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The Portland Elections Commission released a report this week on the effectiveness of the city’s Small Donor Elections program, which matches small donations by up to a 9-to-1 ratio with taxpayer dollars, in an election that saw more than 100 candidates seek office last November.
The top-line finding: The program has created an environment in which candidates who lack deep-pocketed supporters can win an election with lots of small contributions. That’s a vindication for the program, which in the fall was racked by controversy.
One issue first reported by WW: candidates who agreed in writing to swap donations with one another, a number of which were then matched by the program and helped candidates reach the next tier of fundraising.
The commission stopped short of saying definitively whether the practice was antithetical to the program, pending the results of an investigation by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. The commission called it an “unorthodox method” of fundraising that candidates “agreed that if the program had been adequately funded and matching fund caps not reduced dramatically, this conduct would not have occurred.”
The commission recommended, among other changes, that the program “continue to match contributions from all Portlanders, including candidates, but do not count contributions from candidates toward certification or qualifying for the next tier.”
The biggest threat to the program in future cycles, however, is underfunding, the commission wrote. “Underfunding will diminish the effectiveness of the program, the quality of our democracy and public trust in our government.”
