Skip to main content
The Oregon Department of Justice has dismissed an elections complaint against state Sen. Shemia Fagan (D-Portland) after completing an investigation last week. Fagan won the Democratic Party's nomination for secretary of state in the May 19 primary.
The complaint, filed by Ryan Wruck, initially a candidate in the race and later a volunteer for Fagan's leading opponent, state Sen. Mark Hass (D-Beaverton), took issue with a website called oregoniansforballotaccess.com.
Wruck told a state investigator he based his complaint on a May 6 story in WW. The story reported on displeasure within the Democratic Party about Fagan's campaign website.
Related: Veteran Lawmaker Blasts Longtime Ally for Tactics in Oregon Secretary of State Campaign.
In his complaint, Wruck alleged the website "was in support of Ms. Fagan, but posed as a neutral site and was deliberately misleading to uninformed voters. It further alleged that the algorithms in internet search engines had been 'tricked' so that this website would appear first when a candidate's name was searched," according to the DOJ report by Assistant Attorney General Michael W. Grant.
In his investigation, Grant determined that Winning Mark, the firm run by the Portland political consultant Mark Wiener, built and maintained the website for Oregonians for Ballot Access. Winning Mark purchased advertising from Google, which then placed the website at the top of search results related to the campaign. That, rather than any nefarious algorithm, explained why the website popped up first on internet searches about the race, Grant found.
Grant further determined that the website, which emphasized Fagan's accomplishments and endorsements while downplaying those of Hass and a third candidate, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, complied with all state elections rules.
And although Wruck did not allege any campaign finance violations, Grant found that the website and the Google advertising were properly accounted for in the state's campaign finance reporting system.
"Our investigation did not identify any Oregon election law violations relating to the allegations," Grant concluded. (Normally, the Secretary of State's Office investigates elections complaints, but because this complaint involved a race for that office, DOJ investigated instead.)
"It should come as no surprise that a baseless complaint levied against our campaign was dismissed for being, in fact, a baseless complaint," Bryn Thomas, a spokesperson from Fagan's campaign said in a statement. Wiener declined to comment.
Fagan now faces the GOP nominee, state Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), in the November general election.