Campaign Finance Reform - in Oregon

As this year’s legislative session was nearing its end, Patrick Starnes, in a meeting with Gov. Kate Brown, said he got news he didn’t want to hear: Lawmakers wouldn’t be passing bills to reform the state’s campaign finance system.

The strongest belief that pulled me back into politics three years ago is this: we won’t make much headway solving Oregon’s core problems until we dramatically reduce the power of big money in Salem. ...

Letter to the editor

The 2021 session was supposed to be focused responding to wildfires and COVID-19, but lawmakers accomplished a great deal more in a tumultuous -- and historic -- five months.

Kate Titus and Eric Richardson call on Oregon legislators to stand up against Oregon special interests.

Oregonians who want credible campaign contribution limits and an independent commission to redraw legislative and congressional boundaries should organize behind initiative petitions that will accomplish what legislators refuse to do, the editorial board writes.

Oregon lawmakers are considering creating a public match program for state legislative candidates, similar to the system in Portland. It's the one possible win still available to advocates of campaign finance reform in the final weeks of the legislative session.

Bills to limit political contributions always faced an uphill battle in 2021. Now, a less contentious proposal to publicly finance campaigns faces skepticism in the Senate.

Oregon voters in November cleared the way for the state to impose campaign finance limits. Now the Legislature needs a plan.

People who want Oregon to adopt campaign contribution limits on Tuesday acknowledged it looks increasingly unlikely the Legislature will pass limits this year, after a key lawmaker suggested scrapping limits and instead focusing on a public match program.

As the Eugene School District 4J election wraps up, so does the campaign spending. Lawn signs are slowly being taken out of yards, and advertisements on Facebook and in local newspapers have stoppe…

The current version of House Bill 2680, which would set campaign finance limits, has too many flaws and loopholes embedded in it to do anything to alter the influence of big money in Oregon politics, the editorial board writes. Legislators should ditch HB 2680, revive the more straightforward HB 3343 instead and enact the kinds of limits that Oregonians want.

While Oregonians have shown many times that they want campaign finance reform, House Bill 2714 - which concentrates the power to make large or unlimited donations in the hands of far fewer entities - isn't the answer.

Letter to the editor

Oregon lawmakers’ interest in capping political money was never particularly high this session — no Democratic leaders listed it as a priority — and now appears to be withering.

The auditor’s office informed the alliance Monday that officials had discovered a spate of violations after launching a review of possible undisclosed lobbying efforts by the group.

Oregon lawmakers are considering whether to adopt limits on how much individuals and groups can contribute to political candidates, after voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment in November to make clear such limits are allowed.

Amy Rathfelder as of last week was no longer part of Wheeler’s campaign, which has since hired Danny O’Halloran to replace her as campaign director.

The campaign to legalize political contribution limits in Oregon is heading into election season with less than $10,000 on hand, after spending heavily during the summer on staff salaries and a statewide poll by a Washington, D.C. firm. The poll found voters of every age, party and region of Oregon overwhelmingly favor campaign finance limits and disclosure requirements.

Wheeler’s campaign manager calls critics’ scrutiny of his activity “borderline harassment.”

“Polluted by Money,” a four-part series published in 2019, exposed how Oregon’s lack of campaign finance limits led to an easy tolerance of polluters by lawmakers who benefited from campaign contributions.