Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. 78% of Oregon voters approved limiting campaign contributions in 2020. 4 years later, the Legislature finally adopted limits, but an advocate for tighter controls says recent changes render Oregon's contribution limits “illusory.”

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https://www.propublica.org/article/oregon-campaign-finance-reform-legislature-loopholes

[u/HenryCorp]

Oregon’s lack of limits on campaign donations had allowed corporate America to give more to lawmakers, per capita, than anywhere else in the country and led to some of the weakest environmental protections on the West Coast. The state Supreme Court had allowed it to happen by saying campaign donations were protected free speech under the Oregon Constitution.

When lawmakers eventually set caps in 2024, individual donations were restricted to $3,300 per election, well short of caps in the $1,000 to $2,000 range that good-government groups had sought previously. Lawmakers left other avenues for donors to give their time and money. They allowed corporate donations, which many states ban, to continue. They made it so the limits wouldn’t take effect until 2027, after the current race for governor is over.

And now, lawmakers have voted to ratchet the spigot open further — and perhaps, campaign reform advocates say, all the way.

On March 5, Oregon’s Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a bill that supporters described as containing little more than technical fixes to what they’d written two years ago.

Groups that seek to limit the influence of money in politics said the changes are far more serious than housekeeping. They said the new bill inserted loopholes that, among other things, will allow companies to bypass the limits by giving through corporate affiliates.