Candidates: What would you do on finance limits?

They said it couldn’t be done, They said it couldn’t be done, but Oregon will finally more closely resemble most other states in how it regulates campaign finance. Thanks to a bill passed during the just-wrapped legislative session, contributions to state candidates will no longer be able to stretch to infinity.

House Bill 4024, which Gov. Tina Kotek signed, takes effect in 2027. That is cause for celebration.

But Oregonians should keep their expectations in line and take personal responsibility for tracking campaign funding – data available online – for holding candidates accountable for what they receive and what they do with that money.

Policymakers should start focusing on steps Oregon can take to actively move the state toward the top ranks among finance regulators.

The weakness of Oregon’s current campaign finance rules was underscored by a Feb. 15 contribution of $2 million by Nike co-founder – and Oregon’s wealthiest person – Phil Knight to the Bring Balance to Salem PAC, which aims to elect Republicans. The contribution was only the latest million-dollar donation from the billionaire, less than a third of the total he has given to the Balance group atop major contributions in the 2022 governor’s race.

And yet even those amounts are swamped by the biggest political contribution Oregon has ever seen, which also is relatively recent. That was the $11.4 million donation in 2022 to a political action committee backing the District 6 U.S. House campaign of Carrick Flynn, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary. That PAC was backed by the recently sentenced cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and stands as the largest in Oregon state history, though it might not have retained that record forever if Oregon had not approved new limits.

Oregon can take some relief from the idea most of these mass donations went to campaigns that failed, which might not have been the case forever. At the same time, these mega contributions all have been legal under Oregon law.

House Bill 4024 sets limits for individual contributions to candidates at $3,300 in a single election, with the primary and general considered separately, and $5,000 during a two-year cycle to political committees. Committee spending on candidates would be limited as well, among other provisions regulating finance and reporting.

This law, however, still only lifts Oregon from the low ranks of the states to lower-middle in the area of campaign finance.

Most states have campaign donation limits lower than the Oregon law. Colorado’s limit is $625 for statewide candidates and $200 for legislative, for example. Many states – Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wisconsin among them – simply prohibit corporate and union contributions.

Oregon’s new limits for contributions by political committees to candidates also is higher than in many states. Some limit those donations to no more than those of a person’s contribution.

Donations Contributions from individuals outside the U.S. are limited or banned in 23 states, (and from foreign corporations as well in about half of those), but not in Oregon. A 2018 ballot issue in North Dakota passed by voters there banned foreign contributions, and California, Illinois, Alaska, and other states and localities have passed campaign finance restrictions from out-of-country sources. A modest proposed restriction in Oregon died in the 2023 legislative session.

Portland’s experience with public financing of city candidate campaigns left people with mixed reactions, but several states have been experimenting with the approach in certain specialized areas, especially in judicial races (in – New Mexico and West Virginia – ) where any campaign donations can be problematic. A dozen other states allow state funding for governor and legislative races.

Oregon’s financial experience with the world of cryptocurrency should raise a red flag in that area, and many state legislatures have begun to address it. None ban crypto contributions entirely, but 14 states regulate it in some way. Washington and Colorado, for instance, limit crypto donations contributions to no more than $100, while Montana and Georgia require those contributions to be converted immediately into dollars to comply with amount limits. Oregon could use some guidelines in this area.

Campaign finance is an ever-evolving system, often evolving in reaction to how it is regulated. The federal law changes half a century ago in the wake of Watergate were intended to solve the corruption problem, but they led to new workarounds and evasions, with the creation (of super-PACs, for one example). Solutions, however well thought out, won’t last forever.

A good question for legislative candidates this year would be: A voter question for Oregon legislative candidates this year: What will you do to improve, and tighten, Oregon’s campaign finance law in the next couple of sessions, now that the door has been kicked open. was kicked open in 2024?

Randy Stapilus has researched and written about Northwest politics and issues since 1976 for a long list of newspapers and other publications. A former newspaper reporter and editor, and more recently an author and book publisher, he lives in Carlton. Oregon

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