Former Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez has intensified an ongoing legal battle with the city and the office of its elected watchdog over campaign finance violations he faced last fall during his unsuccessful bid for mayor.
Gonzalez threatened to sue both in an April 16 filing, alleging Portland’s campaign finance rules violated his due process rights and that the auditor’s office had “uniquely discriminated” against him and his campaign, public records show.
The filing, known as a tort claim notice, also alleges that Gonzalez’s top rivals in the mayor’s race, Keith Wilson and Carmen Rubio, likely broke the same rule that led to one of the large fines imposed against him. The other candidates were never investigated or penalized.
Wilson ultimately won the race in November and now serves as Portland’s mayor.
The potential litigation comes several months after Gonzalez requested that a judge in Multnomah County examine a pair of rulings made by the auditor’s office under the charge of its chief deputy, Reed Brodersen, according to court documents. A hearing on the case is scheduled for later this month.
In an interview, Gonzalez, who left public office in January, said he wanted to highlight what he believed were significant flaws within the city’s campaign finance system that could unfairly harm or hinder future candidates.
“It’s a step in improving our local democracy,” he said.
In early October, the auditor’s office hit Gonzalez with a $2,400 penalty for using taxpayer funds to spruce up his Wikipedia page, which it found had in part helped bolster the mayoral prospects of the law-and-order centrist.
Gonzalez has since repeatedly questioned the impartiality of the investigation, pointing to Brodersen’s personal connection to the head of a progressive advocacy group that filed the initial complaint against Gonzalez.
Brodersen was in a longtime romantic relationship and had still owned a home with the board chair of Portland For All, the group that sought the election probe. Portland For All was a vocal Rubio supporter in the mayor’s race.
Despite the possible appearance of a real or potential conflict of interest, Brodersen — who also donated money to Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty when Gonzalez ran against her in 2022 — refused to recuse himself from the case. Brodersen defended his decision, saying the auditor’s office has strict protocols to manage perceived conflicts and he had communicated any such conflicts with his colleagues.
Days after finishing third behind Wilson and Rubio in the mayor’s race, Gonzalez was fined again by the auditor’s office following a separate investigation overseen by Brodersen. The $9,000 penalty was because his campaign had repeatedly failed to return donations that exceeded Portland’s strict contribution limits in a timely manner.
The auditor’s office launched an investigation into the alleged violations after receiving a complaint from Seth Woolley, a longtime elections watchdog.
Under city rules, candidates are required to decline or return any amount over $579 donated by an individual during an election cycle within seven calendar days. The limit tightens to $350 for those candidates participating in Portland’s public matching funds program, known as Small Donor Elections, which Gonzalez and the other top mayoral contenders had.
The commissioner and his campaign failed to do so on at least 17 occasions, the auditor’s office said, taking between 31 and 223 days to issue refunds. All of Gonzalez’s refunds were made before November’s election.
Gonzalez alleges he was provided no hearing or other avenue to contest the findings in both cases prior to the auditor’s office entering and publicizing the order, which he argues is in violation of his rights to due process.
According to a March court filing, Gonzalez also detailed nearly 40 occasions in which campaign finance records show either Wilson or Rubio failing to return excess contributions within the seven-day limit. Most of those excess contributions were not refunded until after the election or remain unreturned, records reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive show.
“Despite being made aware that Wilson and Rubio have similar excess serial contributions, the auditor has not fulfilled its duty to issue a complaint to either campaign,” Gonzalez wrote in his April tort claim notice filed with the city.
Jef Green, a political consultant who served as campaign treasurer for Wilson, Gonzalez and a number of City Council candidates, said that several of the campaigns he worked on learned they had received contributions that exceeded campaign finance limits.
In a statement, Green said the Wilson campaign consulted with the Small Donor Elections program — overseen by a deputy Portland city administrator and not the auditor’s office — and refunded the excess donations.
“SDE made a determination that the excess funds qualified as permissible loans and were eligible for refund without penalty,” Green said.
Elizabeth Wilson, who served as Rubio’s campaign treasurer, could not be reached for comment.
“My two primary opponents in race had a substantial number of excess donations and were treated completely different from us,” Gonzalez told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “We were the only ones who returned money before Election Day. And we were the only ones to be hit with an investigation, fines and public embarrassment. That cannot be the way our campaign finance system works.”
The auditor’s office declined to comment on Gonzalez’s claims, citing pending litigation. In a statement, the office said that its enforcement of city campaign finance rules is primarily complaint-driven, though the office “can also initiate a complaint when it becomes aware of a potential violation.”
“The auditor’s office was made aware of alleged violations involving the Wilson and Rubio campaigns on March 21, 2025, as part of Mr. Gonzalez’s opening brief in an ongoing legal challenge to our office’s enforcement action against his campaign,” the statement said. “In this case, it is not in the best interest of our office, the city, or its residents to initiate investigations of alleged violations when similar issues are in litigation.”
However, the auditor’s office said that it would conduct an investigation into potential violations by the Wilson and Rubio campaigns should it receive any complaints.
— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh covers Portland city government and politics, with a focus on accountability and watchdog reporting.
Reach him at 503-294-7632
Email at [email protected]
Follow on X @shanedkavanaugh or on BlueSky @shanedkavanaugh
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