Council adopts changes to small-donor program, grants Elections Commission delegated authority

Portland City Council on Sept. 24 approved an ordinance amending the city’s small-donor elections code to adopt recommendations from the Portland Elections Commission.

The ordinance delegates administrative-rule authority to the Portland Elections Commission to allow the commission to implement rules — including a rule that would prevent contributions from other candidates from counting toward certification thresholds used to qualify for matching funds. The changes also align the city’s small-donor election cycle with the state’s calendar (January 1 through December 31 for the election year) and set the deadline for returning unspent matching funds to the program as the last day of the election cycle. The ordinance reduces the auditor race match cap from $100,000 to $50,000 to bring it closer to other races’ match caps.

The measure passed with 11 votes in favor and one no vote. Councilor Ryan said he would vote no, citing concerns about paid third-party canvassers who collect donations for multiple candidates and the need for transparency so voters know which candidates or causes benefit from those solicitations. “I’m in a vote no,” Ryan said, and asked that the commission maintain close oversight on disclosures by third-party fundraisers.

Susan Mote, director of the small-donor elections program, explained the principal substantive changes to the code and rules during the council discussion. Mote said the delegation to the Elections Commission is intended to allow experimentation — for example, having candidate-to-candidate contributions be matched but not count toward qualification thresholds — and to permit adjustments without immediate code changes. She also described the alignment of the program cycle with the state calendar and the change of the deadline for returning unspent matching funds to December 31 of the election year.

Mote said the ordinance removes a contradictory provision about penalty payments in city code and creates limited exceptions to a prior blanket prohibition on transfers between campaign committees, allowing shared expenses (for example, a single event or a shared field director) to be split among campaigns more easily.

Councilors thanked Mote and program staff for the work involved in running the program with a small team; councilors noted the program has enabled nontraditional candidates to run and that the council should keep watching transparency and implementation issues as the commission examines options.

The ordinance passed by the council is a second-reading adoption of the commission’s recommendations and delegates the commission further authority to adopt implementing administrative rules.

Colleagues and staff said they will watch the commission’s rulemaking on third-party solicitors closely and expect the commission to consider disclosure requirements for canvassers working for multiple candidates or causes.

The ordinance vote was recorded as 11 yes, 1 no.