Whitmore

A third party candidate and a voter sued to obtain a judicial prohibition against contributions from citizens of other states to a congressional campaign. The complaint was properly dismissed for lack of standing. The claim is frivolous as well.

I. FACTS

Plaintiff Whitmore ran for Congress on a third party ticket, the Green Party, in 1994. She submitted evidence showing that she appeared at numerous locations, got press coverage, spent $22,000 on her campaign, and won 10.2% of the vote. She says that the Republican incumbent, Don Young, and his Democratic challenger, Tony Smith, each accepted donations from non-Alaskans, but she “refused and returned all contributions that [were] made to [her] and her committee by persons who are not residents of the district.” The complaint alleges that the Federal Election Campaign Act, 2 U.S.C. *1214 § 431 et seq. (the “Act”), “authorizes a person who is not a resident of Alaska’s at-large congressional election district to make a contribution ... to a candidate seeking election as Alaska’s representative in the United States House of Representatives....” She claims that, by authorizing non-Alaskan contributions to Alaska congressional…