Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade asked for the funding after lawmakers in March passed a historic campaign finance bill.

The assistant attorney general representing the Elections Division wrote that a Democratic party official “should not have been — and any other reasonable person would not have been — satisfied when (donor Nishad Singh told the party) that Mr. Singh ‘prefers Prime Trust (though not strongly) so go w[ith] that.’”

Portland needs to make both short-term and long-term changes to the Small Donor Elections Program to ensure it remains free of political interference, write Amy Sample Ward, Berk Nelson and Cristina Nieves, who serve on the Portland Elections Commission.