Honest Elections Files Mandamus Action against Secretary of State in Oregon Supreme Court

February 16, 2022 --- Campaign finance reformers today filed a petition for writ of mandamus, asking the Oregon Supreme Court to overrule the Secretary of State’s unprecedented rejection of Initiative Petitions 43, 44, and 45, which is based on misinterpretation of the Oregon Constitution: “The full text of the proposed measure was not included.” No other Oregon Secretary of State has required including in an initiative petition the text of subsections of existing law that are not changed by the proposed measure.

See full Press Release.

The Oregonian editorializes for Honest Elections Oregon's effort to get campaign finance reform on the November 2022 ballot

 The Oregonian editorializes for Honest Elections Oregon's effort to get campaign finance reform on the November 2022 ballot:

The print edition on February 13 stated:  "Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, who has benefited from millions in union donations, disqualified three campaign-finance petitions that seek to impose donation caps.  Oregonians tired of the outsized power of big money in Oregon elections should hop the petitioners' efforts to reinstate the petitions prevail at the Oregon Supreme Court, the editorial board writes."

Honest Elections Testifies at Oregon Senate Hearing

Dan Meek testified for Honest Elections Oregon at the hearing of the Senate Rules Committee of the Oregon Legislature on campaign finance reform bills.  TESTIMONY HERE

Oregon Attorney General Issues Certified Ballot Titles for All 3 of Our Initiative Petitions

Disregarding the incorrect decision of the Secretary of State to reject our initiative petitions, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum  on February 9 issued certified ballot titles for all 3 petitions.  Her office also disputed Secretary Fagan's statement that she based her decision on advice from the Attorney General.

​So our initiatives are not dead!

Campaign Finance Reform Advocates Outraged at Secretary of State's Rejection of their Ballot Measures

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan Cancels Initiatives for No Valid Reason

Statement of Honest Elections Oregon (Feb. 9, 2022):

Supporters of real campaign finance reform in Oregon are outraged by the action of Secretary of State Shemia Fagan today to disqualify all serious campaign finance reform initiative petitions. Any of them would:

• establish political campaign contribution limits 

• require that political advertisements name their largest funders 

• require faster and more complete public disclosure of campaign spending, including "dark money"

There is no valid legal basis for refusing to allow the gathering of signatures on these initiatives (Petitions 43, 44, and 45). All of them satisfy all criteria in the Oregon Constitution and laws. The Honest Elections Oregon coalition will on Friday ask the Oregon Supreme Court in a mandamus action to require Secretary Fagan to allow the initiatives to obtain voter signatures. A total of 112,020 verified registered voter signatures must be submitted by July 8.

Contrary to the Secretary's suggestion that the campaign finance reform advocates "start over" after correcting what she claims is a technical error (15 words in petitions that range from 11,000 to 16,000 words), the ballot title process has built-in delays for government actions that consume at least 4 months. Starting over now would mean not being about to start collecting the 112,020 required signatures until early June--leaving only about one month, which is not enough.

Unless the Oregon Supreme Court issues such an order promptly, the window for gathering enough signatures will have closed, and Secretary Fagan's decision will preclude all statewide campaign finance reform initiatives until November 2024.

Your help needed NOW to get big money out of politics

​A few days ago we learned that the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is considering using an obscure interpretation to block any chance for getting big money out of Oregon politics in 2022 and we need your help to put pressure on Secretary Fagan to do the right thing.

Can you contact Secretary Fagan's office and tell her the importance of allowing Initiative Petitions 43, 44, and 45 to move forward?
Call: 503-986-1523 (leaving a voicemail is ok)
Email: oregon.sos@sos.​ oregon.gov
​​ ​​​​​​​
On Thursday we were alerted that Secretary Fagan was considering rejecting Petitions 43, 44, and 45 (three different versions we have been working on to bring sensible limits to money in Oregon politics) on the basis that they do not include the “full text” of the law being amended. In fact all three petitions follow the longstanding precedent of including the full text of the subsections that are being amended, but not the text of the subsections that will not be changed.

As far as we can tell, no other Secretary of State has ever rejected a petition for this reason, despite many following the same standard of only including the subsections being amended. In fact, Initiative Petition 3 is currently collecting signatures and was approved in October of 2020 with exactly this same issue. Ballot initiatives certified under the last several Secretaries of State, both Democrat and Republican, have used this longstanding interpretation. Changing the standard now, with no advance notice, beginning with these petitions to get big money out of Oregon politics, reeks of elected officials applying different standards based on what is favored by the politically connected. During the comment period on these petitions only one party raised this specific concern: the United Food and Commercial Workers, who also donated $50,000 to the Secretary’s 2020 campaign.

An official determination from Secretary Fagan’s Office is expected in the next few days, and hearing from Oregonians now asking her to do the right thing could make a real difference.

Please call or email Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and tell her that you want to see real campaign finance reform on your 2022 ballot and that she should not reinterpret the Oregon constitution to keep Oregonians from being able to weigh in on sensible limits to money in politics.

Call: 503-986-1523 (leaving a voicemail is ok)
Email: oregon.sos@sos.​ oregon.gov
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Some talking points you might use:

• Oregon voters overwhelming passed Measure 107 in 2020 paving the way for real campaign finance reform and now they deserve to be able to vote on actually changing the role of money in Oregon politics.
  
  
• Our legal research indicates that no other Oregon Secretary of State has used the "full text" reason to disqualify initiative petitions.
  
  
• Secretary Fagan's unprecedented rationale is that "full text" means must reprint every section of Oregon Revised Statutes that the measure affects, not just the subsections it affects. This interpretation overturns longstanding practice exercised by Secretary Bev Clarno and others. Secretary Clarno in the 2022 election cycle approved Initiative Petition #3, which does exactly what IP 43-45 do--shows changes to a subsection without reprinting the other subsections which the measure does not change.
  
  
• Any change to interpretations, should be neutrally applied and messaged to the public, not decided in secret and applied only to petitions disfavored by the politically powerful.
  
  
• Secretary Fagan should reverse this tentative decision, do the right thing, and allow Oregon voters to have a chance to have a voice on campaign finance reform in the November 2022 election.

The Willamette Week did a brief article on this if you want to share with your networks: https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2022/02/06/secretary-of-state-shemia-fagan-poised-to-delay-campaign-finance-measures-on-technicality/
A more comprehensive Oregonian article is here Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan plans to kill effort to set campaign contribution limits in 2022.

Please help us put positive pressure on the Secretary Fagan and allow these transformational initiatives to move forward and ultimately allow Oregon voters to decide the role we want big money to play in our democracy.

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan Plans to Kill Our Ballot Measures

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan Plans to Kill Our Ballot Measures
February 7, 2022   by David Delk

We just learned that the Oregon Secretary of State plans to use an obscure interpretation to kill our 2022 ballot measures for getting big money out of Oregon politics. We need your help to persuade Secretary Shemia Fagan to do the right thing.

Can you contact Secretary Fagan's office and tell her the importance of allowing Initiative Petitions 43, 44, and 45 to move forward?

Call:  503-986-1523 (leaving a voicemail is ok)
(choose extension 3 or 0)
​
Email: oregon.sos@sos.​oregon.gov​​​​​​​​​

Here is an Oregonian article about this:
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan plans to kill
effort to set campaign contribution limits in 2022.

​This could happen as early as tomorrow.

DETAILS HERE​