Oregon Public Broadcasting

You may have noticed how different post-election life is in Oregon.  For one thing: no more political ads. 

All told, over the past few months more than $50 million has been spent by candidates, campaigns, and outside political interest groups. Ethan Lindsey reports.

At the Portland Convention Center on Election night, hundreds of Oregonians celebrated the election of Barack Obama, and the victory of dozens of Democrats in state and local races.

Union-backed interest groups also declared victory on a number of hard-fought ballot measures.

John Foote is the Clackamas County district attorney and one of the supporters of Ballot Measure 57, the legislative referral to increase prison terms for certain drug and theft crimes.

John Foote: “The great thing is that 57 represents a compromise with a great coalition of people: teachers, corrections officers, police officers, prosecutors, senior citizens, who all want to do something about crime.”

In fact, they want to do so much that they gave over $20 million to help pass 57 and defeat seven others.

The Oregon Education Association spent $5 million to defeat a number of ballot measures by anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore.

The National Education Association spent $2.5 million, and the state’s big service workers union spent more than million on the races as well.

All told, unions spent far more than Bill Sizemore and his allies.

Though conservative donor Loren Parks did contribute almost $2 million in the cycle.

Conservative groups may have been outspent, but they prevailed on Ballot Measure 61, that would have created mandatory minimums for drug and property crimes.

And with thousands of ballots in Portland yet uncounted, they may also be able to claim victory on Ballot Measure 64, which would restrict union activities.

Janice Thompson: “Typically the top fundraiser in an Oregon legislative race wins 9 out of 10 times.”

Janice Thompson is the executive director for government watchdog Democracy Reform Oregon.

Janice Thompson: “When a financial underdog wins in a candidate race, their fundraising is pretty darn close. That correlation is not as firm with ballot measures. So, Oregonians are a little better with ballot measures at taking a look at them and parsing out what they think about them.”

On the candidates side, more than $25 million was spent on the Senate race between incumbent Republican Gordon Smith and Democrat Jeff Merkley. That race is now officially the most expensive campaign in state history.

And Thompson points out that Democrats Judy Stiegler, in Bend, and Toby Forsberg, in Clackamas County, each spent more than half-a-million-dollars  to win state legislative seats in red districts.

Thompson says she’s dismayed by that amount of money being spent for a seat in a part-time state legislature. She says Oregon needs to look at further campaign finance reform or politics will just get more and more expensive.

Marc Siegel is the spokesman for the Democratic Party of Oregon.

Marc Siegel: “You know, the fact is that happens basically every cycle. The numbers always grow every cycle. Inflation, every year there’s more political groups participating, and there are more people moving to Oregon, and that’s more people you have to reach.”

For now, the T.V. ads are off the air and the fundraising has wrapped up. But Siegel says that lull may not last long.

He says Democratic candidates for 2010 will be launching their campaigns sooner than ever before.