Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down aggregate limits on campaign contributions, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has his eye on eliminating additional campaign finance restrictions,
The Washington Post reports.
"I don’t think we should have caps at all," Priebus told c
onservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday, explaining his position that there should be no limit on how much money someone can contribute to either an individual or a political party.
Priebus told Hewitt he’d look for opportunities to bring those issues before the Supreme Court.
"Absolutely, I would,” he said. “And I would look to cases that allow us to raise soft money, and I would look to cases that allow us to raise money for the conventions, but disclose it all. That's kind of where I'm at personally."
In McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission, Republican businessman Shaun McCutcheon – joined by the RNC – argued that it’s unconstitutional to cap the total amount a donor can give to federal candidates and political party committees throughout the course of a two-year election cycle. The court left in place individual contribution limits – $2,600 per election per candidate and $32,400 per party per committee.
While Priebus said he theoretically supports disclosure laws requiring the source of political contributions be identified, in reality he has mixed feelings about it.
“I mean, you want to be for disclosure,” he explained. “But when you start to see some of the cases out there where people are targeted, and businesses are targeted and picketed and threatened for political contributions, then now you’re suppressing free speech through disclosure. So I mean, even things that I want to agree with are getting to be very difficult.”
Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich resigned last week after his opposition to gay marriage – in the form of a contribution to a 2008 California initiative to outlaw it – became public.