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The Progressive Political Action Committee supporting Carmen Rubio has not disclosed its goals.

The Progressive Political Action Committee supporting Carmen Rubio has not disclosed its goals.

The Portland Voters Committee, a political action committee that has spent more than $100,000 promoting progressive candidates for city office, including mayoral candidate Commissioner Carmen Rubio, did not disclose in its reports who it spent the money to support.

This appears to be a violation of state election law, which states that PACs and independent spending campaigns must disclose which candidates their money is being spent on supporting or opposing which candidates. “If a committee or independent recorder of expenditures makes independent expenditures, those independent expenditures must disclose the independent expenditures identifying the candidate, measure, or political party, indicate support or opposition, and the amount allocated to the candidate, measure, or political party,” it states. in a statement from the state. according to campaign finance guidelines.

The Portland Voter Guide admits it did not disclose which candidates the money was spent supporting.

“We didn’t know there was a mechanism to disaggregate and allocate our expenses in committee reports,” says Portland Voter Guide Treasurer Jenny Lee. “We reached out to (our compliance service provider), who had not previously contacted us, to include this in our reporting of which candidates the Portland Voter Guide supports.”

After WW After contacting the Portland Voter Guide, it updated its spending reports to reflect which candidates it spent its money supporting.

Portland Voter Guide has spent $103,000 so far on campaign materials, mostly through mailers, door hangers and online advertising.

One of the PAC’s mailings urges voters to put Rubio first on their ranked-choice ballots, put Keith Wilson second and put Liv Ostus third. The mailing also urges voters not to put Rene Gonzalez on their ballot for mayor. . “Don’t rate Rene Gonzalez,” the mailer said.

The same flyer asks voters to place Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Steve Novick on the District 3 City Council ballot.

Other mailers and door hangers sponsored by the Portland Voter Guide, copies of which the PAC provided WWtell voters which City Council candidates should be ranked in all four districts.

None of the five major expenditures reported by the PAC on political ads and flyers as of Friday morning reflected which candidates were expected to benefit from those expenditures or were criticized. By 3 p.m. Friday, the Portland Voter Directory had updated all of its data to reflect all candidates supported or opposed.

The PAC received donations totaling $336,600, according to campaign finance reports. The largest contributors to the group come from the political arms of the city’s large progressive nonprofit organizations. Other PAC members include the political arms of Basic Rights Oregon, Next Up, Service Employees International Union, Portland Teachers Association and Sierra Club.

The largest checks allocated to Portland voters, totaling $50,000, came from the East County Rising PAC, which Oregonian reported last weekhas received at least $115,000 in recent weeks from Future PAC, the political wing of Oregon House Democrats, marking a departure from the way the PAC typically spends only on statewide legislative races.

Lee says that while Rubio is “the only candidate recommended by Portland voters,” the PAC plans to “report our proposed ranking of the other two mayoral candidates, as well as all the candidates we have endorsed or opposed.”