Most of the public doesn’t understand how ballot measures end up on the ballot or how much money special interests will spend to obtain the signatures required to make a referendum. Secondly, the lack of transparency (deceit?) by the political consultants appearing to bringing ballot measures by the public rather than themselves as political consultants with specific agendas is concerning.
You can lookup initiatives in process on Oregon’s Secretary of State website. This is interesting when comparing to the campaign finance database and understanding a more accurate picture of who is financing ballot initiatives.
There are already a number of initiatives working through the process for inclusion on the ballot in 2020. One we are keeping our eye on, currently named Initiative 1: Get Big Money Out of Oregon Elections III, has had the the ballot title of the measure approved by the Oregon Supreme court and is moving forward with collecting signatures.
Oregon is one of 6 states with no campaign contribution limits on elections, effectively allowing elections to be determined by those that spend the most money. This is the third time a ballot initiative has been attempted to try to limit campaign contributions in Oregon.
We’ll post an update in 2019 as more the initiatives move through the process.
Money in Politics OR 