[EL] Oregon Excludes Campaign Contributions from Bribery Statute; Do Other States?

[Steve Klein]

Texas has a carve-out that's fairly well-defined, though a pending appellate case attempted to circumvent it and charge bribery for what should have been, at worst, illegal campaign contributions.

Despite unlimited contributions in Oregon, I'm hesitant to be alarmed at reimbursed expenses and de minimis salaries for political work. Bar tabs can get a little crazy at times, but $8,500 over two years is far from that (but if someone thinks I should start going to meetings, please email me off list). The hiring of relatives continues to be a strange red herring - these are the people one can often trust most on a campaign, and providing them the ability to do it full time instead of a professional is no vice.

Post-McDonnell, one could still be successfully charged federally with honest services fraud "for money to a public official in direct exchange for the public official’s official act, including a vote on a bill or approval of a government contract for the person or her business[.]" They'll just need evidence and proper jury instructions. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 25, 2016, at 5:41 AM, Dan Meek <dan at meek.net> wrote:
> 
> I have written a short article here:
> https://www.oregonoutpost.com/good-news-will-no-illegal-bribery-oregon/
> 
> It shows that the Oregon statute defining the crime of bribery of a public official excludes from consideration all campaign contributions.  Thus, it appears to me that a person can hand over money to a public official in direct exchange for the public official’s official act, including a vote on a bill or approval of a government contract for the person or her business, as long as the money is deemed a “political campaign contribution.”
> 
> And in Oregon recipients of campaign contributions can use the money for a lot of purposes I would not consider to be "campaigning."  For example, the Speaker of the Oregon House paid herself $1855 per month as a salary from the PAC she was the treasurer of.  See http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/11/val_hoyle_oregon_house_majorit.html. Rep. Mike Schauffler used campaign money to pay his bar tabs (about $8,500 in 2 years) and pay himself $400 a month for use of a room in his own apartment.  See http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-17463-perfectly-legal.html.  Many recipients of campaign contributions in Oregon use the money to hire their relatives or friends to work on their campaigns or in their legislative offices.
> 
> My question:  Do the bribery statutes of other states exclude "campaign contributions" from the definition of bribery of public officials?
> 
> Dan Meek
> 
> 503-293-9021	dan at meek.net	855-280-0488 fax
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20160725/2bdf2504/attachment.html>