Article II, Section 22 through 24 of the Oregon State Constitution.

In this post, we will look at Article II, Sections 22 through 24 of the Oregon State Constitution.

In section 22, this limits political campaign contributions.  So the argument here is that in order to sway voters to vote for someone or something, you need to get a message out to the audience in a way that engages them and motivates them to vote.  This is in many ways much the same purpose as consumer product advertising, where the goal is to motivate people to go to a store and purchase a specific product.  Sadly human beings are quite gullible creatures.  Often it is not too much work implant an idea into people's heads.  The large consumer goods manufacturers like Proctor and Gamble are famous for creating "brands".  Nowadays, the crafting of the message takes a lot of skill and money.  All else being equal, the side with the most money will win because they can campaign (or "advertise") better and louder.  Here is an interesting case study from the 2010 election cycle.

So what is it limited to?  The section states that campaign money spent in a jurisdiction has to originate in that jurisdiction with an extra 10% allowed to come from outside the jurisdiction.  It would not be too difficult to circumvent this law in some manner that is very difficult to trace or prove.  Nonetheless, I suppose it does somewhat limit the direct influence of anyone who would want to play kingmaker in politics.

In section 23, this prevents someone from writing an amendment to the constitution that says it takes a three fourths majority to repeal or amend it, then pass it with just a majority.  This seems like it is common sense, but I guess without a rule against it, someone probably tried to do so.

In section 24, it gives some guidance as to what to do when a candidate who is successfully nominated and on the ballot happens to pass away during the course of the election campaign.  The Legislative Assembly (more likely a operative committee of some sort) can do postpone the election, leave the position open, or continue with the election and disregard the votes for the candidate.  The statute for certain offices is here which specifies that if the death occurs after the 47th day prior to the general election, the election is delayed and replaced with a special election.  A scan of search results could not find any specific cases where this has happened.