Loosened fundraising rules unleashing big cash for 2018 Maryland elections

Maryland candidates have begun to hustle for dollars ahead of next year’s election, freed from a key obstacle that once hindered their ability to raise cash.

The 2018 election cycle, which includes races for governor, attorney general, General Assembly and several county executives, is the first full cycle since a Supreme Court ruling lifted the cap on the total amount donors may contribute to candidates.

That 2014 ruling and a 2010 high court ruling on political action committees, analysts say, could unleash campaign spending up and down the ballot unlike anything Maryland has seen.

“It really opened the floodgates,” said Jared DeMarinis, director of candidacy and campaign finance at the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/investigations/bs-md-money-in-campaigns-20170929-story.html