Oregon House passes compromise campaign finance reform bill

The Oregon House of Representatives passed a compromise campaign finance bill Wednesday that would establish new election campaign contributions limits.

Oregon is one of five states without limits on political campaign contributions and one of 11 without limits on individual candidate contributions.

Lawmakers adopted final amendments on House Bill 4024 after discussions during the session between labor unions, business groups and good-government advocates, according to House Majority Leader Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene.

Group to halt ballot initiative efforts if Oregon passes House Bill 4024

If the bill is signed into law, backers of ballot initiative efforts said they would withdraw petitions that would bring reform to November's ballot.

"This is a historic moment in the history of Oregon," said Jason Kafoury with Honest Elections Oregon during Wednesday's work session on the bill. The group had called earlier iterations of the bill "phony" and urged lawmakers to lower limits and close "huge loopholes" in the bill.

Kafoury said he was grateful an agreement had been reached to avoid an "ugly fight at the ballot." An earlier version of the bill would have sent lawmakers' version of reform to voters. The bill adopted Wednesday does not.

Dan Meek, an attorney for Honest Elections Oregon, echoed Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, who said pitting lawmakers' proposal and a ballot initiative from citizens against another likely one would have resulted in what legislators were attempting to reform.

"The outcome would probably be influenced by which side can afford to spend the most money and that's not going to be us," Meek said. He outlined 20 changes to the bill in a memo that Meek said the Honest Elections Oregon coalition had negotiated with lawmakers.

What does Oregon's campaign contribution limitation bill do?

The bill prohibits a candidate in Oregon or a committee of a state representative, senator, circuit court judge or district attorney from accepting contributions over $3,300 per election from a single person. Political party committees and legislative caucus committees would be limited to $30,000 for statewide candidates.

State lawmakers and local election candidates would be limited to $5 times the number of donors per election from small-donor political committees and those small-donor political committees would be prohibited from accepting more than $250 per year from an individual. Statewide election candidates would be limited to $10 for each of the committee donors.

These and other limits outlined in the bill would go into effect on January 1, 2027.

The bill also requires the secretary of state to hire a full-time employee to provide outreach and education on the new law and to publicly release a list of the 100 largest contributors to candidates or committees 10 days before each election.

Officials comment on Oregon's campaign finance reform bill

Angela Wilhems with Oregon Business and Industry said the bill was not a perfect campaign finance system but said the organization representing over 250,000 Oregonians would support the bill.

"As I said a few weeks ago, no such system exists. You can't completely legislate money out of politics. You can't completely legislate a system that prevents really bad actors from acting badly but what you can do is create a system that allows for participation for all types of individuals and organizations," Wilhems said.

On the House floor, Helfrich said Oregonians were tired of waiting for campaign finance reform and thanked stakeholders for coming to the table.

“Let’s seize this moment, let’s get this done," Helfrich said.

Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford, voted yes in committee for the bill to make its way onto the House floor but explained her vote against the bill on the floor. Wallan argued the bill "doesn’t really do what it says it’s going to do" and threatened the independence of candidates.

Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, voted in favor of the bill but cautioned that the Legislature needs to make sure the secretary of state had the tools necessary to implement the bill.

The bill passed with 52 votes in favor and 5 votes against.

Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, a longtime proponent of campaign finance reform in Oregon, said the last time the Legislature approved significant campaign finance reform was in 1975 when it repealed limits.

"49 years later, I'm proud to stand here today," Rayfield said from the dais.

The House of Representatives broke into applause after passage of the bill, which prompted a quick shake of the head from the House Clerk. Clapping technically is against decorum rules.

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on Twitter @DianneLugo

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon campaign finance reform bill passes House