Oregon awash in political ads, spending, with $11.3 million this month; see which campaigns unleashed big bucks

Powerbrokers in Oregon have unleashed more than $11.3 million on political ads and other campaign spending for state and local races in April, topped by at least $5.3 million – or more than $200,000 a day – spent for and against candidates for governor.

Big spending on one current ballot measure to overturn a local ban on flavored tobacco and another potential one to punish legislators who walk out on the job helped push this month’s outlay for and against measures to $1.3 million through Tuesday.

And turbo-charged races for two seats on the Portland City Council have also helped make this month sizzle with big political spending. Altogether, more than half a million dollars were spent in the first four weeks of April alone to influence voters’ selections in those two contests.

And there’s no indication the fevered outlays to get voters’ attention and sway their opinions will do anything but accelerate as May 17 draws closer. Most voters’ ballots are arriving this week.

The biggest spender of all this month has been Christine Drazan, the former House Republican leader running for her party’s nomination for governor. She reported spending nearly $900,000, most of it for TV ads. She spent more in the first four weeks of April than in the three previous months.

Close on Drazan’s heels is a candidate who won’t even appear on the May 17 ballot: former Democratic lawmaker Betsy Johnson, who is running for governor independent of any party. She spent nearly $800,000 on her campaign so far this month, $600,000 of it with a single Maryland-based media buying firm that works mainly with Democratic and progressive campaigns.

As an independent, Johnson will bypass the primary and won’t appear on the ballot until the November general election. But she is already spending heavily to promote her candidacy – and labor unions and the national Democratic governors association have already amassed and spent more than $110,000 designed to take Johnson down.

The two leading Democratic candidates for governor, Tina Kotek and Tobias Read, were nearly neck-and-neck this month through Tuesday. Kotek reported spending about $600,000 on her statewide race, while Read reported about $565,000 on his, with both reporting most of that on advertising.

While that’s sizable spending for a statewide race, both were outdone by the opponents of an unrelated ballot measure being decided in just one piece of Oregon: Washington County. National anti-tobacco forces have flooded advertising platforms with their messaging against flavored tobacco products and against a measure that would overturn the Washington County Commission’s ban on sales of flavored tobacco in any form. Their advertising budget for April reached $700,000 – or about $5 for every Washington County voter expected to cast a ballot in the May 17 primary.

As the Oregonian has reported, new limits on campaign contributions in Portland City Council races haven’t exactly dampened spending on the races to help govern Oregon’s largest city. In addition to up to $200,000 in public matching funds, two of the candidates running against more progressive challengers – political newcomer Vadim Mozyrsky and incumbent Dan Ryan – are benefiting from independent campaign expenditures that are expected to go as high as $700,000.

Mozyrsky, an administrative law judge, and Rene Gonzalez, a lawyer and tech company owner, are both challenging a second Portland City Council incumbent, Jo Ann Hardesty. She was the first candidate to qualify for the full $200,000 match, given her strength at raising small donations from many city residents. But she is facing tough competition from both men, who are running to her right on issues of homelessness, public safety and treatment of drug users.

In the first four months of April, Ryan reported spending $175,000 on his campaign while Gonzalez reported spending $155,000 on his.

Meanwhile, however, the political committee formed to blitz in favor of Mozyrsky and Ryan, Portland United, reported spending $177,000 for ads last week. Most of that cash was provided by the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors.

The biggest name and most polarizing figure in either City Council race, Hardesty, has spent very little so far. As of Thursday, her campaign reported spending $61,000 altogether, including just $16,000 this month, almost none of it for ads. She reported having more than $200,000 on hand.

But then, at 1 minute before midnight Thursday, her campaign disclosed it had spent $52,000 on online and social media advertising last week. Campaigns can withhold reporting expenditures for seven days, as Hardesty’s did in this instance. The Portland Association of Teachers also disclosed Thursday that it independently spent $20,000 on campaign mailers to promote Hardesty, whom it endorsed earlier this year.

Another contest with notable amounts of spending: the race for Washington County district attorney. Challenger Brian Decker reported spending $97,000 so far this month in his race to unseat one-term incumbent Kevin Barton. Barton spent less than half as much, $42,000, in the same period.

Decker, who has raised more than $400,000 for his campaign, received $150,000 from Aaron Boonshaft, who inherited millions from his commodities futures trader father and is best known in Oregon as the backer of a proposed ballot measure to decriminalize prostitution and other sex work. Former Oregon lawmaker Chip Shields gave Decker more than $37,000.

Barton, who has raised $435,000, reported $285,000 of it remained unspent as of this week, compared to $192,000 still banked by Decker.

Barton’s first campaign, in 2018, was heavily funded by Nike, and his largest donor by far this cycle is Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who contributed $100,000. Columbia Sportswear president Tim Boyle, prepared foods company executive Pat Reser and the Beaverton police union are among the 10 donors who have each given Barton $10,000.

Decker’s April spending was focused on TV ads, online advertising, ad production and mailers. Barton’s much leaner spending this month has also been primarily devoted to producing and putting out ads and mailers.