Congress is talking about the influence of campaign money on environmental policy in Oregon, based on The Oregonian/OregonLive’s reporting.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler about it Wednesday during a hearing of the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. Whitehouse cited newsroom data showing that the 11 Republican state senators who boycotted the Oregon Legislature over climate change legislation last month received 65 percent of their campaign money from corporate interests. Whitehouse noted that prominent among the donors was Koch Industries, an energy company owned by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
Whitehouse asked Wheeler, who was testifying with other mayors: “How active do you think the fossil fuel industry still is in trying to interfere with climate progress politically?”
“They will act in their self-interest because it’s what they do,” Wheeler responded. And then the mayor pivoted back to Oregon’s unusual campaign finance system.
“Unfortunately,” Wheeler said, Oregon has long been lacking in campaign contribution limits, leaving the state the “Wild, Wild West” for campaign money.
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s series Polluted by Money, published in February and March, explored the connections between Oregon’s outsize campaign donations and the state’s failure to enact a wide array of environmental protections. Per capita, lawmakers in Oregon take more corporate campaign money than anywhere in the country.
When it came to this year’s climate change legislation, the bill, House Bill 2020, died in the Senate after the GOP refused to attend floor sessions and left the chamber without a quorum to conduct business.
Wheeler praised the Legislature for approving Senate Joint Resolution 18, which asks voters to change the state constitution and explicitly allow campaign finance limits. A vote will come in November 2020.
Wheeler said the campaign finance measure “will address some of the most egregious aspects of the lack of campaign finance legislation in our state.”
“I am pleased that the Legislature took that leadership moment to refer it to voters, where I believe it will pass,” he said.
If voters approve the measure, specific limits would still be needed to stanch the flow of money. Lawmakers’ failed first try was riddled with loopholes.
Lawmakers say they plan to revisit limits next February.
— Rob Davis
503.294.7657; @robwdavis
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