NEW: Oregon GOP Candidate Christine Drazan’s Consulting Firm “Pocketed Nearly $100k From Her Nonprofit With Little Oversight”

NEW: Oregon GOP Candidate Christine Drazan’s Consulting Firm “Pocketed Nearly $100k From Her Nonprofit With Little Oversight”

Drazan under scrutiny for shady arrangement that creates “opportunity for corruption and a kind of insider self-dealing” 

Breaking new reporting from the Oregon Capital Chronicle reveals how Christine Drazan’s dark money group “paid nearly $100,000 to a consulting firm she owns with her husband,” while failing to disclose the potential conflict of interest.

Drazan is coming under intense scrutiny from local experts who have major concerns about her self-dealing. They’ve said the payments “raise questions” about the nature of the dark money group, this type of transaction creates an “opportunity for corruption and a kind of insider self-dealing,” and the situation presents a “heightened concern.”

As the Executive Director of Common Cause Oregon put it, “If this is just an extension of your campaign, when you’re doing the work of your campaign and you’re raising money, why do you need to do that through another entity?”

Read more on Drazan’s self-dealing below:

Oregon Capital Chronicle: How Drazan’s Consulting Firm Pocketed Nearly $100k From Her Nonprofit With Little Oversight

• An Oregon nonprofit founded by state Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, did not maintain a conflict of interest policy when it paid nearly $100,000 to a consulting firm she owns with her husband, missing a key step to help prove the transaction complied with tax law, records show.

• …nonprofit experts question whether the organization followed best practices suggested by the IRS and good government advocates say the payments raise questions about the purpose and nature of the nonprofit.
• “Whenever a nonprofit organization engages in any transactions and decisions that will have a financial impact on its insiders – directors, officers, founders and leaders – or their families and businesses, there is an opportunity for corruption and a kind of insider self-dealing,” David Atkin, senior attorney at the Eugene-based Center for Nonprofit Law, said in a statement.

• Susan Gary, professor emerita at the University of Oregon School of Law, said… Drazan’s situation presents a “heightened concern” about the use of the nonprofit’s finances to improperly benefit a person with influence over the organization. 

• Representatives for Drazan’s campaign and A New Direction didn’t provide such information responding to questions from the Capital Chronicle, and Drazan declined a phone interview through her campaign. Her husband did not respond to a phone call and a voicemail seeking comment.

• The Internal Revenue Service recommends that nonprofit organizations such as A New Direction take steps to document conflicts of interest, a board vote on the payments, and competing projected costs for similar services. That’s to avoid excise taxes penalizing “excess benefits” when tax-exempt nonprofit insiders are paid more than is “reasonable” for their services.
• A New Direction had no documented conflict of interest policies in 2023 or 2024, federal tax forms show, meaning the organization missed an opportunity to follow what experts describe as best practices to avoid concerns of private inurement. One good government advocate said that people who have a history of serving in public office should hold themselves to a higher standard.

• “Our expectations should be that anyone who is elected or is running to be elected, at any given time, doesn’t have conflicts, is working in the public interest, and is keeping all of their incentives and the funding and all that completely above board,” said Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon. “I think we’ve lost that expectation in this state.”

• “When there’s money passing from one entity to another, it raises a question, ‘Well, why?’” Titus said. “If this is just an extension of your campaign, when you’re doing the work of your campaign and you’re raising money, why do you need to do that through another entity?”

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