Statement by Common Cause, League of Women Voters, Oregon Public Interest Research Group, and Honest Elections urging elected leaders to prioritize passing SJR18.

SALEM, Ore. – If Oregon Republican senators return to Salem after a week-long walk-out, the question on many minds is what remaining business will get prioritized.

By refusing to show up until the final hours, Republican senators ensured that much business will be left undone. Now it falls on the governor and all legislators - Republicans and Democrats alike - to determine what gets prioritized in the final hours.

Early in the session, the governor and legislative leadership committed to get serious about campaign finance reform this session. Though some legislators worked hard to broker consensus, legislators passed no legislation, month after month.

Statements:

“The Governor and Legislature committed to prioritize campaign finance reform this session. Now in the last days, the question remains, will they?”

-Norm Turrill, League of Women Voters of Oregon

“As the Oregonian exposed in its recent investigative coverage, Oregon’s political process is awash in more corporate cash per capita than any other state.”

-Kate Titus, Common Cause

“These walkouts are one more example of the influence of big money in Oregon politics. According to data from National Institute on Money in Politics, the walkouts were funded two-thirds by corporations. It is time to reform the system that has brought the legislature to the brink.”

-Jason Kafoury, Honest Elections

“Reining in Big Money’s influence on the political process is clearly a top voter priority. The Legislature’s failure to act makes this even more clear. It raises the question, whose interests are legislators serving by not passing legislation.”

-Charlie Fisher, OSPIRG

“If the Republicans return, the Legislature will pass dozens of bills by midnight on Sunday. If those bills do not include referring the contribution limits constitutional amendment to voters, it will be a deliberate decision by the super-majority Democrats to keep huge money in politics.”

Dan Meek, Honest Elections.

IN a letter to the editor of the The Oregonian, OR Progressive Party state council member wrote:

The Oregonian continues to repeat Kate Brown's talking points of favoring campaign finance reform. The record suggests that is a smoke screen to get votes. In fact, as Secretary of State, she has had the opportunity to enforce Measure 47, passed in 2006 by the state's voters, with strict limits on campaign contributions and expenditures. She has chosen not to enforce the law.

In the present legislature she has proposed two bills - one a constitutional amendment to allow limitations on contributions in candidate elections only. An effective amendment would also cover independent expenditures in candidate elections as well spending on initiative campaigns. The second would set some contribution limits in candidate elections but leaves gaping holes, and then, to add insult to injury, would overturn those limits contained in the voter approved Measure 47.

If Ms. Brown were truly in favor of campaign finance reform, she would have enforced the law which already exists instead of trying to eliminate it.