If the tentative ruling issued today by a Sacramento Superior Court judge holds up, Governor Schwarzenegger will be able to return to the kind of initiative campaigns he has run in the past– ones that collect money in unlimited individual amounts.

Judge Shelleyanne Chang’s tentative ruling (which you can read here) seems to have effectively found major flaws in the regulations adopted by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission when it comes to candidate-controlled ballot issue committees.

The FPPC says donations to those committees are just like a donation to the candidate themself, and therefore subject to the limits contained in Proposition 34. The governor and his allies say that’s not only inconsistent with the state’s landmark Political Reform Act of 1974, but it also effectively violates the candidate’s rights to free speech.

And Judge Chang apparently is inclined to agree on both counts… throwing out the current limitations, and paving the way for the governor’s own committee, the California Recovery Team, to once again gear up a fundraising engine that’s drawn in some $26 million since Schwarzenegger took office.