Our Oregon feeding off Salem’s lack of accountability
The zany lefty union-funded group “Our Oregon” is getting an uncomfortable amount of coddling from Oregon Executive offices. Our Oregon is known for, among other things, being union thugs who run campaigns to create a bunch of tomfoolery in areas where petitioners are trying to get signatures. An example of a such person is Jeanne Berg of Oregon, who was hired to block petitioning in Oklahoma by libertarian activist Paul Jacob, who was arrested last week on charges of conspiracy to defraud the state, which was caused by the state’s vague description of “resident.” (see www.freepauljacob.com for more info).
Berg’s understudy is Patty Wentz, a former reporter of the Willamette Week who went on to take charge of Our Oregon, and who was recently hired as Governor Kulongoski’s interim spokeswomen while his press secretary has a baby. My point to all this comes from this report by Richard Leonetti. He discovered that Our Oregon did not file any campaign contribution and expenditure reports with Secretary of State Bill Bradbury.
Oregon law clearly requires that any person or entity that accepts money (“contributions”) to be used in a political campaign must register as a political committee (ORS 260.005(16)). The law also requires every political committee active in a general election to file at least 3 contribution and expenditure reports in every election year (ORS 260.073). Apparently, “Our Oregon” disregarded the law, never registered, and never reported its contributions.
Leonetti filed a formal complaint in January, 2007, but no action has been taken and Leonetti predicts that Bradbury is ready to let Our Oregon off the hook. If Our Oregon is allowed to get away with this, it will set a precedent for this loophole where anyone can form a non-profit, collect unrecorded contributions from unknown donors, and then shuttle that money into candidates or measure campaigns under the name of the non-profit.
Fixed. Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for posting on this. Everyone–left, right and center–should be concerned about selective enforcement of the law, and anyone who seeks to “block” people from signing petitions. Good job. One thing: Although your link works correctly, the text reads “freepauljones.com.” It should be “freepauljacob.com.” Thanks!