Current News

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown told reporters on Friday that the state Legislature should not pass campaign contribution limits during the short session that begins in February. She did not cite any specific benefits of waiting until at least 2021. Voters will decide in November whether to amend the state Constitution to allow contribution caps.

Councilmember M. Lorena González is proposing legislation to protect our democracy from the corruption of big money and foreign influence.

Advocates are pressing a crop of political candidates to abide by local campaign finance limits, which were passed by voters last year but quickly faced legal challenges.

Ronald Buel, a member of political action committee Honest Elections Oregon, filed complaints with the Portland City Auditor’s Office claiming that since September, Wheeler accepted 15 donations that exceeded $500 and Ozzie Gonzalez and Jack Kerfoot each accepted four.

Mayor Ted Wheeler and three other local political candidates are facing scrutiny for accepting hefty donations that clash with local campaign finance regulations passed by voters. On Thursday, a Portland resident who campaigned for the new policies filed official complaints against those four candidates, kicking off an investigation that could land the candidates in court. In 2018, Portlanders voted by an overwhelming majority to approve Measure 26-200, a campaign finance reform initiative that, among other...

Editorial board memo covers recent campaign finance decisions in Connecticut and New York.

NCSL maintains extensive resources on various aspects of campaign finance, from states’ disclosure requirements to public financing programs and limits on contributions to candidates. This page serves as a table of contents for NCSL's campaign finance resources.

This month Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler donated $16,000 to charities that originally came as campaign donations from the man at the center of last week's impeachment inquiry hearings, Gordon Sondland. One KATU News Viewer wanted to know why Wheeler didn’t give the money back. Turns out, politicians have a lot of freedom in what they can do with campaign donations in Portland and Oregon.

A proposed initiative to change the way Oregon draws its legislative and congressional boundaries could remove the conflict of interest inherent in the current system and deserves greater debate, the editorial board writes.

Oregon Supreme Court justices pepper attorneys with questions about whether the court should uphold a Multnomah County ordinance allowing strict limits on donations.

Given that political-action committees have shelled out millions on the 14 candidates still in the running for Seattle City Council, it's no wonder some voters are experiencing advertising overload.

On the heels of massive spending in Seattle's council races, Lorena Gonzalez is continuing to fight for a bill to curb that spending in future elections.

Wheeler’s campaign announced Nov. 8, 2019 that he won’t enroll in the city’s new public campaign finance program. He is seeking to become Portland's first two-term mayor since Vera Katz.

Rep. Jennifer Williamson (D-Portland) says she’ll go her own way.

In one key way, Oregon lags other states in making voting easy. Its closed primary system locks out hundreds of thousands of non-affiliated voters who now make up one-third of Oregon's registrants. Oregonians should keep up the pressure on the parties to open their primaries and on the secretary of state candidates to also make this a central part of their platform.

The top three Democrats vying for the state’s second-highest office are all planning their own proposals for limiting money. 

Timeline of Money in Politics

history of campaign finance reform in the U.S. and a timeline of campaign finance legislation

Campaign Finance History in the United States - Campaign finance history in the United States goes back to Andrew Jackson in 1828. Learn more about campaign finance history in the United States.

The weak investigation into allegations of illegal campaign finance activity by former Rep. Deborah Boone show that not only is the elections division unable to enforce laws that currently exist, but it may not be able to handle campaign contribution limits that Oregonians want to enact. Although the secretary of state's office has made some changes, other reforms are needed as well.

The Secretary of State’s office said Tuesday it will seek to beef up enforcement of Oregon’s campaign finance laws after a report by The Oregonian/OregonLive last week that showed minimal investigation into alleged violations.

With a presidential election coming in 2020, Wyoming lawmakers are slowly patching the holes in the roof that were revealed during the contentious 2018 mid-term election, quietly assembling a reform

Non-affiliated Oregon voters requested 97 percent fewer ballots for the Independent Party of Oregon's primary election this year compared with 2016. Source: Far fewer non-affiliated Oregon voters participating in Independent primary