Current News

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

In February 2020, Gov. Kate Brown's staff asked state procurement officials to prepare a no-bid contract worth up to $150,000 for her former communications director so he could assist with Oregon’s share of work on the Western Governors’ Association electric vehicle recommendations.

Internal emails show a tax-funded agency created to educate people about forestry has acted as a public-relations agency and lobbying arm for Oregon's timber industry, in some cases skirting legal constraints that forbid it from doing so.

A draft proposal by the five-person salary commission proposes a pay hike for officials elected to Portland’s new form of government in 2025, which will expand the size of City Council from four to 12 members.

Portland leaders will consider updating the city’s publicly-funded campaign finance program Wednesday in preparation for an unprecedented 2024 election.

Democrats seek to make referring a new corporate tax measure to the ballot more difficult by changing the law on electronic signature gathering.

Senate Bill 761, which seeks to restrict a popular way by which Oregonians get initiatives on the ballot, would help legislators keep tight control over what becomes – and what stays law. Legislators should trust their voters and reject this bill.

Democratic lawmakers are moving to more tightly regulate electronic petitions, which are becoming more popular for initiative, recall and referendum campaigns in Oregon.

The ruling by a three-judge panel is the most authoritative opinion yet in a monthslong battle over how Secretary of State Bev Clarno handles ballot measures.

Attacks on state-level ballot initiatives are the latest step in a strategy to wrest political power from voters and place it squarely in the hands of increasingly unaccountable politicians and special interests.

Enough Republican senators returned to the state Capitol on Thursday for the Oregon Senate to resume work.

Independent spending is mutating faster than the city can keep pace, and it threatens to undermine the campaign finance reforms that were recently approved by Denver voters. More than $1.3 million …

Citizens United sparked a political revolution that would have left the Founders revolted

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

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.

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

Timeline of Money in Politics

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.

Outside groups spent nearly $1.7 million on eight highly contested Colorado legislative primary races. But it isn’t always easy to figure out where the money came from, despite a 2019 law touted as bringing more transparency to a system that includes cash from dark-money funded nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors. In other instances, discerning […]