According to the Secretary of State’s Office, lawmakers will not move forward with a bill this year that would have postponed the implementation of campaign contribution limits in Oregon for four years.
After good governance advocates said that the proposed postponement was an attempt by politicians to avoid limiting the enormous flow of money into politics, the effort was abandoned. There are only five states without such restrictions, including Oregon.
The fact that lawmakers will conclude this year’s legislative session without making any significant changes to last year’s law disappointed Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat whose office is responsible for implementing the provisions of a historic 2024 bill that will eventually limit the amount of money contributed to state political candidates and ballot measures.
Over the last two weeks, Read has informed lawmakers that his team requires additional time, direction, and resources to carry out the law in an efficient manner. In a public meeting this week, he stressed the severity of the situation and sent them a letter on June 19 outlining a lengthy list of concerns.
House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby responded to that letter this week by introducing a bill that would have postponed the implementation of campaign money limits by four years, such that any limitations would not take effect until at least 2031.
A number of Republican members expressed gratitude to Read for being honest about his worries during the session and concurred that postponing the limitations would allow his office more time to appropriately implement the technical provisions mandated by the statute. Neither strong support nor opposition to the bill was expressed by Democratic MPs, who last year promised to return this session to improve the legislation.
The endeavor is now futile. Additionally, lawmakers have not changed the state’s campaign financing law as the legislative session is scheduled to conclude this weekend.
The Legislature told Oregonians that they would accomplish campaign finance reform by 2025, but it is still unfinished, Read said in a statement. This significant bipartisan achievement is at risk if nothing is done.
Several attempts for comment were not answered by Jill Bakken, the spokesperson for Eugene Democrat House Speaker Julie Fahey. Fahey promised to make technical corrections to the measure this year and handled the negotiations that resulted in last year’s legislation.
Large sums of money have recently poured into ballot measure campaigns and political candidates in Oregon due to the state’s absence of campaign finance restrictions. For instance, during his campaign for secretary of state last year, Read raised around $1 million. During the record-breaking 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Drazan raised almost $22 million.
As worded, the measure passed last year would have limited individual contributions to no more than $3,300 for any politician running for statewide office, the state House or Senate, or district attorney in a primary or general election. Among other things, it would restrict political parties to giving no more than $30,000 to any statewide candidate and $15,000 to other candidates each election.
Along with updating the state’s antiquated campaign finance tracking system, the law mandates that the Secretary of State’s Office create a comprehensive dashboard that tracks vast amounts of data about political contributions made by individuals, unions, corporations, industry associations, and political candidates.
The proposed postponement was criticized as an attempt to circumvent donation limitations by proponents of good governance, who have been pressuring lawmakers to make technical changes to last year’s bill for months.
They noted that the Secretary of State’s Office has until 2027 or 2028 to put the law’s most intricate and technical provisions into effect, which they concluded is more than enough time. They claimed that campaign finance reform had been enacted in other states and localities much more quickly.
Read stated that his agency can implement the bill’s requirements by the dates, but he was worried that the hurried schedule would have unforeseen repercussions. He informed lawmakers that in order to put up the technology to track the contributions and increase public visibility, his team is probably going to submit a sizable funding request the next year.
For months, we alerted stakeholders and the Legislature to the need for additional cash, time, and advice, Read said. Sadly, it now seems that none of this will occur. Although our office will make every effort to administer the law, we are worried that it will fall short of Oregonians’ expectations if there are no immediate fixes and no future funding.
State politics and government are covered by Carlos Fuentes. You may contact him at orcfuentes@oregonian.com or 503-221-5386.
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Lawmakers nix proposal to delay campaign finance limits for years after backlash
Lawmakers nix proposal to delay campaign finance limits for years after backlash
Lawmakers nix proposal to delay campaign finance limits for years after backlash