Better look at political donations proposed.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Oregon's D grade for letting the public see where candidates get their campaign contributions could be raised to an A under a bill worked out Friday by a legislative panel.

That, at least, was the assessment of legislators and good-government activists who helped create what could be the final version of House Bill 3458.

The Senate version of the House bill would require legislative and statewide candidates to post their campaign contributions and expenditures on the Web, with updates every seven days from March through the November Election Day during campaign years.

John Lindback said citizens who want to know which individuals or interest groups are backing which candidates would be able to find that information far more easily under the new plan. And he said Oregon should get credit from national good-government watchdogs.

"We get lousy grades on the ability of people to get that information. ... This will improve that considerably," he told the Senate Rules Committee.

Oregon received a D grade last fall in a state-by-state report called "Grading State Disclosure." The study was conducted by the Campaign Disclosure Project, a collaboration of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, the Center for Governmental Studies, the California Voter Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Oregon's 32nd ranking among the 50 states and its low grade resulted from its lack of a searchable database, and the difficulty for Web users in locating what information the state Elections Division does post online.

The state last year began posting PDF files - essentially photocopies that can be viewed online - of candidates' campaign finance reports.

These reports were posted according to the current schedule of filing deadlines set in law: on the 36th, 12th, eighth and fourth day before and 30th day after the primary and general election days.

The Senate version of HB 3458 made several key changes to the House-passed version, including:

Removing a ban on the use of campaign funds to pay for travel, food, lodging and other expenses incurred while performing official duties. This was dubbed a ban on "double-dipping" because legislators also get a taxpayer-funded per diem of $91 during the session for such costs.

Increased to $1,000 from the House-proposed $750 a fine for using campaign funds for personal use - a response to this year's scandal involving since-resigned Rep. Dan Doyle, R-Salem.

The contribution level that would require the donor's identity to be disclosed was increased from $50 to $100.

Candidate-controlled political action committees would be covered by the new disclosure rules.

The every-seven-days disclosure requirement would begin 70 days before the May primary election, instead of being in place year-round.

Despite the changes, the House's chief architect of the changes, Rep. Derrick Kitts, R-Hillsboro, endorsed the bill - signaling that the House would likely accept the changes.

Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Kate Brown, D-Portland, said the double-dipping provision was removed so the Senate could try to work on the issue as a separate bill. She said there was too much opposition from lawmakers who said low legislative salaries made it necessary for some to access those funds. She said that was particularly true for those who don't have the personal wealth, retirement pensions or other income to make up for the loss of wages while serving in the Legislature.

The annual salary for legislators has been $15,396 since 2002.

"I had a number of folks who were going to be not only 'Nos' but 'hell Nos' if anything that looked like that was still in the bill," she said.