Gonzalez Supporter Files Elections Complaint With State About Keith Wilson and His Family’s Campaign Donations

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office has received an elections complaint about the donation patterns of Portland mayoral candidate Keith Wilson and his family.

As WW reported last week, Wilson, a front-runner for mayor, donated to 49 candidates for city office this year. In total, Wilson, his wife and his children donated 130 times in the past year. Twenty-two of those candidates received donations from all four members of the Wilson family. Nearly all of those candidates contributed to Wilson’s campaign.

The complaint was filed by Kim McGair, a longtime supporter of Wilson’s rival, mayoral candidate and City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez. It alleges that the Wilson family donations represent a “quid pro quo arrangement.”

“Keith Wilson’s family, particularly his college age children, made numerous donations to candidates which are likely: 1) donations by Keith himself; 2) contribution swapping in violation of Oregon law. It is completely unbelievable that his college age children independently chose to give 25 and 27 (respectively) donations to the exact same candidates who also gave donations to Mr. Wilson,” McGair wrote in the Oct. 25 complaint, a copy of which was shared with WW. “This is clearly an orchestrated quid pro quo arrangement that violates Oregon law and makes a complete mockery of Portland’s small donor program.”

Wilson says that at no point did he ask to swap donations with other candidates under an agreement of reciprocity.

“I have not engaged in donation swaps with other candidates,” Wilson told WW last week. “I have always donated to candidates and causes I believe in and support, as has my family. In many cases, I let these candidates know that I supported them. In some cases, those candidates supported my campaign as well.”

Wilson and his family collectively made 130 donations to 49 candidates under the city’s Small Donor Elections program, which matches small donations by up to a 9-to-1 match. Twenty-two of those candidates received donations from all four of the Wilsons. Another nine candidates received donations from Wilson and at least one member of his family.

In an email to a City Council candidate in July, Wilson wrote: “Thank you also for the $20 to my campaign,” Wilson wrote. “Katherine [and my children] just donated $5 to your campaign. I am hopeful your family and friends would donate to my campaign as well.”

Eli Arnold, another City Council candidate, says Wilson reached out to him in the summer and “did tell me he and his family were going to support me.” Timur Ender, a City Council candidate in District 1, says a campaign strategy of his was to “connect with previous Portland donors of our campaign and see if there were others in their family or network who could also donate. As part of that effort, I reached out to Keith to ask if there were others in his family who could also make a small contribution to our campaign.”

Wilson’s two children said in a joint statement that they donated to the more than two dozen city candidates using their own money. “We often discuss politics as a family and talk about supporting various candidates,” the two Wilson children wrote. “In this case, we both decided to make contributions totaling roughly $180 to help various candidates for office who we believe will do good things for Portland.”

The candidates to whom Wilson’s family gave money span from progressive to moderate, across all four geographic voting districts, and from obscure to serious.

Twelve candidates for city office are currently under investigation by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office for agreeing in writing to make reciprocal donations. Those agreements, first revealed by WW in early September, are likely violations of a state law that prohibits exerting “undue influence,” according to three elections lawyers WW consulted.

McGair, who filed the complaint, has been a staunch supporter of Gonzalez since he first entered politics in 2022, ousting incumbent City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. The two know each other through a youth soccer club that Gonzalez led before taking office. McGair was one of the leading advocates for reopening Portland-area schools in the wake of the pandemic, a cause Gonzalez also supported.

The Secretary of State’s Office declined to share a copy of the complaint, saying it was currently under review.