Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2012)
12 street roots LLliW April 27, 2012 Janice Thompson is the executive director for Common Cause Oregon. She is the form er head o f Democracy Reform Oregon (which was previously known as the Money in Politics Research Action Project). Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded as a vehicle fo r citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. A breakdown o f money piling up behind the race for the next Portland mayor Table 1 - Fundraising by three contribution size groups as reported through April 20: Dollar amounts and percentage of total fundraising and number of contributors BY JANICE THOMPSON C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R ileen Brady is the fundraising leader in the Portland mayoral race with $975,525 in contributions followed by $538,494 raised by Charlie Hales and $408,675 in contributions to Jefferson Smith. (These dollar amounts reflect contributions reported through April 20 At this point in the election, campaign finance contributions and spending must be reported within seven days on ORESTAR, the online reporting system. These figures will be different by the time this article appears in print due to Oregon’s continuous reporting system.) E Size of Contributions Analysis There are several other mayoral candidates but the fundraising angle of this article means the focus will be on Brady, Hales, and Smith. While Brady has raised more money, Smith has more contributors and a higher percentage of his fundraising is from donors giving $100 or less compared to Brady and Hales. Hales has about 800 fewer contributors than either Brady or Smith. Contributions from donors giving $1,000 or more particularly dominate fundraising by Brady and Hales. See Table 1. Smith has raised money from an Candidate Contributions of Total Fundraising $100 or less $70,624 $975,525 7% 100% 1,400 est.contributors* 2182 est. contributors* Eileen Brady Contributions $1,000 and up $714,324 73% 233 contributors Contributions $101 to $999 $190,577 20% 549 contributors Charlie Hales $383,310 $104,885 $50,299 71% 118 contributors $214,202 52% 20% 316 contributors $101,056 25% 298 contributors 9% 99 est. contributors* $93,418 Jefferson Smith 111 contributors $538,494 100% 1433 est. contributors* $408,675 100% 23% 1,850 est. contributors* 2259 est.contributors* * Contributions o f $100 or less do not have to be itemized by individual donor, rather those contributions are reported as aggregated dollar amounts. This means it is impossible to know exactly how many donors are giving in the contribution size category o f $100 or less. B u t an estimate can be determined by assum ing that each o f these small donations is $50. Total contributor numbers are derived by adding the numbers o f itemized contributors with estimates o f numbers o f those m aking contributions o f $100 or less. estimated 2,259 contributors followed by estimates of 2,182 contributors to Brady’s campaign and 1,433 contributors to Hales’ campaign. Estimating the number of contributors is necessary due to reporting requirements that don’t mandate identifying donors of $100 or less. The larger number of donors to Smith’s campaign is reflected in the finding that 23 REGIONAL EN BUILDING WWW.BUILDGREEN411.COM A FREE service brought to you by Metro / C ity o f Portland / Clackamas / W ashington / M ultnom ah Counties percent of his total fundraising thus far has come in contributions of $100 or less. The dollar amounts in this contribution size category comprise only 9 percent of Hales’ total fundraising and 7 percent of Brady’s overall fundraising. However, contributions in amounts of $100 or less, even though they come from many people, comprise less money than has been raised thus far in either of the two other size categories analyzed in Table 1. The Brady and Hales campaigns are particularly dominated by contributions of $1,000 and up. There are 233 of these contributors to Brady’s campaign and their support comprises 73 percent of her total fundraising. There are 118 donors writing checks of $1,000 or more to Hales and their support amounts to 71 percent of his total fundraising. Smith has 111 donors who have given $1,000 and up and their support adds up to 52 percent of his total fundraising. The domination in 2012 of total fundraising by big contributions indicates a return to a pattern seen prior to the Voter- Owned Elections era from 2006 through 2010. During the 2004 election cycle, 69 percent of the money city candidates raised came from only 602 contributors who wrote checks of $1,000 or more. This small number of contributors represented just 7 percent of total donors. This pattern has returned to the 2012 mayoral contest with 72 percent of combined fundraising thus far by Brady, Hales, and Smith coming from just 468 contributors writing checks of $1,000 or more with this small number of donors representing, thus far, just 8 percent of total contributors. This pattern would be even more dramatic if only Brady and Hales were in the race. That 52 percent of Smith’s fundraising comes from donors giving $1,000 or more is significant but his campaign is less dominated by these large donors than either the Brady and Hales political committees. Top Donors The top 20 contributors to Brady comprise 36 percent of her total fundraising. Brady’s largest contribution is $95,000, an in-kind donation of a campaign ad from the Mmmmmm Society, LLC. Brady has contributed or loaned her campaign $60,000 and has also received $35,508 from the estate of Brian Rohter’s mother. (Rohter is Brady’s husband.) Emily’s List, a political action committee dedicated to supporting women candidates, has given Brady $15,000. (See Table 2.) The top 20 contributors to Hales comprise 43 percent of his total fundraising. See BIG MONEY, page 13
