News

Ethics board won't jettison limit on PAC donors

by Leslie Turk

The Louisiana Board of Ethics dealt a blow to U.S. Sen. David Vitter Friday, telling a super PAC set up to support him that it won't scrap a $100,000 state cap on certain campaign donations.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Louisiana Board of Ethics has refused to scrap the state's donor limits to political action committees. The board's Friday decision was a blow to U.S. Sen. David Vitter, as a super PAC set up to support him (in his likely bid for governor) had asked that the donation limit be deemed unconstitutional.

The state currently caps the contributions at $100,000 for each election cycle. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited funds to help candidates at the federal level.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter

Charlie Spies is the lawyer for the super PAC, called the Fund for Louisiana's Future. Spies says the Louisiana limit doesn't comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and he says the ethics board shouldn't be enforcing the cap.

But members of the ethics board say they don't have the jurisdiction to declare a state law unenforceable or unconstitutional.

Spies says he expects someone to challenge the state donor limit in federal court.