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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.

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

Questions again arise about what special interests receive for the large donations they make to Utah legislators.

With Aurora joining Denver, Fort Collins and Lakewood in revamping rules on campaign finance in local races, four of the state’s five most populous cities will have controls on the books.

New York is set to implement a new public campaign financing program that will match small-dollar donations, allowing candidates to rely on the support of everyday New Yorkers rather than wealthy d…

Share with friendsA state law limiting certain contributions to local elected leaders survived an initial court challenge. Thursday, a Sacramento Superior Court judge rejected a challenge to SB 1439 from several business groups. The law — which took effect on Jan. 1 — allows only political contributions of up to $250 for those who have […]

Pay Dirt is a weekly foray into the pigpen of political funding. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Thursday. When Herschel Walker emailed a representative for billionaire industrialist and longtime family friend Dennis Washington in March 2022, he seemed to be engaging in normal behavior for a political candidate: He was asking for money. But unbeknownst to Washington and the billionaire’s staff, Walker’s request was far more out of...

If signed, new bill would cap donations from individuals at $400 and donations from small-donor committees at $4,000 in municipal elections, among other requirements.

The Berger Action Fund is a nondescript name for a group with a rather specific purpose: steering the wealth of a Swiss billionaire, Hansjörg Wyss, into the world of American

The largest and fastest growing segment of the electorate is now independent voters — but pollsters and political scientists haven’t caught up.

Without immediate income and spending disclosure in all political races, our brave new world will look a lot like the one reformers say they are trying to fix.

The staff of the Alaska Public Offices Commission is set the campaign contribution limit at $1,500 from an individual to a candidate, now that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out the previous $500 limit, which was in statute. The Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court said the $500 limit is unreasonable, and […]

Language tucked into a bill on ballot-measure donors preempts lower city and county campaign contribution limits that had been enacted by voters.

Republican states with major democratic metropolitan centers forestall local efforts to reform election law.

A new California law takes aim at 'pay-to-play' in which special interests make campaign contributions to local officials to sway a decision.

Legislation introduced by North Smithfield Republican Brian Newberry would raise the $1,000 annual individual contribution limit to $2,000.

State lawmakers who helped pass anti-LGBTQ+ bills raked in contributions from companies that condemned legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

In the waning hours of the 2023 state legislative session, Albany lawmakers are passing bills upending local elections, rolling back a campaign finance reform, sealing criminal convictions and much more. Here's the latest.

A promising law to encourage more people to run for office is under threat from legislators who rely on big-dollar donors.

Your money’s no good here.

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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.

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said Oregon needed to relax its signature qualifications for the proposed ballot measure because the pandemic made it so hard to gather signatures.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown recently filed a "friend of the court" brief urging the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep an independent redistricting commission proposal off the November ballot, in part because Brown said a lower court erred in finding her coronavirus orders made it difficult to gather signatures.