As their joint GBH radio appearance ended last month — capping 20 minutes of polite sparring and disagreement — the heads of the Massachusetts Democratic and Republican parties faced a final question: Do they ever do any work together?
“Do we?” Steve Kerrigan, the MassDems chair, asked. He offered a deadpan answer. “We come on a radio show.”
They may end up doing more than that. Kerrigan and Amy Carnevale, the Massachusetts GOP chair, have discussed launching a rare, cross-party collaboration in a bid to raise limits on their parties’ fund-raising — change, they both say, is necessary amid the proliferation of deep-pocketed outside groups in Massachusetts races.
Both party leaders want the Democrat-controlled Legislature to lift the cap on how much state parties can take from individual donors each year. The current aggregate limit of $5,000 hasn’t budged in more than 30 years, according to state campaign finance regulators.
One legislative proposal would triple that to $15,000; Bill Campbell, the director of the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance, has said he also backs raising the cap, among a series of other changes to state law.
Carnevale said they two party leaders have talked about advocating for higher limits by “working in a bipartisan way,“ though it was not immediately clear what form their advocacy would take.
“[The caps] have not really kept pace with other states and inflation,” Carnevale said in a phone interview. Adjusted for inflation, the $5,000 limit set on party donations decades ago would be nearly $11,000 today, according to state regulators. In New York, an individual can give up to $138,600 to a state party committee in a calendar year; in New Jersey, the limit is $79,000. State parties can also set up federal fund-raising accounts, where they can accept up to $10,000 each year from an individual.
Carnevale also backs increasing the $1,000 cap on what individuals can give directly to candidates — a relatively low limit compared with other states. Lawmakers set that cap a decade ago, doubling what was a $500 maximum. A “good start” now, Carnevale said, would be to double it again, this time to $2,000.
“Given the limits, it’s almost become a prerequisite that candidates have access to their own personal funds or the ability to raise money from wealthy donors,” Carnevale said.
Indeed, that dynamic is playing out this year at the top of the ticket. Republican John Deaton is making a repeat bid for US Senate after plunking $1 million of his own money into his unsuccessful bid against US Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2024. He said he plans to commit $1 million this cycle, too. And all three of the GOP’s gubernatorial candidates this cycle have already begun tapping their personal wealth to support their campaigns.
Brian Shortsleeve, a former MBTA executive, put $200,000 into his campaign last month. Mike Kennealy, a former state economic development secretary, has poured $1.6 million of his own money into the run since the spring. And Mike Minogue, a former medical device executive who launched his campaign two months ago, has already put $3.5 million of his own money toward his run.
Each gubernatorial candidate is also backed by a separate super PAC, which is allowed to raise and spend unlimited funds. The outside spending groups can also take donations from businesses, which are barred from contributing directly to a candidate, giving them far more flexibility to raise vast sums of cash to influence voters.
Super PACs have become ubiquitous in races here and across the country over the last decade-plus. This year’s Boston mayoral race drew millions of dollars in spending from such groups. Super PACs have sprung up to back candidates in major contests for governor, in local campaigns for city council, and even more obscure races.
“As long as people can spend untold amounts of money, we have to give the party apparatus tools to compete,” Kerrigan said in a phone interview.
Kerrigan said he hasn’t taken a position on lifting the $1,000 cap on candidate donations, but said that because court rulings have allowed political action committees to spend freely, “our politics are vulnerable to takeover from self-funding billionaires and obscene amounts of dark money.”
“As the wealth gap within the United States continues to grow unchecked, it is important that the Legislature review our laws and consider whether our state limits are serving their purpose or putting our candidates and state parties at a disadvantage,” he said.
Carnevale said Republicans face other obstacles. The state’s minority party, the GOP has struggled at times to identify candidates for statewide seats below the governor’s office. Not only are Republican candidates often trying to knock off entrenched Democratic incumbents, but the state GOP also has limited ability to support down-ballot campaigns while also trying to funnel available resources to the top of the ticket.
A down-ballot race, such as for the secretary of state’s office, “may not [have] a huge donor base to support a candidate,” Carnevale said.
Kerrigan said he and Carnevale talked about joining forces to pursue the changes to campaign finance law after their joint appearance on GBH when host Jim Braude pressed them on areas where they could work together.
Braude noted how much he admired the working relationship between former governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, and former Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh, a Democrat, and how they pitched it as a bipartisan model for governing.
On the radio, Kerrigan said he and Carnevale have a “fine relationship.” It was afterward, he said, that they talked about the campaign finance issues.
“As we were walking out, we thought this could be something,” he said.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.