Federal appeals judges keep state campaign spending law in place

Federal appeals judges have temporarily reinstated a state law that limits campaign contributions in the final weeks of ballot measure campaigns, saying that the law shouldn't be overturned so close to the election.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton ruled last month that the limit is an unconstitutional infringement on political speech.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked that ruling from taking effect while the state appeals. The 9th Circuit's stay was issued late Tuesday.

In the stay, announced Wednesday by the state Public Disclosure Commission, the three-judge panel wrote "Washington and its voters have a significant interest in preventing the State's long-standing campaign finance laws from being upended by the courts so soon before the upcoming election."

The law in question bans contributions larger than $5,000 in the final three weeks of an initiative or referendum campaign. Leighton kept in place a requirement to identify donors who contribute more than $25.

Attorney General Rob McKenna's office is representing the state Public Disclosure Commission in the case. Family PAC, a political group involved in the 2009 referendum on expanded domestic partnerships for gay couples, sued the state last year challenging the contribution limit.

Attorney General Rob McKenna said Wednesday he was happy that the court "recognized the importance of providing more certainty to all by maintaining the current requirement for greater accountability in this election."

Family PAC was created just after last year's legal deadline for large campaign contributions had passed. The committee said it had an offer for a large donation to finance political ads but couldn't accept the money because of the state law.

Referendum 71 asked voters to either keep or reject the "everything but marriage" expansion of domestic partnerships for gay couples in the state. It was approved last fall with 53 percent of the vote.

James Bopp Jr., a noted campaign-finance attorney who represented Family PAC, said the Washington state spending limit clearly violated the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and political association. In a written statement Wednesday, he said "we believe that the 9th Circuit was in error in staying this clearly unconstitutional law."

If the ruling had stood, even more money would have likely poured into this year's large batch of initiatives. Six initiatives and one referendum are on the ballot and state records show the campaigns have raised a combined $45 million, with about $15 million spent so far.