Complaint alleges that the so-called "Fix and Improve Measure 110" campaign disregarded Oregon campaign finance law requirements over several months.
Sandy Chung, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oregon, filed a formal complaint with the Oregon Secretary of State on January 5, 2024 alleging multiple violations of Oregon campaign finance laws by the “Fix and Improve Measure 110” campaign, their chief petitioners and their treasurer.
The complaint details that the campaign – which has pushed several initiative petitions – seems to have been spending money since October on at least two of those petitions without formally filing information with the state that establishes a required responsible organization called a “petition committee” and informs voters about the effort. Additionally, it appears that the committee for a third initiative petition associated with the campaign has failed to report $30,0000 in expenditures on behalf of the most active petitions (the same two that have not formed a committee or shared foundational information with the public), obscuring the actual beneficiary of the political spending.
“Transparency is critical in a free and fair democracy. This campaign is richly funded by large corporate donors and billionaires and led by a former chief of the Oregon prison system who also was a state legislator, former head of the House Judiciary Committee, and lawyer. It is deeply concerning that a group like this with the resources to pay for the best lawyers and accounting services would show such indifference for Oregon laws and voters. Instead, they are carelessly forcing their political agenda through our state’s political processes to pressure Oregon to return to the failed war on drugs – to criminalize user-level drug addiction even though this tactic is not a real solution to solving homelessness, drug addiction or poverty and will significantly harm Black and brown people and low-income people. At best, this is utter disregard for our election laws, and at worst it’s a demonstration that this campaign thinks it is above the law,” said Chung. “I hope the Secretary of State investigates this issue quickly and creates accountability accordingly.”
The full complaint is available here.
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