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The goal here is to provide candidates who are adversely a ff ected by inde p endent expenditures with money so that they can respond. Candidates are most obviously hurt by expenditures that advocate their defeat, thus candidates will receive the full amount of the e.rpenditure to respond. When it comes to independent expenditures that advocate the election of another candidate, only spending in favor of candidates that are viable, at least financially, can trigger matching funds. There is a threshold in place to be sure that a group couldn't spend money advocating the election of a straw candidate and trigger matching money for the candidate they're r ally supporting. We only provide 112 of the amount of the expenditure for 2 reasons: 1. candidates are less obviously harmed by independent expenditures for another candidate; and 2. this may cause soiree groups to do positive advertising, instead o negative, because there their opponent will get fewer matching.funds. Finally, the actions ref' a group supporting one candidate cannot trigger matching money for that candidate. This is another mechanism to stop groups from spending money on a stra iv candidate to trigger matching funds for the candidate the y are really supporting. Filing independent expenditures Groups and individuals that make independent expenditures will be required to turn in copies of the expenditures and/or transcripts of broadcast expenditures with the January 3 1 st year-end report. If they made multiple nearly-identical expenditures, they need only submit one. Complaints based on the expenditures must be filed by April 30th or else the statute of limitations will run out. This will allow groups to do tin ana lvs is of whether or not the law is being followed and liovv it impacts the nature of cainpaigns in Minnesota. The short statute of limitations is to ciss w-e troops fiiing their independent expenditures that, by doing so, they are not opening themselves up to the possibility of'prosecution indefinitely. V Non-Participatin Candidates Contribution limits Contribution limits for the whole election cycle for nonparticipating candidates are: 1) Govemor/U. Governor $200 (2) AG, SOS, SA 11000 (3) State Senator, State Rep $500 For non participating c aiididates, the contribution limits for the election cycle are the same as election year limits are noiv, except that the limit Pr SoS and SA have been raised to the same level as that oj'the AG. Report &Matching of excess spending A non-participating candidate is required to report when they have raised contributions in excess of their participating opponent's spending limit within 7 days of having done so. They must file additional reports weekly. During the last 3 weeks before an election. they must file a report within 48 hours of receiving additional large contributions. A participating candidate will receive an additional public subsidy to match fundraising by a nonparticipating candidate, up to twice their original subsidy. 4