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<h1 class="red">Initiatives would alter campaign finance laws </h1>
<div class="subhead">
<b>Politics - Two proposals would ban corporate and union
contributions and restrict individual amounts </b>
</div>
<div class="byln">Monday, November 28,
2005
<div>DAVE HOGAN </div>
<b>The Oregonian</b>
</div>
<p>After a legislative campaign scandal prompted legislators to
revise
Oregon's campaign finance laws this year, it's likely that voters will
consider much bigger changes next year. </p>
<p>Petitioners for a pair of campaign finance initiatives say
they have
gathered about 106,000 signatures. That's more than half the number
needed to place the proposals on next November's ballot, with seven
months until the deadline to collect the rest. </p>
<p>The initiatives would dramatically alter the financing of
political
campaigns in Oregon, one of five states with no limits on campaign
contributions. They would ban contributions by corporations and labor
unions, and restrict the amounts that individuals could give to
campaigns. </p>
<p>Thanks to a recent poll, which found that three of every four
voters
support limiting campaign contributions, supporters of the initiatives
are optimistic that voters will approve the proposals if they appear on
the ballot. </p>
<p>"We just don't think it's defeatable," said Harry Lonsdale of
Sisters, one of the leaders of the effort to place the initiatives on
next year's ballot. </p>
<p>Because the proposals are not on the ballot yet, there is no
organized opposition. But many of Oregon's most powerful political
players -- industry associations, unions and corporations -- have
opposed contribution limits as an unconstitutional restriction of their
rights, and they are likely to be vocal critics of the initiatives if
they qualify for next year's election. </p>
<p>Giving campaign dollars is viewed as a key way to gain
influence
because it is a necessary ingredient for most candidates. Legislative
races routinely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a contest
such as next year's race for governor will cost millions. </p>
<p>Campaign money laws have been in the public eye much of this
year,
both in Oregon and nationally. Oregon legislators made a number of
campaign finance changes, including increasing penalties for personal
use of campaign money, starting limited auditing of candidates'
campaign finance reports, and establishing a searchable electronic
reporting system for campaign finance data, which will begin in 2007. </p>
<p>Those changes came after Rep. Dan Doyle, R-Salem, resigned
Jan. 31.
Doyle pleaded guilty this fall to filing false campaign finance reports
to hide the payment of more than $145,000 in campaign money to him and
his wife. He was sentenced last month and is serving a 10-month
sentence at a Marion County sheriff's office work center. </p>
<p>The roots of the proposed initiatives go back much further,
marking
the latest in more than a decade of attempts to limit campaign money in
Oregon. The effort succeeded once -- but only briefly. In 1994,
Oregonians, with 72 percent of the vote, approved a measure that
limited campaign contributions and spending. </p>
<p>The measure was in effect for the 1996 elections, but the
Oregon
Supreme Court overturned it, ruling that campaign contributions were
protected by the Oregon Constitution's free-speech provisions. </p>
<p>Lonsdale, Portland attorney Dan Meek and others have since
tried
several times to place limits on campaign money, including last year,
but they failed to collect enough signatures to place proposals on the
ballot. Their closest miss came in 2002, when they fell about 10,000
signatures short of the 89,000 needed. </p>
<p>"The vast majority of those signatures came in during the last
three
months, so we're significantly ahead of that this time," Meek said. </p>
<p>Lonsdale noted that they also have money this year -- about
$100,000
-- to help collect signatures through a network of volunteer and paid
petition circulators. </p>
<p>
<b>$2,500 contribution cap </b>
</p>
<p>Because of the court ruling that overturned the 1994 ballot
measure,
one of the new proposals -- Petition 8 -- is a one-sentence amendment
to the Oregon Constitution. It would explicitly allow state laws to
prohibit or limit campaign contributions and expenditures. </p>
<p>The constitutional amendment requires 100,840 valid signatures
to be
approved for the ballot, and Meek said 63,000 signatures have been
collected. </p>
<p>The other proposal, Petition 37, would fill in the blanks. In
addition to banning corporate and union contributions, it calls for
limiting the number of dollars each individual could contribute to
campaigns. For each primary and general election, the limit would be
$500 to a candidate in a statewide race for an office such as governor,
and $100 for any nonstatewide candidate such as a legislator or county
commissioner. </p>
<p>In addition, overall campaign contributions by an individual
would be capped at $2,500 per calendar year. </p>
<p>Other states place overall limits on individuals'
contributions, but
Oregon's would be the lowest of those that have annual limits, Meek
said. The lowest caps are currently in Arizona, which limits annual
contributions to a total of $3,530, while Rhode Island and Wisconsin
have annual limits of $10,000 total. Maryland limits contributions to
$10,000 in a four-year period. </p>
<p>As a statutory proposal, Petition 37 needs 75,630 valid
signatures
to make the Oregon ballot, and Meek said 43,000 signatures have been
collected. </p>
<p>
<b>Strong public support </b>
</p>
<p>A poll taken in August found strong support for limiting
campaign
contributions. The questioning, done for the initiatives' supporters by
Riley Research Associates, included responses from 501 registered
voters throughout Oregon who had voted in two of the past three most
recent elections. Fifty-seven percent said they strongly supported
limits, and another 19 percent said they somewhat supported them. A
total of 13 percent opposed limits, while 11 percent were undecided. </p>
<p>The limits proposed in the initiatives would make a massive
change
in the state's politics. Last year, for instance, a third of the more
than $17 million given to Oregon legislative candidates came from 25
unions, corporations and industry associations. </p>
<p>Meek and Lonsdale say that's the idea. They see campaign money
playing a major role in the Legislature's handling of many corporate
issues, including utilities collecting but not paying millions of
dollars in taxes and the level of the state's commissions to lottery
retailers. </p>
<p>"We think the system reeks of corruption," Lonsdale says. "We
want to return campaigns to the people." </p>
<p>Dave Hogan: 503-221-8531; <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:davehogan@news.oregonian.com">davehogan@news.oregonian.com</a> </p>
<br clear="all">
</div>
<center class="seccopy">©2005 The Oregonian</center>
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