Progressives build grassroots campaign in Salem-Keizer School Board race
Far-right candidates - Chandragiri, Troutt & Hudson - rely mostly on dark PAC $
Campaign finance tells you almost everything you need to know about the integrity of a candidate. And, especially for extremely local elections like school boards, you want folks that actually represent the community they serve.
To gauge whether a school board candidate really has community backing via campaign finance records, you want to look for those candidates with what’s commonly thought of as “grassroots” support - or support that exists & manifests organically. That means “individual donations” in campaign finance land. (sounds like a terribly boring place)
And through the lens of campaign finance, you can get a good sense of grassroots support when you separate those candidates with more donations from individuals from those who power their campaigns from the other end of the finance spectrum - dark money from political action committees.
When you apply that rubric to the three races for open Salem-Keizer School Board director positions, it’s clear who the community supports through grassroots support. It’s also very clear who relies on dark money.
Quick recap of who’s who in the May 16th school board elections in Salem-Keizer School District.
Salem-Keizer School District - Zone #2
Cynthia Richardson
Casity Troutt
Salem-Keizer School District - Zone #4
Kelley Strawn
Satya Chandragiri
Salem-Keizer School District - Zone #6
Larry G. Scruggs
Krissy Hudson
First, a look at the overall breakdown when you compare progressive candidates (Richardson, Strawn & Scruggs) with the far-right candidates (Chandragiri, Troutt & Hudson) as groups.
Totals raised (through May 1, 2023)
Far-right - $72,816
Progressive - $53,168
Major takeaways
Just 24% of far-right campaign finance comes from grassroots support
Nearly 75% of progressive support is grassroots.
An overwhelming majority of the money raised by far-right candidates comes from political action committees - specifically Marion+Polk First & Oregon Right to Life
Progressives are clearly running people-powered campaigns
Now, here’s a look at grassroots support by zone. The trends are very similar to the overall trend of progressive campaigns being powered by actual people, and far-right campaigns powered by dark money.
Zone #4 - Chandragiri and Strawn
Totals raised (through May 1, 2023)
Chandragiri - $34,061
Strawn - $24,190
Major takeaways
This is the highest money race, with Chandragiri the top recipient and Strawn in second overall.
Of the three races, Chandragiri leans the heaviest on money from businesses. Which, for purposes of a school board election, is a curious place to draw that much of your support (more than $6k, in this case).
Strawn earns a strong ¾ of his donations from grassroots sources (individual donations)
Zone #6 - Hudson & Scruggs
Totals raised (through May 1, 2023)
Hudson - $15,296
Scruggs - $5,558
Major takeaways
Of the three races, this is the lowest volume in terms of political donations - with Scruggs trailing all candidates with just around $5k.
However, this race also carries the strongest disparity in candidates. Hudson is, purely by looking at campaign finance, a candidate propped up entirely by special interests and dark money. Around $14.5k of her $15k+ total is PAC money. Which is…scary, honestly.
Scruggs is nearly 80% grassroots.
Scruggs has the highest level of self-funding. But the raw dollar amount is $750.
Zone #2 - Troutt & Richardson
Totals raised (through May 1, 2023)
Richardson - $23,420
Troutt - $23,458
Major takeaways
Troutt takes the most dark PAC money of all candidates, across all races ($18,287). She is also arguably the most extreme right-wing candidate in the race with her publicly documented views on diversity, book-banning, anti-LGBTQ+, and more. It’s likely not a coincidence that her campaign exists largely because of dark money that’s difficult to track to origin.
Richardson’s campaign finance profile is basically the average for progressive candidates. Almost entirely grassroots.
Any patterns, trends, or anything interesting we missed?
Shit - almost forgot one other thing. What if I told you that most of this money raised on the far-right side of the race was being spent with one person? And that person has some interesting and deep connections in Oregon politics? That would be weird, right? You’d probably want to hear more about that.
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