KWAME HOLMAN: Gail Norton, Colorado’s Republican attorney general, is busy these days campaigning in Denver and elsewhere around the state in hopes of replacing retiring Senator Hank Brown. Norton’s Republican primary opponent is Eastern Colorado Congressman Wayne Allard. Whichever of them wins the August primary will look to the state Republican Party to help fund the fall campaign, and that funding could be increased substantially this election year if the two major political parties have their way.

Currently, all candidates in this country for Congress or the Presidency must adhere to contribution and spending limits set by the Federal Election Commission. For instance, contributors may give a maximum of $1,000 per election to a candidate, $5,000 to a state political party, and $20,000 to a national political party. But the constitutionality of the FEC limits now is being called into question, thanks to a spending dispute that erupted between two other Colorado Senate candidates a decade ago. Ten years ago, Republican Ken Kramer was campaigning with the help of President Ronald Reagan, hoping to defeat Democrat Tim Wirth. Wirth, then a popular Congressman, became the target of a $15,000 radio ad campaign paid for not by Kramer but by the Colorado Republican Party. The Colorado Democratic Party filed a complaint with the FEC that the Republicans radio buy put them over their $103,000 spending limit set by an FEC formula, but Washington lawyer Jan Baran, who represents the Colorado Republican Party, says the party’s ad fell outside FEC limits.