Current News

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.

Here's what you need to know as lawmakers prepare to wrap things up in Salem

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

A state commission on government ethics could be strengthened and more independent, state auditors said in a report Wednesday.

Oregon state auditors released a report Wednesday that recommended several opportunities for legislators and other officials to strengthen the state's ethics laws and increase the independence of the state's ethics commission.

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.

Senate Bill 224 would allow unlimited PAC donations to candidates in Montana, while substantially raising limits on contributions by individuals and political parties to campaigns.

A group that failed to get a redistricting initiative before Oregon voters last year is laying the groundwork to get a similar petition on the ballot in 2022.

New campaign finance laws known as Ballot Measure 2, passed by voters in November, are beginning to sting the Forrest Dunbar campaign. In the current attack ad against opponent Dave Bronson launched by supporters of Forrest Dunbar, the disclaimer at the end of the ad admits that “A majority of contributions to Building a Stronger […]

The jockeying to ensure just an equal number of Republicans as Democrats on a critical committee reflects again the need for Oregon to adopt an independent commission for drawing legislative and congressional boundaries, the editorial board writes.

Montana has among the country’s strictest donation limits for nearly every type of contribution to individual candidates, be it at the statewide or district level.

Election reform advocates have proposed at the Oregon Legislature competing overhauls to how the state conducts its elections.

Sonoma County officials said Bill Gallaher’s infusion of $295,000 into a recall campaign against Jill Ravitch violates local spending limits. An attorney for the developer says the spending limits are unconstitutional.

Oregon law currently bars legislators and other public officials from accepting more than $50 per year from any entity that wants to influence a government decision. Lawmakers are considering eliminating that limit.

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.

Heard is one of three current or former Republican state senators who swept into party leadership after a vote Saturday.

Jan. 6 didn’t end corporate PAC contributions, and sunlight isn’t the best disinfectant.

An unusually large number of voters have disavowed their Republican party identities over the past 2 months, particularly in Washington County, where the number of Republicans fell by nearly 1,900, or 2.3%