Republicans seek stay on contribution limits rule

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A week after the Missouri Republican Party said it would stop challenging the state's party contribution limits, the GOP on Thursday asked a court to stay enforcement of the caps while it appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a motion filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the party said it would present the high court "a substantial question: whether a state may impose severe sanctions on political speech and political association under specific circumstances where, as the state has conceded, enforcement of campaign contribution limits serves no purpose."

Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon, who represented the state in the case, said the continued legal battle waged by Republicans is a waste of time.

"We will continue to aggressively fight to enact the will of the Legislature and the citizens of Missouri on this good government issue," Nixon said in a statement. "In these tight budgetary times, it is disappointing to expend resources on what is clearly a delay tactic."

Disputed caps

At issue is enforcement of a 1994 law capping party contributions to $11,175 for candidates for statewide office, $5,600 for state Senate candidates and $2,800 for state House candidates. The law also limits party contributions to candidates for other offices.

The Republican Party has fought the issue for three years.

As recently as last summer, both the Republican and Democratic parties continued to give candidates in special legislative elections sums that greatly exceeded the limits in the law, which had been suspended for a time.

The Republican Party had challenged the law after the Missouri Ethics Commission fined the party and several of its candidates for violating the contribution limits in the 1998 elections.

Those fines have yet to be enforced, and it remains to be seen how they will be handled now. The Ethics Commission previously declined to comment.

John Hancock, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the party is concerned about the potential fines and is willing to fight the case.

"This would be over except for the matter that Jay Nixon is going to pursue a fine for 1998, even though I don't think we did anything wrong," Hancock said. "We're going to defend ourselves."

Enforcement of the law was suspended during the 2000 elections because of the Republican legal challenge. Courts alternately upheld, overturned and then upheld the law -- the last ruling coming Nov. 2 by a federal appeals panel acting upon direction from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last week, the full U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis rejected a Republican Party request to reconsider the case, which seemed to effectively end the matter.