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Study: Contributions pay
Big political donations trump people's interest, group says By PETER WONG An advocacy group says big contributions by businesses last year produced big results for them in the Oregon Legislature this year -- at the expense of nearly everyone else. Members of Oregon Action said Wednesday they will use the results of their study to persuade voters to support a proposed ballot measure for partial public financing of political campaigns. Oregon Action unveiled its study, "Undermining Democracy," at a gathering at Community Emergency Resources and Vital Services (CERVS), a Medford social service agency. "People who walk through those doors each day find that their interests are represented less and less at the state and federal levels," said George Fence of Selma, an Oregon Action member. "More and more, the campaign finance system selects those who have and can raise money -- and excludes those who cannot."This study verifies what we have suspected all along -- that large amounts of money through political action committees and large contributors sway the outcomes of elections and public policy. But ask yourselves if great wealth or connections to wealth is a criterion for leadership."The study says more than $12 million was spent on legislative campaigns in 1998, a record, and nearly $7 million of it came from business interests. Political parties gave $2.5 million, labor unions $1.5 million. Individual contributors of $50 or less gave just under $500,000.Rich Rohde, an Oregon Action organizer in Medford, said as spending on legislative campaigns increases, participation by Oregon voters decreases. Participation hit a record low 59 percent of registered voters in 1998. Two-thirds of all campaign contributions last year came from less than 1 percent of contributors. "A small web of people and interests unfairly influence Oregon politics," Fence said. According to a public opinion survey conducted last spring in connection with the Oregon Action study, 67 percent of those sampled said they are concerned "a great deal" with special interests buying influence with their contributions. Almost as many (64 percent) said they are concerned that candidates who win have the most money but not necessarily the best ideas. The study found that legislative candidates who outspend their opponents win more than 80 percent of the time. Rohde said legislators' actions during the 1999 session on such issues as the environment, farmworker rights, health care, land use, minimum wage, taxes and utilities reflected contributors' priorities. Though many of those bills cleared the Republican-led Legislature, many were vetoed by Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber.But Rohde said it is the system itself that is broken. "We have a system that is getting worse," he said. "We have documented where the money comes from and where it is going -- and pointed to the need for comprehensive reform. Until we take this corrosive effect out of politics, we are not going to be able to reverse this trend."Oregon Action is part of a coalition of groups, including the League of Women Voters, trying to qualify a ballot measure for the 2000 general election to institute partial public financing of state political campaigns. Rohde said Oregon Action also has the goal of increasing public awareness about the influence of money on politics.Rick Gwynallen of Headwaters, an environmental group based in Ashland, said advocates of change will have a tough task ahead. "Our cynicism is perhaps our biggest barrier," he said. |
Mail Tribune
Copyright © The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA
