What do you do when somebody tries to pass a campaign finance reform that might limit your impact on elections?

If you are Oregon’s public employee’s unions, you propose measures to squelch that effort and keep your financial impact.

We learned about this effort thanks to the reporting of The Oregonian.

Campaign spending in Oregon is essentially a free-for-all. If you made millions and millions on sneakers, if you are a union group or a business group, you can essentially pour millions and millions into campaigns.

No limits. You just have to disclose it.

More than $70 million was spent on the Oregon governor’s race last year. Does the money spent determine the election? No. It helps.

People who are worried about the influence of money on elections have a ballot measure aimed at 2024 to diminish its role, the so-called “Honest Elections” measure.

It’s more than 40 pages long. Basically, it would put tight limits for individuals and groups on campaign contributions.

For instance, during any election period, the maximum for an individual would be $2,000 for a candidate for statewide elected office; $1,000 for nonstatewide public office and $500 for local public office. There would be a $10,000 limit on contributions from groups with members, such as a labor organization.

Our Oregon, a union group, has two potential measures of its own designed to undo that one.

The limits in the two measures are nowhere near as restrictive. They do limit an individual to the same $2,000 for statewide office. Call that the Phil Knight limit.

The two measures also contain a section to strip away any competing measure. A competing measure would be repealed if one of the Our Oregon measures wins by a vote, according to the language of the measures. It wouldn’t only be the sections that conflicted that were zapped. It would be the whole measure. That may be something for lawyers to sort out.

Our Oregon doesn’t seem to be crusading against the role of money in politics; it is out to preserve the influence of its money in politics.