Oregon lawmakers propose campaign donation limits, but with ‘huge loophole’

Two months after an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive revealed Oregon’s status as one of the biggest money states in American politics, lawmakers are poised to adopt the state’s first campaign contribution limits in decades.

House Bill 2714 would cap contributions to House and Senate candidates at $1,000 and $1,500, and statewide candidates at $2,800. Today, Oregon is one of just five states with no limits at all.

“This is a significant improvement over where we’re at,” said Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, one of the bill’s main sponsors.

“We’re limiting the money going in,” he said.

The controls would take effect if either voters or the Oregon Supreme Court decide to allow regulation of campaign contributions under the state’s constitution. Voters could get their shot at the ballot box in November 2020. Lawmakers are working to develop specific limits that would take effect if voters approve a planned ballot referral then to make limits constitutional.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this November in a case testing the legality of campaign limits adopted by Multnomah County voters in 2016.

The limits in HB 2714 don’t go as far as some activists would like.

The bill explicitly kills off standards that voters approved in 2006 with Measure 47, which confined donors to giving $100 to legislative candidates and $500 for statewide races. The 2006 law is on the books but currently unenforceable, thanks to a decades-old state court ruling that says Oregon’s constitution doesn’t permit limits on political money.

If the Oregon Supreme Court reverses itself on that opinion, Measure 47 would take effect. HB 2714 would prevent that from happening by repealing the measure entirely.

HB 2714 contains at least one big loophole that could still allow vast sums of money to flow to candidates from some sources. Donors will just have to get a little more creative.

The legislation would allow federal candidates to give unlimited amounts to political party committees, which in turn could give unlimited amounts to a candidate.

Though donations to federal candidates are limited to $2,800 per election, anyone can file to run as a federal candidate.

In submitted comments, Dan Meek, a public interest attorney who authored Measure 47, said that would create a path to game the system with proliferating intermediaries. It’s a “huge loophole,” Meek said, one that would allow money to be moved around “with virtually no limits.”

A separate bill, House Bill 2716, proposes disclosure requirements for political ads. As written, those will do little to tell Oregonians who is truly funding campaign-season commercials and mailers.

Meek called the Democrats’ disclosure requirements in HB 2716 “nearly useless.” He said they “certainly will not accomplish the purpose of informing voters about who or what is paying for political advertisements.” Oregon today has some of the weakest disclosure requirements in the nation.

One loophole in the contributions bill has been closed. As of Tuesday, a draft said that political party committees could donate unlimited amounts to candidates.

The bill proposed creating 37 of these committees for both Democrats and Republicans – a statewide group and one for each county in Oregon. Each could accept $2,800 per year from an individual and then give it to any candidate. An individual or corporation could route $103,600 per year -- $414,400 in a four-year election cycle -- to a single candidate this way.

But after a reporter asked Rayfield about the more than $400,000 that someone could route through the political party system, a spokesman said the lawmaker would amend the bill to eliminate unlimited donations from the 36 county parties.

Rayfield said other loopholes that Meek identified wouldn’t be practical for donors to use in real life.

“Two years from now maybe I’m wrong, and if I’m wrong, we’ll come back and fix it,” Rayfield said.

Rep. Dan Rayfield

Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem in January 2019. Beth Nakamura/Staff

Rayfield said lawmakers want to replace Measure 47 because aspects of it are clearly illegal, including limits on candidates donating to their own campaigns. “We wanted some certainty that what we are doing is constitutional,” Rayfield said.

Measure 47 includes what’s known as a severability clause -- legal language that allows any portion found illegal to be cut out without killing the whole thing. Rayfield said he wanted “an overall complete system -- not just a mix-and-match with Measure 47.”

Rayfield acknowledged the shortcomings of the ad transparency bill and said he planned to work on a stronger bill between now and the short legislative session next year.

Meek said the coalition of campaign finance activists he represents, Honest Elections Oregon, had not yet taken a position on the bills.

"We continue to work to improve these bills,” Meek said. “We will only support real and effective campaign finance reform.”

A public hearing and possible work session on HB 2714 and HB 2716 are scheduled in the House Rules Committee Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657; @robwdavis

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