PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Auditor's office has reopened an investigation into whether mayoral candidate Rene Gonzalez, who is currently a city commissioner, violated Portland's campaign finance law by using $6,400 in city funds to hire an independent contractor to make edits to his own Wikipedia page.
The change of course comes about two weeks after the office issued a determination of no violation due to insufficient evidence, though Chief Deputy Auditor Reed Brodersen wrote in a letter to Gonzalez that the decision was an "exceedingly close call" and noted that the office's rules give it a 30-day window in which determinations can be withdrawn for reconsideration if new information comes to light.
That scenario ended up happening, according to a notice posted by the Auditor's office on Wednesday. The letter, addressed to Gonzalez and his campaign, states that the office received new information that prompted it to reconsider its findings, and said it would issue a new determination on or before Oct. 31.
The notice does not say anything about the content of the new information or where it came from, although the previous letter in mid-September stated that the office was still waiting on documents from a public records request with the city.
The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by a member of the organization Portland for All, alleging that Gonzalez used city funds to hire the contractor, WhiteHatWiki, to make edits to his Wikipedia page such as adjusting parts of the description of his mayoral platform and removing mention of a Portland Mercury article that criticized him for tagging a member of the far-right Patriot Prayer group in a Twitter post.
Some of the requests came from Gonzalez's staff, according to the Auditor's office, but Gonzalez himself was aware of and approved eight edits in total.
The claim about the hiring of WhiteHatWiki was undisputedly true, the Auditor's office found, but it concluded that there was mixed evidence about the motivation behind the edits, leading to the determination of insufficient evidence to establish a campaign finance violation.
The Gonzalez campaign referred questions to the commissioner's city office. KGW has reached out to Gonzalez's office and will update this story if we hear back.
