Haven’t They Done Enough Harm Already?
Dan Petegorsky
While Sarah Palin’s husband and operatives in Alaska are continuing to stonewall investigations into the Troopergate scandal by refusing to cooperate with investigators, the main money man for Bill Sizemore and Kevin Mannix’s political syndicates is also busy evading investigators.
Having paid the piper and called the tunes in Oregon politics for over 15 years, paymaster Loren Parks now seems to have gone missing even as Sizemore once again faces a different kind of music in court this morning to answer contempt charges.
While Our Oregon is saddling up its posse to round him up, the indefatigable Janice Thompson at Democracy Reform Oregon has been diligently tracking Parks’ money, and has now produced a series of reports documenting Parks’ singular stature bankrolling right wing ballot measures in the state, not to mention Mannix’s own failed candidacies.
Despite his move to Nevada years ago, Parks continues as the single indispensable donor behind Sizemore and Mannix’s measures. He sprang for more than half the money to get them on the ballot this cycle, and just a couple of weeks ago poured in another $500,000 to Mannix’s committee.
So if you want chapter and verse on this, read the reports from Democracy Reform Oregon. And then ask why these folks are allowed to continue to inflict such damage on the state – and what we can do to stop them.
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connect with blueoregon
Oct 2, '08
What would be the potential pitfalls to requiring that political donations (such as those made by Parks) originate only from full-time residents of the state?
This may be a can of worms that we don't want to open, but I'm not sure I understand why an individual that doesn't live in Oregon has the legal capability to influence Oregon law in this fashion.
This is just fodder for discussion at this time, I'm not (yet) recommending this as policy.
Oct 2, '08
Today at noon,Thursday,10-2-08- there is going to be a discussion on the DVD "OBSESSION" at the First Christian Church. Dan Bryant Church. In Eugene, Oregon. 300 children were gassed in Ohio!
Please join us! Thanks.
Oct 2, '08
I suspect limitations on out-of-state donations would be unconstitutional, for some of the reasons we can't tax non-residents for driving on Oregon roads, and for some difficult 1st Amendment and Oregon Constitutional provisions (Art 1, Sec 20).
And I don't think those constitutional issues are bad. As long as there is some transparency, the measures that are supported by these donations can be attacked not just on their merits, but also on the grounds of who bankrolled them.
Oct 2, '08
As one of the few who has actually met Loren Parks - back in the late 1970's, and remembering how he thought hypnosis could and would cure everything -
I have to wonder if Sizemore and Mannix didn't use hypnosis on the master? I recall him saying that people who used hypnosis were more easily hypnotised ....
4:37 p.m.
Oct 2, '08
Steve - so you're telling me it might be as simple as getting Parks in a room and telling him to "disconnect" from these evildoers?