Kate Brown Wants Contribution Limits in the Constitution

Kate Brown Wants Contribution Limits in the Constitution
October 7th 2008 5:03pm

BY: Nigel Jaquiss

Two years ago, Oregon's political establishment tied itself in knots when lawyer Dan Meek put Measures 46 and 47 on the ballot — one of which called for a constitutional change to allow limiting campaign contributions, the other prescribing what those limits should be.

The constitutional change (46) did not pass and Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who oversees elections, did not implement the measure setting limits (47, which did pass) for that reason. For a more complete explanation of what happened read this

The end result? Oregon remained one of a handful of states with no limits on political contributions.

Today, the Independent Party that Meek helped to found endorsed Democrat Kate Brown for Secretary of State. That endorsement came when Brown — the former Senate majority leader and a pillar of the political establishment that was leery of such campaign finance limits in 2006 — called for a Constitutional change allowing the restrictions.

Here's a statement from the Independent Party:

With 33,000 registered members, Independent Party of Oregon supports candidates who take action to increase government accountability, including campaign finance reform.

"Kate Brown has been a champion of reform for her entire political career," said Party Secretary, Sal Peralta. "Her work to expand basic civil rights and her support for ethics reform and elections reforms, such as fusion voting, demonstrate her commitment to an open and inclusive government for all Oregonians. We all now need to focus on campaign finance reform to ensure that the basic instruments of our government are in the hands of the people."

"I am honored to have this endorsement," said Brown. "I support the Independent Party's efforts to safeguard our democratic processes, and I support legislative referral of a constitutional amendment to voters to ensure that political campaign contribution limits are allowed under the Oregon Constitution."

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