I have revised my forthcoming Southern California Law Review article, “Rethinking the Unconstitutionality of Contribution and Expenditure Limits in Ballot Measure Campaigns,” to include newer campaign finance informaton on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s political committees. The latest draft is here, and the updated data appear in the text accompanying footnotes 68-73.
One of the issues raised in this article is the constitutionality of limits, like California’s recently adopted limit, on contributions to committees “controlled” by candidates and elected officials. A committee supporting Governor Schwarzenegger’s ballot measure agenda filed suit last week (see this complaint, filed in state court) raising constitutional and other issues against the California limits. The committee has requested a preliminary injunction, so we should get our first sense on how courts address this question soon. I expect that it will be the California Supreme Court (or U.S. Supreme Court) that ultimately resolves the constitutional question, given that it turns on the vitality of a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court case barring contribution limits to ballot measure committees. As I argue in the article, that case may not control the outcome here, given the evidence of candidate control of such committees now in California.