Current News

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.

An attempt to take the redrawing of congressional and legislative district lines out of the hands of the Oregon Legislature and governor has failed following an intense legal battle.

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.

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.

Siltronic Corp. spent $2 million on water and $1.4 million on sewer services in the past fiscal year. Not coincidentally, the company has contributed $55,000 in campaign donations toward a ballot measure that would end the City Council's grasp over utility rates.

The judge, Eric Bloch, said the voter-approved limits violate the Oregon Constitution.

A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge upholds new campaign advertising disclosure rules.

Portland's election officer is still figuring out how to implement the charter changes requiring campaign finance disclosures for upcoming elections.

We need better media coverage, but also better electoral systems

Just 600 big donors accounted for nearly 60% of all money given to city campaigns in 2012. The wave of big money that has crashed over US politics since Citizens United has not spared Portland, Oregon,...

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.

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...

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.

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.

Seven Portland City Council candidates including incumbent Commissioner Chloe Eudaly have qualified to receive taxpayer dollars to help fund their campaigns, leading to more than $550,000 set to be doled by the end of January, according to the city.

Ronald Buel, a member of political action committee Honest Elections Oregon, said in his complaint filed last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court that he believes Wheeler has received more than $73,000 in contributions that violate the legal limit.

Critics of big money in politics charge that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is failing to follow a new law requiring that big donors be listed in advertising for city races.

Mayor Ted Wheeler's reelection campaign has shirked some of Portland's campaign regulations, according to a letter sent by the city's elections office Tuesday afternoon. "After an investigation," writes City Elections Officer Debroah Scroggin, "I have identified three violations of city campaign regulations. I am issuing this letter of warning and education." Wheeler's campaign is accused of failing to disclose its top donors on his campaign website, on its Facebook page, and on its Twitter page....

Though Portland's auditor said the city is not yet ready to enforce the Oregon Supreme Court's ruling in favor of strict campaign finance limits, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced late Friday his campaign will begin abiding by a $500 cap on future donations. 

Portland city election officials say they’ll begin enforcing the voter-approved $500-per-donor limit after the Oregon Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a Multnomah County Circuit judge’s decision declaring campaign contribution limits in city elections unconstitutional.

The campaign donations the lawsuit challenges were above a $500-per-donor limit approved by Portland voters in 2018. Similar rules were approved by Multnomah County voters two years earlier.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler can keep spending from his war chest of large campaign contributions collected before the Oregon Supreme Court overturned decades of precedent and made campaign donation limits legal in Oregon, a judge ruled Friday.