Supreme Court decision for Sen. Ted Cruz will be felt in RI campaign finance

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas could benefit Rhode Island political candidates who loan their campaigns large sums of money.

In a 6-to-3 decision, the high court said Cruz, a Republican, can repay personal loans he made to his campaign with political donations exceeding the federal $250,000 reimbursement limit.

The $250,000 limit on personal loan repayments, part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, is the latest campaign finance law the court has struck down as an unreasonable infringement on political speech.

And in addition to the impact it will have on federal elections, the ruling will mean the end of an even stricter limit on campaign loan repayment in Rhode Island elections.

State law allows candidates to use up to $200,000 in donor cash to repay themselves each election cycle. Unlike the federal limit, which applies only to donations collected after each election, the Rhode Island limit applies to contributions made before and after the vote.

John Marion Jr., executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said the "extreme opinion," allowing unlimited loan repayment to sitting officeholders, "is a recipe for corruption."

"The purpose of the limit overturned by the Supreme Court, which will also overturn portions of a Rhode Island statute, is to prevent campaign donors from corrupting elected officials by using donations to ingratiate themselves," Marion wrote in an email.

"When a donor gives money to a campaign it is typically used to pay for legitimate campaign expenses, such as advertising. When a donor gives money to repay a debt, it is increasing the personal wealth of the candidate who may very well be an office holder, because loans in excess of the $1,000 contribution limit in Rhode Island must come from the candidate's personal wealth."

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How the justices voted

The court was split along ideological lines, with the six conservative justices voting for Cruz and the three liberal justices in dissent.

"The politician solicits donations from wealthy individuals and corporate lobbyists, making clear that the money they give will go straight from the campaign to him, as repayment for his loan," Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the dissent of a hypothetical campaign without the post-election repayment limit. "He is deeply grateful to those who help, as they know he will be — more grateful than for ordinary campaign contributions (which do not increase his personal wealth). And as they paid him, so he will pay them."

But in his opinion for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that "we greet the assertion of an anticorruption interest here with a measure of skepticism."

The government "is unable to identify a single case of quid pro quo corruption in this context — even though most states do not impose a limit on the use of post-election contributions to repay candidate loans."

Rhode Island's U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has railed against the Supreme Court's overturning campaign finance laws for years, called the Cruz decision "another victory for right-wing donors in their assault on our campaign finance system."

"Republican donors’ biggest booster, Mitch McConnell, gave away the game in his brief in this case," Whitehouse said in a news release. "He didn’t pretend this was limited to campaign loan reimbursements; he called for gutting our campaign finance system altogether."

Follow the money: Who are the leading fundraisers among RI governor candidates, and who is giving?

In this year's race for Rhode Island governor, two candidates, Democrat Helena Buonanno Foulkes and Republican Ashley Kalus, have each loaned their campaigns $500,000. Since 2002, Democrat Matt Brown has loaned his campaigns $552,883 and been reimbursed $174,900.

General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, now running for Congress, has loaned his state campaigns $801,500 since 2013 and been repaid $100,000.

panderson@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: SCOTUS decision for Ted Cruz will end stricter RI campaign loan limits