Opinion: The 2024 Oregon legislative short session brought many historic wins for the state, including limits on campaign finance reform and increasing transparency within electoral donations
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Oregon has historically been a champion for passing reforms to make democracy more accessible, and this trend continued through a period when many other states have imposed legislation directly attacking fundamental freedoms, like access to the ballot box.
One of the most historic initiatives lawmakers took in Oregon was to pass House Bill 4024, a law limiting campaign contributions from individuals to political candidates to $3,300 and political action committees to $30,000.
This requires some disclosure of the original funding sources to pay for political advertisements and requires political ads to tagline their original sources of funding. The limits would lower the amount of campaign funds available to non-statewide legislators, such as state legislators, district attorneys and others. These financial changes are scheduled to start in 2027.
Oregon saw an unprecedented amount of corporate and individual influence within the 2022 midterm elections, with independent political donors spending over $70 million on the gubernatorial race. Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, single-handedly donated over $3.7 million to unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson and $1.5 million to Republican Christine Drazan — HB 4024 would now limit him to $3,300, like every other Oregonian.
The bill received mass community support, with influential groups such as Common Cause Oregon and Honest Elections Oregon stepping in to amend aspects of the early bill to create a holistic reform. This initiative ultimately passed with bipartisan support, with 22-6 in the Senate and 52-5 in the House.
Cheryl Conway testified in favor of the latest bill, stating, “This bill is the culmination of years, even decades, of work by good government groups who were joined in their efforts this year by business and labor organizations and legislators who refused to give up on reforming campaign finance.”
Conway was one of the many independent community members who voiced their support for financial reform within elections and called for good governance.
Senator Tim Knopp, the GOP minority leader, voted in favor of this bill even though he opposed certain aspects, stating on the Senate floor, “Nonetheless, it is, I think, a step forward that Oregonians support.” Although the majority of the Republican coalition voted in favor of the bill, a notable minority of seven state senators voted against it.
One Democrat, Senator Jeff Golden (D-Ashland), also voted against House Bill 4024, stating that the legislation didn’t do justice to the campaign reform needed to protect the democratic standards Oregon wants to uphold, and stated to OPB, “I hope we have opportunities down the line to give Oregonians something much closer to what they want in campaign finance reform.”
Another critical aspect of House Bill 4024 is creating an online dashboard that discloses a candidate’s top 100 donors, which is scheduled to be set up by 2028. The online dashboard hopes to create further transparency within the sources of funding, which can often be hidden through the protections of 501(c)4’s and PACs.
This legislation was generally agreed to serve as the beginning of Oregon’s commitment to reforming campaign finance laws; legislators, community members and community groups have agreed that it is a step in the right direction. Campaign finance reform is needed to ensure that the community has a say in democratic choices.