SCOTUS

Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville): Politicker photo

Businessman Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville) put $1 million of his own money into his U.S. Senate race the day after the United States Supreme Court overturned the "millionaire's amendment" - a campaign finance law that would allow opponents of self-financing candidates to increase contribution limits for their individual donors.

The million dollar injection is the first personal expenditure Lunsford - whose personal fortune is estimated to be between $33 million and $110 million - has made in the general election campaign, though not the first this year. Engrossed in a seven-candidate Democratic primary, Lunsford spent over $2.1 million of his own funds before the election on May 20.

Lunsford's newest expenditure came on June 27 - one day after the Supreme Court rejected the provisions of the so-called "millionaire's amendment" as unconstitutional. That amendment set thresholds of spending for self-financing candidates. When each threshold was met, a self-financer's opponent could collect increased contributions from individuals.

A million dollar contribution, for example, would boost limits for an opponent from $2,300 to $6,900 per donor, with the amendment in place.

The Supreme Court: Getty Images PhotoLOUISVILLE -- Kentucky could be in for a spending bonanza in this year's U.S. Senate race after today's decision in the U.S. Supreme Court on a controversial campaign finance provision.

The "millionaire's amendment" is no more, after a 5-4 decision where the high court deemed that piece of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package as unconstitutional.

The amendment previously allowed opponents of self-funding candidates to accept individual contributions beyond typical limits and benefit from increased party expenditures. In the majority opinion of the court released today, Associate Justice Samuel Alito called this provision "antithetical to the First Amendment."

The ruling will likely significantly affect Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, given the presence of a multi-millionaire on one side of the race more than willing to self-finance his bid.