independent expenditure groups that operate separately from the candidates’ campaigns, large contributions can now flow to the candidates directly.

Dunleavy himself benefited heavily from unlimited donations to his 2022 campaign, including from his Texas-based brother, Francis Dunleavy, who gave him hundreds of thousands of dollars as he sought reelection. In 2018, when Alaska still had strict contribution limits, Francis Dunleavy and other wealthy backers of the aspiring governor instead gave to an independent group.

The veto of the bill now assures that Alaska voters will be asked in August whether they would like to reinstate limits on campaign contributions. The last time such a question was put before Alaska voters, it passed with broad support.

Under the initiative certified for the August ballot, Alaskans will be asked whether to limit individual contributions to $2,000 for candidates and $5,000 for political parties. Groups would be limited to $4,000 for candidates and $5,000 for parties. These limits would increase with inflation in subsequent years.

The limits would apply to legislative candidates, along with candidates for governor and lieutenant governor.

Until the 2021 court decision, Alaska had some of the lowest campaign contribution limits in the country. A federal court invalidated the state’s limits for being too low, but left open the possibility for the state to adopt higher inflation-adjusted limits.

However, Dunleavy has opposed the reintroduction of limits. Supporters of unlimited spending say that the court decision has allowed funding to flow directly to candidates, as it did to Dunleavy when he ran for reelection in 2022, rather than to independent spending groups that are unaffiliated with the candidates.

This year’s ongoing governor’s race shows that candidates are benefiting from personal wealth and large contributions from family members and acquaintances, as candidates with limited means and connections struggle to keep up.

Among the sponsors of the ballot initiative seeking to reinstate campaign contribution limits is former state attorney general Bruce Botelho, who has said that Alaskans are troubled by the influence of unlimited money in political campaigns.

Thursday’s veto marks Dunleavy’s 20th bill veto since the beginning of the year.

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