Oregon Advisory Opinions January 25, 1974: OAG 74-7 (January 25, 1974)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 74-7
Date: Jan. 25, 1974
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 74-7.
Does the repeal of ORS 260.025, formerly limiting contributions by candidates to their own campaigns, remove such restrictions with respect to candidates in eliminating deficits incurred in a past campaign while the restriction was still in effect?
ANSWER GIVEN
Yes.
ORS 260.025, repealed by Oregon Laws 1973, ch 623, § 3, formerly provided:
"(1) No candidate shall make contributions and expenditures in support of his nomination and, if nominated, in support of his election in a total amount of more than an amount equal to 25 percent of the annual salary or compensation of the public office for which he is a candidate or $1,000, whichever is greater.
"(2) For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, the following contributions and expenditures made in support of the nomination or election of a candidate are considered made by the candidate:
"(a) Those made on behalf of the candidate and for which the candidate personally is liable.
"(b) Those made by the candidate's spouse, partner, employer or employe.
"(3) Violation of subsection (1) of this section is a misdemeanor."
ORS 260.092 requires that after an election, when a campaign deficit has been incurred, the candidate or his treasurer file periodic supplemental statements until such deficit has been eliminated.
In the past this meant that although the candidate may have been completely able and willing personally to pay off the deficit, because of the restriction imposed by ORS 260.025 he could not do so where the limitation would be violated. Instead, he was required to continue obtaining contributions from other sources - often a difficult task, because in the minds of many people the campaign was past history.
No general principle of law would continue this restriction upon eliminating deficits in campaigns which were waged before the statute was repealed, and there is no provision in the 1973 legislation which could be considered as continuing the restriction as to past deficits.
Therefore our answer must be that there no longer exists in Oregon the limitation upon a candidate's contribution to his own campaign, and thus there is no limitation upon a candidate in eliminating a past deficit by his own payment.