Signature Stacks
Let Us Paddle was built on small donations, postage stamps, volunteer labor, and the hard lesson that citizen initiatives are never truly free.
By Ben Roche | Ben’s Viewpoint
Campaign-finance reports are not exactly beach reading. They are rows of receipts, postage, printing, reimbursements, contributions, and compliance costs. They are the paperwork behind the work.
But behind the Let Us Paddle PAC ledger is a story worth telling.
As of June 22, our campaign had collected 35,063 signatures supporting Initiative Petition 53, the effort to repeal Oregon’s paddlecraft Waterway Access Permit requirement. The legal threshold is 117,173 valid signatures. With the July 2 deadline approaching, it is unlikely we will reach the number needed to qualify for the ballot this cycle.
That is the honest update.
But it is not the whole story.
Through June 18, Let Us Paddle reported $3,180.68 in direct cash expenditures. Against our June 22 signature count, that works out to just over nine cents per signature—close enough to call it a dime.
And that is a conservative number. It does not fully account for reported in-kind contributions, volunteer-paid expenses, home printing, envelopes, gas, personal postage, donated counter space, folding tables, or the thousands of unpaid hours given by people who believed Oregon should not charge citizens for the simple act of paddling a kayak, canoe, raft, or paddleboard.
Last winter, I said we needed to think about the campaign in those terms. If a statewide petition drive requires roughly ten cents per signature just to cover the basic costs of printing, postage, outreach, events, and legal compliance, then a responsible goal of 150,000 raw signatures requires something near $15,000 in support.
Not to create a polished Salem political machine. Not to pay strangers to pretend they care. Just to give volunteers enough tools to do the work.
I also suggested we look for ways to coordinate with other liberty-minded petition efforts, including the No Tax Oregon team. Shared events, outreach, volunteer training, petition locations, printing opportunities, and circulator support can stretch scarce dollars farther for everyone involved.
Some people criticized that idea. They did not like the thought of political action committees working together. They did not like the reality that citizen initiatives cost money. They did not like the fact that shared materials, donated services, or coordinated activities can create campaign-finance reporting obligations.
I understand the instinct. A volunteer movement should remain volunteer-driven.
But volunteer-driven does not mean cost-free.
Oregon law still requires political committees to track contributions, expenditures, loans, in-kind donations, and certain coordinated activities. A donated box of printed material, a shared event expense, or someone covering a campaign cost can require documentation and reporting. That is not corruption. It is transparency—and frankly, it is a good thing when political organizations are required to keep receipts and show the public where the money went.
The trouble is that compliance is not free.
Our bookkeeping and management services came to roughly $1,000. That is a substantial expense for a small, volunteer-powered campaign. It is also unavoidable when the goal is to do things correctly, remain transparent, and stay focused on the petition instead of risking a paperwork mistake.
That is why I especially want to thank Friends of Christine Drazan for its $1,000 contribution to Let Us Paddle PAC.
When Christine Drazan’s personally reached out to me and asked how she could help, I explained our situation plainly: before we could buy more stamps, print more petitions, or help more volunteers, we had to pay the cost of tracking donations, documenting expenditures, and filing the reports required by law.
They stepped in to help cover that burden.
It was not money for political fluff, consultants, or a flashy campaign stunt. It helped a citizen-led effort stay legal, transparent, and alive. That is meaningful support. Sometimes it is not a campaign-stage speech or a headline-making endorsement. Sometimes it is helping pay the unglamorous cost of doing the work right.
Small Donations Matter
More than half of our reported cash contributions came in donations of $100 or less. Those were the $5, $10, $25, and $50 gifts that kept the campaign moving.
Small donations may not impress the professional political class, but they matter deeply in a grassroots campaign. They are proof that ordinary people heard the message, understood the issue, and decided to put a little skin in the game.
Every contribution helped pay for the basic machinery of a petition drive: paper, postage, printing, supplies, outreach, events, and compliance.
And the PAC report does not capture the effort that mattered most.
It does not measure the many hours Kari Goodheart, founder of Let Us Paddle, spent mailing petitions to volunteers, keeping supplies moving, answering questions, and doing the patient, unglamorous work of keeping a statewide effort alive.
It cannot put a dollar value on Angi Epperson being a steady voice of reason, support, and encouragement when the work became frustrating.
It does not fully reflect Ed Diehl’s early support, his help with producing a video how-to on circulator training, and his efforts to encourage outreach. A petition campaign does not run on a slogan alone. It needs people willing to organize, teach, encourage, and show up.
Check that video out here.
And no campaign-finance report can adequately count the more than 3,000 Oregonians who downloaded a petition sheet, printed it at home, signed it, bought a stamp, and mailed it back to us.
Those individual sheets were not a line item in our budget. But they were powerful evidence that the message resonated.
They heard it. They understood it. And they acted.
The Work No Spreadsheet Can Count
Thank you to every volunteer who set up a pop-up signature stand somewhere in Oregon. Thank you to the businesses that placed our petitions on their counters. Thank you to the people who carried sheets to community events, boat shows, meetings, fairs, parking lots, family gatherings, and anywhere Oregonians were willing to stop and listen.
That kind of movement cannot be manufactured by a consultant. It has to be earned, one conversation at a time.
Grassroots politics requires volunteers. But it also requires alliances.
A limited alliance with another group fighting the same government appetite for more taxes, more fees, more permits, and more control is not a surrender of principles. It is not a marriage certificate. It is simply recognizing political reality.
Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is not your best friend. But they may still be willing to share a booth, train a volunteer, distribute materials, split a printing cost, or help carry a box of petitions.
That is not selling out. That is learning how to survive in a political system designed to favor the well-funded and well-connected.
No Signature Was Wasted
Let Us Paddle may not reach the ballot threshold this cycle. The math, the deadline, and the verification requirements are unforgiving.
But no signature was wasted.
No stamp was wasted. No small donation was wasted. No volunteer hour was wasted.
This effort has connected thousands of Oregonians who now understand the issue. It has built a network of citizens who know that paddlecraft users should not be treated as an easy pocket to pick in order to fund invasive-species prevention.
Oregon’s waterways deserve protection. We can support environmental responsibility, hold actual invasive-species risks accountable, and still protect the liberty of families, anglers, paddlers, and recreational users.
That is the fight ahead.
Let Us Paddle may not make the ballot this cycle. But we are not done. Not even close.
Ben Roche, writer of Ben’s Viewpoint, was one of the co-chief petitioners for Let Us Paddle, the effort to repeal Oregon’s Waterway Access Permit requirement for human-powered watercraft. For more information, visit www.LetUsPaddle.com.
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