Portland’s elected watchdog is pushing to upend significant portions of the city’s pioneering campaign finance law, alarming advocates who have worked to curb the influence of money in politics.
City Auditor Simone Rede wants the mayor and City Council to take actions that would allow potential changes to Portland’s voter-approved campaign contribution limits and disclosure requirements, either by allowing state law to preempt the city’s stricter rules or by proposing a local ballot measure this fall.
Should city leaders seek the state legislative route, according to the auditor, the City Council would later be able to set new lower limits for campaign contributions for Portland elections.
Rede’s staff, which enforces the current campaign finance regulations, outlined the recommendations in a two-page memo obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request. Top officials in the auditor’s office began pitching the proposal to members of the City Council this week, including Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney.
“Our campaign finance laws were set by voters to support equitable representation and we know the state has worked hard to achieve the same,” Pirtle-Guiney said. “Council is just now learning about this issue and no action has been taken yet.”
In a statement, Rede said the effort would allow Portland to better align with Oregon’s new campaign finance law when it takes effect in two years. She also insisted the changes would ultimately make the city’s campaign finance rules easier for candidates and donors to follow and for the city to enforce.
“This recommendation would have minimal impact on the amount of money flowing into politics and reduce barriers to participation for first-time candidates while improving our ability to enforce campaign finance regulations,” Rede told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I believe this approach advances the intent of Portland voters while promoting a more inclusive and representative city government.”
Dan Meek, an attorney and leader of the good government group Honest Elections Oregon, said the auditor’s claims strained credulity.
“They make absolutely zero sense from the point of view of the public,” said Meek, an instrumental player behind the creation of Portland and Oregon’s campaign finance limits. “They’d destroy the city’s entire system.”
Portland’s campaign finance measure, passed by 87% of voters in 2018, amended the city charter to limit individual or political committee donations to $500 per election cycle in city races. The contribution limit is adjusted for inflation and is currently $613.
Under the city’s rules, campaigns for mayor, city council and auditor are also required to disclose top donors on advertisements and face other restrictions. At the time the law passed, Oregon was one of only five states that did not limit how much money candidates could accept from individuals, political groups, corporations, unions or any other entities.
That only changed last year after state lawmakers struck a grand bargain with labor unions and business lobbyists, which have long resisted campaign finance limits, and good government groups like Honest Elections Oregon.
Oregon’s adopted campaign finance law, set to begin in 2027, will limit individual contributions per election cycle to $6,600 and political committee donations to $5,000. It also gives so-called small-donor committees such as unions — a driving force behind state and local elections — the ability to donate substantial sums of money to candidates.
And while the state law requires outside groups that spend large sums of cash on behalf of candidates to disclose their biggest donors on advertisements, candidate campaigns do not have to do so on their communications.
Another key provision of Oregon’s measure: Local governments such as Portland and Multnomah County, which has its own campaign finance regulations, are allowed to maintain their own stricter contribution limits and public funding laws.
On Feb. 10, officials with the Portland Auditor’s Office and Multnomah County met with staff from Oregon House Speaker Julie Fahey’s office in Salem to discuss possible adjustments to the overlapping state and local campaign finance systems.
Also at the meeting was Felisa Hagins, head of Oregon’s Service Employees International Union political arm, the state’s most powerful public employee union, and Louis De Sitter, a lobbyist with the Oregon Education Association. Hagins also serves on a committee advising Multnomah County on the implementation of its new program to provide public dollars to candidates running for county office.
“If we want a robust election system where people and organizations at all levels of sophistication and size can engage in coherent and appropriate ways, then we need to streamline rules around the way people engage so there’s more alignment,” Hagins told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I hope that is one of the goals of the auditor.
In her memo, Rede recommends that Portland leaders move to allow the state to supersede the city’s rules on contribution limits. However, the City Council should then later take steps to “enact lower contribution limits than the state’s through ordinance, ideally setting limits near status quo,” the memo reads.
The auditor’s office did not offer a specific recommendation on changes to the city’s disclosure requirements, though it outlined options for pursuing them through both legislative preemption at the state or a local ballot measure initiative.
“We are in the process of engaging the mayor and council on this issue, presenting a variety of options and trying to weigh the pros and cons,” Deputy City Auditor Reed Brodersen said.
Both Brodersen and Rede’s memo said that overlapping state and city campaign finance laws presented potential “legal vulnerabilities” for Portland, though Brodersen declined to offer what those were.
“Unfortunately, we can’t get into those details. They’re legally privileged,” he said.
Meek questioned the potential of legal challenges, noting that Oregon courts have already upheld campaign contribution limits set by Portland and Multnomah County and that jurisdictions throughout the U.S. have similar laws.
Meek added that he was nonplussed by what he described as a lack of transparency coming out of the auditor’s office.
“I think this is all an opportunity to serve the interests of opponents of campaign finance reform,” he said. “And I think it’s a way of doing it without asking voters.”
— 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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