on July 2, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan against the $500 cap on individual contributions to candidates for State House of Representatives. See this story. Campaign contributions are constitutional in general, but a few years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Vermont’s cap on contributions because it was only $200.
ANY mention of dollar amounts in the Constitution — other than the 20 dollars in the 7th Amdt — when a dollar actually meant something ???
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Candidate_Committee_Manual2_57936_7.pdf
The $500 cap applies to candidates for State Representative or any office serving fewer than 85,000 people. Candidates for State Senator or any office serving 85,000 to 250,000 people can take $1,000 from individuals. And for statewide offices or offices serving constituencies of more than 250,000 people, the contribution limit is $3,400.
The same limits apply to contributions from ordinary or bundling “political committees”. The bigger “independent committees” as well as district and county political party committees can contribute ten times as much, and a State Central Political Party Committee can give 20 times the individual limit.
(Note that Michigan’s current campaign-finance law was passed in 1976, when the estimated population was something slightly over 9 million. So the average constituency of one of our 110 State House districts would have been about 83,000 — versus about 240,000 for each of the 38 State Senate districts. The population is a bit higher now than then — I think — but not as much higher as the typical major-party campaign budget, of course. . . .)