The Wyoming House of Representatives gave initial approval to two bills that would remove limits on campaign spending. One removes an aggregate limit on individual spending. That bill is required following the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The other removes financial limits that Wyoming currently imposes on Political Action Committees.
Those limits are $7500 for statewide candidates and $1500 for legislative candidates. House Corporations Committee Chairman Dan Zwonitzer says committee members decided that the PAC limits gave an unfair advantage to wealthier candidates.
“Really what we’ve seen in Wyoming elections over the last two cycles is we’ve had certain candidates who are individually wealthy and other competitors cannot financially compete,” says Zwonitzer.
Zwonitzer says lifting PAC limits will even the playing field. Some lawmakers are expressing concern about the change in the PAC limits fearing that it will lead to lots of spending in the 2016 political campaign. Both bills will be debated two more times.