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The Oregon Department of Justice says it believes 12 candidates for Portland office in the fall 2024 election “likely” violated state law when they agreed to swap donations with one another in order to unlock public campaign finance dollars.
That’s according to a July 21 letter that senior assistant attorney general Tobias Tingleaf sent to the 12 candidates who agreed to swap donations in the fall of 2024 as they ran for city office. The donation-swapping was first revealed by WW.
“Our review suggests that it is likely that you violated that law by agreeing to donate to another candidate’s campaign in exchange for a donation to your own,” Tingleaf wrote to the 12 candidates known to have swapped donations. “But because of the unusual circumstances related to the 2024 election that are discussed below, and because we do not believe that you knew you were violating the law, we conclude that criminal charges are not warranted at this time.”
Tingleaf cautioned, however, that “similar behavior in the future by you or other candidates may be prosecuted as a crime.”
The candidates likely violated ORS 260.665, Tingleaf wrote, which “prohibits a person from directly or indirectly subjecting any person to undue influence with the intent to induce any person to contribute to any candidate.” A violation of the statue is a Class C felony.
“Emails show that you participated in online discussions involving agreements to exchange monetary donations between candidates,” Tingleaf wrote. “A common theme within the email string was a joint effort to reach Small Donor Program donation thresholds and allow campaigns to tap into contributions from the program. Those emails give rise to an inference that you and the other candidates were willing to give money to each other with the intent to induce reciprocal donations.”
The Department of Justice, however, will not pursue criminal charges against the 12 candidates, who include current Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman. That’s because, Tingleaf wrote, the 2024 election presented “unique circumstances” that “mitigate against pursuing criminal charges at this time.” It was the first election held to elect an expanded, 12-member City Council under an entirely new form of government, and for the first time the city used ranked choice voting to elect its officials.
Plus, many candidates were novices. The nearly 100 candidates running for city office included “many first-time candidates who had minimal experience in politics or with complex campaign laws,” Tingleaf wrote. “The evidence we reviewed supports a conclusion that candidates who were part of the discussed donation scheme were unaware that they may have been, and did not believe that they were, violating election law.”
