Nevadans react to campaign contributions ruling

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

Nevada changed its campaign finance limits in 1996, limiting contributions from individuals as well as businesses to a $10,000 maximum - $5,000 in the primary and $5,000 in the general.

That's a reduction for statewide races, in which candidates previously could accept as much as $20,000 from individuals and $40,000 from corporations.

But for local races, candidates could accept more under the reform. They had been limited to $2,000 per election from an individual and $10,000 from corporations.

Paul Brown of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada said the current limits are so high that they're a joke, but there's no move to try to lower them.

He called the Supreme Court ruling on Monday fantastic because it rebuts what Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been saying as he raises money to elect Republicans to the Senate: that once the proposed limits got to the U.S. Supreme Court, they would be rejected.

Jim Hulse of Common Cause-Nevada said while the Supreme Court's decision is a "step in the right direction, it's a small one."

Hulse added the ruling "doesn't do anything about soft money and the basic problem, as we see it, is the unlimited flow of soft money."

He said the government watchdog group has limited resources in Nevada and is unlikely to launch another expensive effort to change those limits. Instead, Hulse said the group is exploring the possibilities of some type of public financing.