Honest Elections Big
  • Home
  • Blog
  • 2022 Measures
  • Why Do This?
    • Oregonian: Polluted by Money
    • Why Do This Overall
    • Why Do This in Multnomah County
  • News
    • Press Releases - Current
    • Oregon Reform News 2021-2022 (Pocket)
    • Oregon Reform News 2000 - 2022
    • Oregon Reform News 2021-2022 (Instapaper)
    • Oregon Reform News 2020 (Pocket )
    • Oregon Reform News Earlier (Pocket)
    • OREGONIAN: Polluted by Money
    • LWV Tweets
    • News of Our Earlier Campaigns >
      • Oregon Reform News (2015-16)
      • Oregon Reform News 2015 (Instapaper)
      • Portland News
      • Multnomah News (archive)
      • Multnomah News (via blog)
      • Columbia County News
      • Press Releases
    • News Showing Need for Reform
    • National Campaign Finance News
  • Join Email List
  • Donate
  • Volunteer
  • Endorsers
    • Endorsers of IP 43, 44, 45 (2022)
    • Endorse IP 43, 44, 45 (2022)
    • Be an Organizational Endorser
    • Be an individual endorser
    • Endorsers - Mult County Measure
    • Endorsers PDX Measure
    • Endorsers Oregon Measure
    • Newspapers
    • Brad Avakian Testimony
  • Editorials
  • Earlier Campaigns
    • Chronologies >
      • Mult Co Measure
      • Portland Measure
      • Statewide Measure
    • Portland 2018 >
      • Voter Pamphlet Statements
      • Portland Summary
      • Endorsers PDX Measure
      • Official Ballot Title
      • Text of Portland Measure
      • Portland City Council Race Awash with Money
    • Mult County 2016 >
      • Multnomah County Summary
      • Endorsers Mult County Measure
      • One Page Summary
      • Official Text of Measure
      • Official Ballot Title
      • Major Provisions
      • Voters' Pamphlet Statements
      • Documents
      • Documents Displayed
  • Contact
  • Docs
  • Cartoons
  • Big Spenders
  • At the OR Legislature
  • In Court
  • Feeds
  • Videos
    • Local TV
    • Videos @ YouTube
    • Videos (internal viewer)
    • Videos @ YouTube Embed
    • Videos 2016 Campaign
    • Videos by Campaign Legal Center
  • Slides
  • Charts
In the Oregon Legislature
2022
Senate Rules Committee Hearings on Campaign Finance Reform
February 10, 2022
January 13, 2022
OUR TESTIMONIES
​2019
"Campaign Finance Reform"
at the Oregon Legislature
Read the amazing Oregonian editorial supporting
Our 2019 efforts at the Oregon Legislature
Picture
We are at a crucial point for campaign finance reform in Oregon.  Largely because of our 87-89% "yes" vote wins on our Multnomah County and Portland campaign finance reform ballot measures in 2016 and 2018, the Oregon Legislature is finally considering statewide reform.  But the bills now making their way through the legislative process are more about repealing reform than achieving it.  These bills would expressly repeal Measure 47 of 2006, which Oregon voters approved and which contains actual strict limits on campaign contributions and independent expenditures, including the requirement that political ads identify their major funders ("taglines").  None of the current bills at the Oregon Legislature would accomplish either purpose.

Picture
So the bills at the Legislature should not be supported, unless they establish real and effective reform.  But they have many loopholes that would enable big money to continue to flow into candidate and "independent expenditure" campaigns.

For example, HB 2714 (as approved  by the House of Representatives on a 35-23 vote on June 6) would allow the creation of 4 "Caucus Committees" run by the incumbents in the Oregon Legislature.  Each such committee could accept unlimited funds from all political party committees, all Oregon candidate committees (many hundreds of them on the state and local levels), and even all federal candidate committees,  including candidates for Congress in other states or for President.  The Caucus Committees can then make unlimited contributions to candidates.  This will enable wealthy donors to funnel effectively unlimited sums to help their favored candidates.

HB 2714 has other serious defects.  See our Summary of What is Going on in the Oregon Legislature about campaign finance reform.

Measure 47 also requires that political ads identify their actual major funders, their major donors, the businesses they are engaged in, and how money each is spending on the ads.  HB 2716 was supposed to do that, but it does does not.  It allows candidate advertisements with no disclosure of the funding sources.  It allows "independent expenditure" advertisements that identify only the nice-sounding names of the political committees or nonprofit corporations that paid for the ads, such as the "Good Things for Oregon Committee" or the "Make Oregon Great Non-profit Corporation" or any other nice-sounding name you can think of.

Both for limits on contributions and required taglines, all the Oregon Legislature needs to do is adopt on a statewide basis the same provisions that 88% of the voters in Portland and Multnomah County adopted in 2016 and 2018.  But they are not doing that.

Please tell your legislators to get these bills fixed and vote for real campaign finance reform!  You can Find Your Legislators Here.

Oregon Public Broadcasting on May 31, 2019


honest-elections.Com         info@honest-elections.cOM      503-427-8771