Stomp Out Dark Money in Oregon Elections
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Get involved by sending email to [email protected].
Honest Elections Oregon is preparing a statewide Oregon ballot measure for 2028 to redefine the powers of corporations and other "artificial persons" in Oregon political campaigns.
States create corporations and define, by statute or constitution, what powers those corporations can exercise. Most states--Oregon included--grant corporations broad, general capacity: "the same powers as an individual to do all things necessary or convenient."
The “Montana Plan” (named that because it first gained public attention in Montana) revokes all powers granted by the state to “artificial persons” (including all corporations) and simultaneously regrants all powers except the power to spend money on candidate elections, ballot measures, or political parties (defined as “political spending”). Corporations, nonprofits, trusts, partnerships, trade associations, and unincorporated associations would be regranted every other ordinary power (to contract, sue and be sued, hold property, conduct business, engage in charitable work) but would no longer have the legal capacity to spend on politics, whether incorporated in Oregon or incorporated elsewhere and doing business in Oregon. Narrow exceptions would preserve the rights of media organizations to engage in political discussions and would allow any "artificial person" to fund the administration of a registered political committee that solicits contributions from the members, shareholders, employees, or officers of the organization.
The penalty for an “artificial person” that engages in political spending is revocation of its corporate status (or its authority to do business in Oregon) and a monetary forfeiture to the State equal to the amount of its political spending.
The decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), held that corporations (under existing state charters) have a First Amendment right to make unlimited independent political expenditures. This applies to corporations incorporated in Oregon, as Oregon law (ORS 60.077) grants to them “the same powers as an individual to do all things necessary or convenient to carry out its business and affairs, including without limitation, power to . . . Make payment or donations or do any other act, not inconsistent with law, that furthers the business and affairs of the corporation.”
But corporations are creatures of state law. A state is not required by anything in the U.S. Constitution to allow corporations to exist or operate within the state. If a state does not confer the power to spend on politics, there is no capacity for the First Amendment to protect, and the Citizens United holding becomes irrelevant.
The Oregon Constitution states that "Corporations may be formed under general laws," so incorporation in Oregon is a function of statutes. This proposal is an Oregon constitutional amendment initiative, because many Oregon statutes governing incorporations must be overridden, and because the Legislature would likely repeal it, if it were a statutory initiative.
This proposed ballot measure would also remove the power of corporations to vote in government elections, which occurs in some special district elections in Oregon.
You can read more about the concept at Transparent Election Initiative.