Oregon Advisory Opinions July 16, 1954: OAG 54-46 (July 16, 1954)

Oregon Attorney General Opinions

1954.

OAG 54-46.

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This is in response to your letter of July 8, 1954, in which you refer to ORS 260.360 relating to anonymous publications as a corrupt practice under our election laws and in which you ask:

"* * * if this section of the Corrupt Practices act applies to press releases sent out from the campaign headquarters of a candidate for office. Must these press releases, to be in compliance with the law, indicate that they come from the campaign headquarters of a candidate for office? May I ask if it is sufficient that the press releases be mailed in envelopes bearing the name and address of the campaign headquarters, or must the individual press releases reveal the source from which they come? I have in mind multiple releases."

You ask my interpretation of ORS 260.360 as it applies to the above situation and which provides as follows:

"(1) No person shall write, print, publish, post or circulate or cause to be written, printed, published, posted or circulated through the mails or otherwise any letter, circular, bill, placard, poster or other publication relating to any election or to any candidate at any election, unless it bears on its face the name and address of the author and of the printer and publisher thereof."

Violation of the Act is punishable by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $1,000 or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or both: ORS 260.360 (2).

The purport of your inquiry is: Is the statute complied with if the envelope in which the publication is mailed bears on it the name and address of the campaign headquarters?

The answer is in the negative.

The prohibition of the law is that no letter, circular, bill, placard, poster or other publication be circulated through the mails or otherwise unless it "bears on its face the name and address of the author and of the printer and publisher thereof."

The statute is clear and unambiguous. It requires no construction. "On its face" means on the face of the letter, circular, bill, placard, poster or other publication and does not mean on the envelope in which the publication is mailed or otherwise circulated.

A press release is a "publication". If the content of the same relates to "any election or to any candidate at any election" and if the press release be sent through the mails or otherwise caused to be published, posted or circulated, then the press release must bear on its face the name and address of the author of the press release and of the printer and publisher of the press release.