Topline: Meet the Machine Recruiting Your Next Elected Officials
Topline is a brief Oregon politics newsletter from the Crosstabs podcasters Bryan Iverson & Reagan Knopp. Send feedback or tips to hello@crosstabs.studio.
There’s a nonprofit operating out of a suite on NW 2nd Avenue in Portland that you’ve probably never heard of. They’d like to keep it that way — at least until their candidates are already in office.
Oregon Futures Lab (OFL) — formerly Color PAC Action Fund — exists to recruit, train, and elect progressive candidates of color to public office across Oregon. School boards, city councils, the legislature. All of it. They’re not shy about this in their materials. What they are shy about is the web of insider connections that makes the whole operation run.
Let’s pull on a few threads.
The State Employee on the Political Board
OFL board member Dr. Bryce Coefield holds a taxpayer-funded position as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Steward at the Oregon Department of Education. He is simultaneously serving on the board of an organization whose explicit mission is to elect people to offices that set education policy in Oregon.
That’s not a technicality. That’s a state employee — on your dime — helping run a political recruitment operation targeting the very institutions he works for. It’s the kind of thing that would generate wall-to-wall coverage if it were a Republican.
The Meyer Memorial Trust Connection
Board member Nancy Haque is the Director of Policy and Programs at Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the largest private grantmakers in the state. Meyer has distributed over $930 million to more than 3,200 Oregon organizations. Many of those same organizations also receive state contracts and public funding.
Meyer and OFL aren’t just philosophically aligned — they operate in the same tightly-knit ecosystem, funding overlapping groups, sharing personnel, and advancing the same political project under the banner of “equity work.” When people wonder how the Oregon left maintains such a durable funding infrastructure, Meyer is a big part of the answer.
The IRCO Alumni Network
Board member Josué Peña Juárez comes out of IRCO — the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization — which holds more than 54 government contracts with the State of Oregon and receives federal refugee resettlement dollars routed through Oregon DHHS. IRCO is a fine organization doing legitimate work. But it is also deeply embedded in the state funding apparatus, and its alumni are now directing a political operation aimed at electing a specific ideological slate of candidates statewide.
The Structure Is the Strategy
OFL is a 501(c)4 — meaning donations aren’t tax deductible and it can engage in political activity freely. It’s fiscally sponsored by Tides Advocacy, the national left-wing funding clearinghouse that has processed hundreds of millions of dollars for progressive causes across the country. Its sister organization, the OFL Education Fund, operates as a 501(c)3 to collect tax-deductible charitable donations for the “educational” side of the same mission.
One arm for politics. One arm for tax-deductible fundraising. It’s a well-worn playbook and it’s completely legal. It’s also how you build a durable political machine while maintaining the aesthetic of a nonprofit doing community work.
Why It Matters Heading Into 2026
Oregon Republicans are already staring down a challenging map this cycle. OFL has endorsed candidates in legislative races, school board contests, and local offices across the state — and they’ve been doing it for years while most people weren’t paying attention. They recruit early, train candidates on how to govern once elected, and plug winners into a network of allied organizations.
That’s infrastructure. And understanding where it comes from — state employees, publicly-funded nonprofits, major private foundations — is the first step to competing against it.
If you’ve got tips on other groups operating the same playbook, send them our way: hello@crosstabs.studio.