A recent story included the sentence: “Oregon’s absence of campaign finance limits, rare among U.S. states, has meant that massive amounts of money have flowed to political candidates,” (“The clock is ticking for Oregon officials to deliver on campaign finance reform. Will they do it?” Oct. 18).
Why can’t our legislature reach out to other states, find the ones with campaign finance rules that work best and that have been tested, and then copy or modify those rules slightly to meet any needs that are uniquely Oregon?
Our state too often insists on going its own way and ends up spending millions on a unique solution – for example, on a new computer system. Then Oregon finds out that the approach it decided on has too many flaws and spends millions to fix it.
This is the one time it is permissible to peek over other states’ shoulders and plagiarize.
Laird Heater, Portland
Readers respond: Copy others for campaign finance reform
