Campaign Finance Reform – The Details Matter

I strongly favor reducing the influence of big money on Oregon’s and America’s 
political life. If the voice of ordinary people with ordinary concerns could be 
heard as loudly as the voices of those with more money than sense, or those whose 
civic virtue is trumped by their own selfish interests, I would be pleased and I 
suspect you would be too. 

I was looking forward to Measures 46 and 47 because I
thought they would be about reform. Sadly, they are not. Like Measures 45 and
48, most of the money to get these measures on our ballot came from one man.
This time his name is Harry Lonsdale, a multi-millionaire, former self-financed
Democratic Senate Candidate, and part time resident of California.

Measure 46 repeals your right of Free Speech as it relates to contributions and 
expenditures in political campaigns. It seems to write a blank check to the 
Legislature or the next ballot measure to suspend our Free Speech protections 
guaranteed now in Oregon’s Constitution. Worse, it requires such a large super-
majority from the legislature to change the law that practically any changes 
must be done by initiative.

We already know how poorly written and loaded with hidden consequences many ballot 
measures are. With the Legislature essentially prevented from fixing errors or 
unintended consequences we could make a real mess of our campaign finance law as 
well as give away our precious right of free speech.

One needs only to look one step down the ballot at Measure 47 to find such a poorly 
written and destructive proposed law. Some of it is probably unconstitutional 
according to recent federal court cases and it severely limits individuals, 
non-profits, membership organizations, and political parties in their ability to 
state their views during political campaigns. Organizations from all across the 
political spectrum will be seriously limited in how many dollars they can receive 
from you and how much they can spend. That means your rights to pool your money 
with others to influence political campaigns are in jeopardy. Those who come together 
at the union hall, at church, or anywhere else who try to work together to influence
the future of our state government will be more limited and have a harder time
getting the word out.

The measure purports to limit the big guys too. But it really does not since the 
provisions on what an individual spends on his own independent campaign cannot be 
limited. People like (New York real estate mogul) Howard Rich, Harry Lonsdale and 
(multimillionaire and chief Bill Sizemore supporter) Loren Parks will have more
political influence, not less, if Measure 47 passes.

Under Measure 47 you will need to get an ID number from the Secretary of State and 
then keep track of the limits you are allowed to contribute, with different limits 
for different types of contributions. If you are not completely accurate you face 
fines up to 20 times the amount of the contributions. Anyone can complain about 
your contributions and you will have to defend yourself in court within 15 days.

If all this were not convincing enough, one of the chief petitioners on Measure 47, 
Rep. Peter Buckley of Ashland has figured out how bad these measures are and urges 
everyone to vote “NO”. Rep. Buckley is a bright and capable elected official who 
has been working on campaign finance reform for many years. He wants what I want: 
to reduce the influence of wealthy individuals and big companies in our politics. 
Politics should be about what is good for the people not what is good only for the 
elite. He recognizes that Measures 46 and 47 make things worse, not better. 
Vote “No” on Measures 46 and 47.