Oregon House Republicans: Who's plagiarizing who?

Kari Chisholm

Damn.

The Oregon House Republicans must think Oregonians are a stupid and backwards bunch of luddite rubes. Or at least, they think the local media are. Have they never heard of the internet tubes?

Check this out.

State Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Lane/Douglas) submitted a guest op-ed to the Eugene Register-Guard. Here's the second paragraph:

Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. I have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 to permanently dedicate 1 percent of the general fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP's Patrol Division. It ensures round-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth, and does not raise taxes.

State Reps. Kevin Cameron and Vicki Berger (both R-Salem) submitted a guest op-ed to the Salem Statesman-Journal. Here's the second paragraph:

Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. I have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 to permanently dedicate 1 percent of the general fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP's Patrol Division. It ensures round-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth, and does not raise taxes.

Oh sure, there's a few words and phrases they've doctored up to be different - but these state legislators have basically bamboozled the local editorial boards.

So, here's what I want to know: Who actually wrote this stuff? And who's bright idea was it to send it out over multiple bylines?

We all know that political staffers often ghost-write stuff for their principals, but man... submitting the same work for two different "authors" -- that's some seriously lazy staffer.

By Kari Chisholm April 17, 2007