New Report Shows Power of Big Money Political Donors in Oregon

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Friday, February 05, 2016

Brendan Murray, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Big money wields big power in politics. At least, that’s the lesson to be learned from a recent report on campaign fundraising in the Beaver State. According to the report, donors who spent more than $5,000 on a political contribution outspent donors who gave less than $100 by a 10-to-1 margin.

According to a review of campaign contributions by the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, or OSPIRG, roughly 1,000 donors contributed funds of more than $5,000 to candidates last year, compared with tens of thousands of donors who contributed less than $100. Despite having far fewer donors, high-spending contributors gave more than $64 million, ten times more than low-spending donors, who have $6.4 million. 

In addition, “the top 25 donors alone gave almost six times as much as all small donors combined and on average over 15,000 times the contribution of one $100 donor,” according to David Rosenfeld, the report’s author.

Rosenfeld also said that he did not expect the gap to shrink any time soon.

“Four decades of court decisions, including the infamous Citizens United case, have blocked some of the simplest and most intuitive ways to restore an equal political voice for citizens, striking down many efforts to limit the size of cash contributions and independent expenditures on campaigns,” Rosenfeld said. “It will likely be some time before the U.S. Supreme Court or Congress restores the rights of Americans to restrict money in politics.”

Jim Moore, Director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University, told GoLocal the large gap did not surprise him, particularly given the national state of political donations.

“Oregon is no different than the rest of the country,” Mooere said. “If people or groups with money see a political solution to their issues, or if they see a need to protect their issues from the political process, they will spend as much money as they need to.”

Big Money’s Big Influence

OSPRIG’s report included data only on donations from  individuals, business entities, labor organizations and nonprofits, and excluded contributions from political committees or party organizations. 

According to the report, two-thirds of these top donors were businesses, labor groups, nonprofits and other entities, giving $53 million, eight times more than all small donors. Additionally, one-third of the top donors, individuals and entities combined, were from out of state, giving nearly seven times as much as all small donors combined. Even when discounting the largest donors, a significant gap remained.

“Major disparities between small and large donors remain even without the very largest donors. Even without accounting for the fourteen donors who reported giving over $1 million, the remaining large donors who gave over $5,000 still gave over $33 million in total, or five times more than all small donors combined,” the report read.

Moore noted that the sources of major political donations have shifted over time.

“Before the 1980s the big money was in corporations and corporate leaders--timber and natural resource companies across the state, and the same type of companies along with some banks in Portland,” Moore said. “Now the big money is with individuals and interest groups.”

Rosenfeld also said that the disparity does not only affect the most important or visible politicians and campaigns.

“Major disparities between small and large donors exist across the board, not only for major statewide candidate and ballot races,” Rosenfeld said. “We estimate that between 5,000 and 10,000 small donors contributed nearly $800,000 to state legislative candidate committees in 2014. In contrast, just over 200 of the top donors gave nearly $4 million, more than five times as much as all the small donors combined.”

Changes Coming?

While Rosenfeld was not optimistic about changes to the political contribution system, he did highlight three measures Oregon could take to close the gap between the biggest and smallest donors.

First, Rosenfeld said, the State could match small contributions with public funds.

“This is one of the most tested approaches to date,” Rosenfeld said. “The country’s largest city – New York – has seen encouraging success with such a program, which matches small contributions from city residents up to $175 at a six-to-one ratio. After the 2013 general election, the winners for 54 out of the 59 open elected positions participated in the program, with 61% of all funds raised coming from small donors, costing just 0.06% of the city’s 2013 budget.”

The report also suggested small donor vouchers or a larger tax credit for small political contributions.

“Seattle voters just approved a new program to boost the power of small donors by distributing four $25 vouchers to every voter in the city, which voters can choose to contribute to the city candidate(s) of their choosing,” the report read. “Oregon’s political tax credit already allows taxpayers to receive up to a $50 tax credit per year ($100 per household) for political contributions. Streamlining the program so that taxpayers could expedite their tax credit could increase the participation of small donors.”

Moore suggested taking steps that many states have already taken in order to combat the disparity.
“Oregon could easily join the many, many other states with limits on political contributions,” Moore said. “The barrier is Oregon's ‘freedom of expression’ vs the national ‘freedom of speech.’ But it seems that some kind of law that works with Oregon's constitution could be passed.”

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Related Slideshow: Biggest Oregon Campaign Contributions

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