The City of Portland’s elections office has stuck Mayor Ted Wheeler’s campaign with a $500 fine for bending the city’s campaign finance rules.
According to City Elections Officer Deborah Scroggin, Wheeler’s campaign was fined for printing a list of top donors on a recent campaign mailer in too small of a font. Scroggin said this style choice violates a newly-enacted requirement for Portland candidates to “prominently” display their top donors on any form of campaign communication with the public.
This isn’t Wheeler’s first violation of the city’s campaign finance rules this election cycle, but it is the first time his campaign has been fined. Wheeler was sent a warning on April 21 for not listing any of his campaign’s top contributors on his campaign website and social media accounts, as required.
Scroggin said the $500 fine was necessary because of his campaign’s history of violations. The maximum fine for this particular disclosure violation is $3,000.
Apparently the fines aren’t anywhere high enough to keep Wheeler from violating finance regulations and laws.
The maximum fine of $3000 is for when the City Auditor is unable to determine the cost of the communication, per their own baseless rule. The charter actually requires a 2x to 20x fine based on the cost of the communication and has no provision for making up any other random maximums.