Public Campaign Finance revisions
Anna Griffin of the Oregonian called me yesterday, for an article she’s writing on proposed revisions to Portland’s Public Campaign Finance system. It was such a relief to be asked about a topic on which I have a perspective shared by nobody else in Portland, compared with the discussion over Friday and the weekend on the rights and responsibilities of neighborhood groups on political campaigns – on which lots of people gave more accurate information than I. Nothing like a blog posted on the Internet, read by many of one’s friends and enemies, to make a person realize their vulnerabilities in making and highlighting errors. So I’m happy to give you this report on proposed revisions to Public Campaign Financing in Portland. It’s a subject near and dear to my heart, and I believe just as essential for Portland’s future as the Charter and the Neighborhood Association system.
The Citizens Campaign Commission met last night to review draft proposals to be forwared to City Council. The draft report isn’t posted on line, but the Auditor’s Office e-mailed me a copy on request. I didn’t attend yesterday’s discussion, partly because I’m budgeting my time for the final version and the hearing at Council (just like most people do, e.g. on Charter Reform), and partly due to a more important engagement I’ll tell you about later. Here are some of the most important proposals in the draft recommendations:
* Require the donors of 1000 qualifying donations of $5 to be registered voters, in addition to being Portland residents. This will allow signatures to be checked against those on file at county elections offices.
* Move the dates for collections of qualifying donations to start and end earlier – July 1 to January 31 instead of September 1 to March 31.
* Change the “one mistake and you’re disqualified” rule – but only for one spending violation of up to $1,000. Maybe I’m missing it, but its not clear whether the Commission intends to relax the current rule that if a candidate submits even one donation that turns out to be a duplicate or from someone who lives one lot on the other side of the city line, the candidate is disqualified. They do say there will be no penalty if a donor turns out not to be a registered Portland voter, but it’s unclear whether that means it’s only OK if a donor is a Portland resident who isn’t registered to vote, or if it includes non-Portlanders and duplicate donations. I’ll need to see the proposed Code and Administrative Rules, before knowing what is being changed. That “one strike and you’re out” rule will still give candidates sleepless nights, and trust me, there are enough things to worry about and lose sleep over in a campaign, without that. I hope there is some allowance for innocent human error in the final recommendation, such as say five mistakes out of 1005 donations.
* Require donors and solicitors to sign an individual, triplicate form for each $5, to acknowledge the donation has been given and received per the program rules.
* Allow third party review, verification and challenges to signature and donation submissions
Full list of the 14 recommendations in the draft report after the break.
A. Establish mandatory training for all participating candidates
B. Qualifying Period: Currently candidates have from September 1 through March 31 to collect qualifying contributions. The Commission recommends that the qualifying period be changed to July 1 to January 31.
C. Seed Money: Leave the current limits in place, but provide for separate seed money accounting. In addition, invalid or questionable qualifying contributions identified by the candidate before they request certification should be considered seed money and retained by the candidate.
D. Solicitation of Contributions: Change the form that contributors sign to provide a clearer description of what the contributor is signing and the consequences if rules are violated; use a three-part form that produces a receipt for the contributor; allow third parties (in addition to other candidates) more time to review signature and contribution forms and file complaints.
E. Form and Amount of Qualifying Contributions: Leave the number, amount and form of qualifying contributions unchanged.
F. Source of Qualifying Contributions: Require that $5 qualifying contributions come from registered Portland voters (current rules allow for contributions from any Portland resident).
G. Verification of Contributions: Auditor’s Office staff will obtain training in forgery detection and work with the County Elections Division to conduct a 100% check of signatures of qualifying contributions, using established verification methodology. If candidates mistakenly receive $5 contribution forms from persons who are not registered Portland voters they will not be penalized. Because of workload constraints at the County, candidates will be required to submit batches of qualifying contributions at scheduled dates before the final qualifying deadline.
H. Penalties: Modify the current “one strike you’re out