Drazan: Bill cracks down on campaign finance crimes

Drazan to introduce legislation cracking down on campaign finance crimes
Announcement follows OR DOJ decision to not prosecute controversial 2022 donation
By Christine Drazan
Former State Representative

Canby, Ore. – Christine Drazan today announced her intent to introduce legislation cracking down on campaign finance crimes in Oregon. Drazan, who is unopposed in the race for House District 51, made the announcement following the Oregon Department of Justice’s failure to prosecute violations of state law involving a $500,000 contribution made to the Democratic Party of Oregon.

“Unfortunately, no one is surprised that a Department of Justice led by partisan Democrats found a way to help fellow partisan Democrats evade justice,” said Drazan, the 2022 Republican nominee for governor. “This was an obvious and egregious violation of a basic law requiring individuals to list their true name on their campaign donations. This crook wanted to hide in the shadows and buy an election. Democrats in Oregon worked together to help him get away with it. This was not and is not a complicated case. If the Oregon Department of Justice will let felony lawbreakers off without so much as a slap on the wrist, then I’ll introduce legislation in 2025 requiring them to do their job.”

Coverage by The Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday highlighted the Department’s failures, as well as key facts that suggested an obvious breach of the law:

“Oregon Department of Justice officials announced Wednesday that they closed their investigation into a former cryptocurrency executive’s $500,000 political donation to the state Democratic Party in 2022 without finding enough evidence to prove the misreported contribution criminally violated state campaign finance laws. (…)

Emails were later released that showed Democratic officials asking Singh’s representatives how they should report his donation. For example, the party’s compliance director asked Singh who should be listed as the “donor of record” in Oregon campaign finance records. A person in Singh’s office wrote back, “Nishad prefers Prime Trust.”

Under Oregon law, it is a Class C felony to make or accept a campaign contribution under a “false name.” (…)

Slauson similarly wrote in a letter to the secretary of state’s elections program manager that state Democratic Party officials who agreed to report the donation came from Prime Trust relied on a fundraising consultant who told them so. The party officials did so even though some of them knew Prime Trust had earlier been falsely reported as the source of a large contribution to a political committee outside Oregon that was in fact given by Singh and his boss, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

The article goes on to discuss the close ties between the Department of Justice, Oregon Secretary of State’s office, and the Democratic Party of Oregon.

“Our state’s top prosecutors and elections officials have a duty to enforce the law and ensure everyone plays by the same rules,” concluded Drazan. “Protecting the integrity of our elections is protecting our democracy. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass meaningful legislation to crack down on campaign finance crimes in Oregon and ensure those who perpetuate them do not get away with it.”

You can read The Oregonian’s story in its entirety here.