Two years ago, Oregon’s political establishment tied itself in knots when lawyer Dan Meek put Measures 46 and 47 on the ballot — one of which called for a constitutional change to allow limiting campaign contributions, the other prescribing what those limits should be.
The constitutional change (46) did not pass and Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who oversees elections, did not implement the measure setting limits (47, which did pass) for that reason. For a more complete explanation of what happened read this
The end result? Oregon remained one of a handful of states with no limits on political contributions.
Today, the Independent Party that Meek helped to found endorsed Democrat Kate Brown for Secretary of State. That endorsement came when Brown — the former Senate majority leader and a pillar of the political establishment that was leery of such campaign finance limits in 2006 — called for a Constitutional change allowing the restrictions.
Here’s a statement from the Independent Party:
With 33,000 registered members, Independent Party of Oregon supports candidates who take action to increase government accountability, including campaign finance reform.
“Kate Brown has been a champion of reform for her entire political career,” said Party Secretary, Sal Peralta. “Her work to expand basic civil rights and her support for ethics reform and elections reforms, such as fusion voting, demonstrate her commitment to an open and inclusive government for all Oregonians. We all now need to focus on campaign finance reform to ensure that the basic instruments of our government are in the hands of the people.”
“I am honored to have this endorsement,” said Brown. “I support the Independent Party’s efforts to safeguard our democratic processes, and I support legislative referral of a constitutional amendment to voters to ensure that political campaign contribution limits are allowed under the Oregon Constitution.”
Oregon is one of only 4 states (along with New Mexico, Missouri, and Illinois) that have no limits on political contributions. Spending on campaigns for state and local offices in Oregon has increased from $4 million in 1996 to $49 million in 2006. In 2006, it cost as much as $725,000 to win a seat in the Oregon Senate and $1.14 million to win a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives. In 2006, the Governor’s race cost over $18 million alone, and the top five individual contributors (all corporate executives) to candidates for Governor gave over $2 million.
Senator Brown has served as Chair of the Senate Rules and Elections Committees since the 2005 session. That year, the Legislature significantly improved public access to information about campaign contributions and expenditures. In the judgment of the nonpartisan Campaign Disclosure Project at UCLA School of Law, Oregon’s grade on making campaign finance information accessible to the public has improved from a F in 2003 to an A+ in 2008. The Project states:
“Oregon was one of the most improved states in the law category since 2003 as the result of major reforms enacted in 2005.”
“Additional changes are needed to ensure that political operatives cannot use nonprofit corporations as fronts to hide their sources of campaign cash,” said Dan Meek, a member of the IPO State Council.
In the 2005 legislative session, Brown led the efforts to make Oregon’s state government more open and accessible by taking legislative committee meetings to communities around the state. In 2007, her committee created the new ethics law for Oregon public officeholders, including strict limits on lobbyist gifts to officeholders.
ABOUT THE INDEPENDENT PARTY
The Independent Party was formed by petitions signed by over 26,000 Oregonians in 2006. Certified as a party in January 2007, the Independent Party is now the third largest political party in Oregon, with about 33,0000 members. The party was formed in response to laws enacted by the Oregon Legislature in 2005 to make it more difficult for non-affiliated candidates to make the ballot and to win elections.
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Please fix the typo and put the correct number of members in the Independent Party. Also would be more meaningful to put some context — number of members of Republican and Democratic parties would be helpful. Thanks.