Phase 1
In the 2024 legislative session, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 4024, which made significant changes to Oregon’s campaign finance laws including establishing campaign contribution limits.
The Legislature then passed House Bill 4018 in the 2026 legislative session, which made additional changes and adjusted timelines for implementation.
The Elections Division has been tasked with implementing these new laws. Implementation requires system changes to ORESTAR, creating new and updating existing administrative rules, internal process changes, external guidance development, and trainings for users.
This page will be updated as implementation progresses and when more is known about future implementation phases. The information on this page should not be interpreted as legal advice.
There are six core deliverables as part of Phase 1 of campaign finance reform implementation. The Secretary of State’s office is currently on track to complete all of these items by the statutory deadline of January 1, 2027.
- Update administrative rules and the Campaign Finance Manual to assist with clear public communication about the contribution limits and related requirements.
- Retrofit data inputs for ORESTAR so it can accept newly required information.
- Expand ORESTAR capacity to allow for clear capturing and display of new campaign contribution limits.
- Improve ORESTAR functionality to allow for protection of personal addresses as required by Senate Bill 224 from the 2025 legislative session.
- Establish internal staff training for the Elections Division’s staff to assist the public and external users.
- Provide training for external ORESTAR users.
Yes, the project is currently on track. The project team is cross functional and is designed to ensure any risks to policy, rules, system development, testing, communications, and training are all quickly addressed.
However, there is no margin for unanticipated delays as we work toward the January 1, 2027, deadline set by the Oregon Legislature.
House Bill 4024 was passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2024. The bill made significant changes to Oregon’s campaign finance laws, including:
- Creating campaign contribution limits
- Prohibiting creation of networks to evade contribution limits
- Changing the types of political committees (creates new committee types and discontinues others)
- Creating additional disclosure requirements for certain independent expenditures
- Establishing a 60-day investigation timeline into alleged violations
- Creates significant penalties for violations
- Limiting candidates’ ability to roll campaign funds into the
House Bill 4018 was passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2026. The bill was drafted to make the implementation of House Bill 4024 more feasible because without certain changes, it would have been nearly impossible to implement on the given timeline. The bill made changes to some operative dates, definitions, disclosure requirements, and contribution limits.
Different aspects of House Bill 4024 and House Bill 4018 have different operative dates to allow for error-free implementation. The Secretary of State’s office is currently focused on Phase 1 implementation with a January 1, 2027, deadline, which includes campaign contribution limits, changes to disclosure requirements for certain independent expenditures, penalties for new violations, and rules around carry-over funds.
The campaign contribution limits established in HB 4024 and HB 4018 vary depending on who the contributor is and the recipient committee’s category.
For example, the contribution limits for an individual contributor are:
- To a candidate committee, $3,300 per election.
- To a multicandidate political committee, $5,000 per year.
- To a political party multicandidate political committee, $10,000 per year.
- To a legislative caucus political committee, $10,000 per year.
- To a small donor political committee, $250 per year.
- Contributions to a membership organization political committee, independent expenditure-only political committee, measure committee, recall committee, or petition committee are unlimited.
- Rulemaking begins – August 2026
- Public comment period begins – August 2026
- Rulemaking concludes – November 2026
- Campaign Finance Manual updated – November 2026
- External trainings offered – December 2026
- New ORESTAR functionality released – January 1, 2027
Between January 1, 2027, and March 30, 2027, existing Political Action Committees (PACs) will have an opportunity to reorganize as a Small Donor Political Committee if they have met certain conditions for the duration of the 24 months immediately preceding their reorganization:
- 90% or more of the total contributions received by the PAC was from:
- Individuals; and
- Not more than $250 per individual per calendar year
PACs that want to reorganize as a Small Donor Political Committee will not be able to make this change in ORESTAR until January 1, 2027. However, the PAC should update its internal processes to ensure they meet the criteria above.
Example: if a PAC wants to reorganize as a Small Donor Political Committee on January 1, 2027, it must have begun complying with the criteria above on January 1, 2025.
Political committees that want to operate as Small Donor Committees at the local level must continue to follow local laws and rules in addition to complying with the criteria above.
Starting on January 1, 2027, new Small Donor Political Committees will be able to register as such in the online filing system. To qualify as a new Small Donor Political Committee, the committee must meet the following conditions:
- May not accept more than $250 per year from an individual; and
- May not accept contributions from any other source, including:
- Candidate Committees;
- Multicandidate Political Committees;
- Political Party Committees;
- Legislative Caucus Committees;
- Membership Organizations; or
- Another Small Donor Political Committee
Any Miscellaneous PAC that remains registered as such by March 31, 2027, will be automatically reorganized as a Multicandidate Political Committee.