Voters Could See a 2018 Initiative to Limit Campaign Donations in Portland City Council Elections
The change would make Portland's campaign finance rules more like Multnomah County's regulations.
Updated December 22, 2017
Advocates have filed an initiative petition to impose limits on campaign contributions for candidates in Portland City Council elections.
The petition, filed Dec. 20 by Ron Buel and B. Elizabeth Trojan, needs
34,156 signatures by July 6 to successfully make it to the ballot in
November 2018.
The proposal would limit individual contributions to $500 per candidate
per year, and cap a person's aggregate donations at $5,000 each year. A
small donor committee that only accepts donations of $100 or less could
contribute as much as it wants to any candidate. Political Action
Committees would have to follow the same rules as individual donors.
The initiative would make Portland's campaign finance rules more like Multnomah County's regulations.
Last November, voters passed a spending cap in county races, limiting
direct contributions from any individual or group to $500, limiting
independent expenditures to $5,000 per individual and $10,000 per group,
and requiring ads to list the five biggest sources of funding.
The petition says that limiting campaign contributions would open up
elections and allow "a greater diversity of persons to seek office"
while reducing the "reality and appearance of corruption."
News reporter Katie Shepherd joined Willamette Week in 2017. She covers criminal justice, cops and courts.