there's no cap right now

on what one donor can hand a candidate in this state.

Since a court ruling a few years back, Alaska has had zero enforceable limits on campaign donations in state and local races. One person can write a check of any size to any candidate. This Tuesday, that's on the ballot.

The measure would put caps back in place, set higher than the old ones the courts threw out. For an individual donor: two thousand dollars per candidate each election cycle, and four thousand for a race for governor. Groups get their own, larger caps. Federal races aren't touched, and the numbers would adjust for inflation over time.

The sponsor, an Anchorage lawmaker, calls the current setup a gaping hole in the law, and argues caps push campaigns back toward Alaska donors instead of outside money.

The other side, including the Mat-Su Borough's mayor, says people should be free to spend what they want on candidates they believe in, and that the better fixes are transparency and reining in political action committees.

However you land on it, here's what matters this week: it passes or fails by simple majority this Tuesday, August eighteenth, on the same ballot as the primary. If you're voting anyway, this question will be waiting for you whether you've heard of it or not.