Campaign Finance

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury is in charge of enforcing Oregon's campaign finance laws. He should be red-faced with embarrassment today. Yesterday the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld fines against him and his 2004 political committee for failure to completely and accurately report his expenditures for commissions to an advertising firm and the cost of buying TV airtime during his 2004 campaign. Bradbury was the treasurer of the group and responsible for filing campaign contribution and expenditure reports.

The Oregonian reports that Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury, has created a panel to examine whether political non-profits should be required to disclose political contributions and expenditures under Oregon law.

The panel was empowered in response to a complaint made against Our Oregon, a union-backed group that is active in advocating for and against ballot initiatives and initiative petitions.

Larry Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, and public-interest property rights and patent attorney extraordinaire, let us know about a new web site, maplight.org that tracks campaign contributions for Federal and California candidates, and overlays them with votes on bills that are supported and opposed by special interest groups.

It's an ambitious project, one that still appears to be in pre-alpha form. Nevertheless, the site has some very interesting breakdowns on special interest financing of political candidates.

Go below the flip to see which Democrats are taking the most money from big-time special interests...