Reforming Oregon's campaign finance laws was a priority for a number of top lawmakers heading into the 2019 legislative session, but with only five weeks left some advocates are underwhelmed by the current proposals.
The three bills under consideration would set limits on campaign contributions to candidates and political action committees, require some disclosure on who is paying for political advertisements and attempt to shine a light on the funding behind so-called "dark money" groups.
But concerns have been raised that proposed campaign contribution limits are too high, certain political action committees are exempt from limits and the advertisement disclosure is ineffective at best.
"Oregon is finally catching up with much of the rest of the country, but at the same time, we look at things from a different way as other states," said Charlie Fisher, state director for OSPIRG. "We should see this as an opportunity to not just catch up but think ambitiously and figure out ways to push the envelope."
There also is a bill that would send to voters the question of amending the state Constitution to allow governing bodies to pass laws on campaign finance. It's the "enabling legislation" for the other three bills.
Lawmakers supporting the package said the legislation would create a framework that they could improve upon and revise in the future. By no means, they said, should it be seen as the conclusion of campaign finance reform.
The House Committee on Rules held a public hearing Thursday, and another is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
"I’m really pleased to see the progress that’s happening in the Legislature. I think we will, regardless of what happens in terms of the bill, will continue to work on them," Gov. Kate Brown said. "I would just see something as better than nothing, and that’s what we have right now is absolutely nothing."
Campaign contribution limits
Oregon is one of five states in the country to have no limits on campaign contributions. Adding those various limits is the purpose behind House Bill 2714.
It states that candidates for statewide office could not take more than $2,800 from a single individual, multi-candidate political committee, single candidate committee or recall committee per election. Senate and circuit court judge candidates could not accept more than $1,500 and House candidates no more than $1,000.
There also are limits on how much different political action committees would be able to accept from individuals, multi-candidate political committees and recall committees. However, campaign finance reform advocates say there is a significant loophole. Caucus political committees would still be able to accept unlimited contributions from a candidate, political party committee, caucus committee and candidate for federal office. State political party committees would be able to accept unlimited money from a candidate, political party committee and candidate to represent the state at the federal level. HB 2714 also allows both of these political action committees to give unlimited amounts of money to candidates for statewide office.
“Moving money through multiple committees is a well-known tactic and the current version … would allow that to happen," said Dan Meek, a Portland attorney and advocate for campaign finance reform. "That needs to be fixed."Chief sponsor of the bill Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, said the bill allows unlimited contributions because often the caucus and political party committees are helping candidates with "get out the vote" efforts.
Those purposes are more nonpartisan in nature, he said. Also, there are filters and disclosure requirements elsewhere in the system, such as when individuals are giving to candidates directly.
"If you filter the money on the front end coming in, you’ve then met that 'nexus of corruption' issue, and then to filter it further down in a different way doesn’t necessarily meet that," Rayfield said.
Revealing who pays for ads
Meek doesn't consider the other two bills up to par, either.
HB 2716 is intended to make clear to voters who is paying for the political advertisements that blanket the airwaves and billboards during election season.
As currently written, an advertisement in support or opposition would have to identify the committee that paid for the advertisement and the names of the five people who made the largest contributions if those are $10,000 or more in aggregate.
The $10,000 floor did not exist in previous versions of the bill.
Finally, HB 2983 would deal with independent expenditures to nonprofit organizations involved in political campaigns. These "dark money" groups do not have to disclose who their donors are and have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on recent elections.
The bill would require that if one of these groups contributes more than $100,000 to either a political committee, statewide race or measure, or more than $25,000 on a legislative race, or smaller city or county measures, they would have to disclose some donors.
For a legislative race, measure, political committee or statewide race, the organization would have to list all donors that gave $10,000 or more that election cycle.
Meek said those thresholds are too high, making this system "kind of a weak replication" of the Oregon Secretary of State's current system for campaign finance disclosures.
Constitutional amendment in play
For Patrick Starnes, the prize this session has always been a constitutional amendment referred to voters.
Starnes ran for Oregon's governor as a member of the Independent Party in 2018, but dropped out a week ahead of the election and endorsed Kate Brown because she pledged to work on campaign finance reform.
While the constitutional amendment was always in the works, he said placing limits in statute this year came later.
But the campaign contribution limits are not enough for him, either.
"I feel like it’s a half promise," Starnes said. "We limited the individuals, but we didn’t limit the PAC's, so it’s a half reform."
For the minority Republicans in the state, there also are potential political machinations to consider.
"It would be fair to say that all of us are interested in campaign reform," said House Republican Leader Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass. "With concepts as complicated as these are at this point in session, I really look forward to looking at the equity aspect of this."
Contact Connor Radnovich at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich
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