Mitt Romney greases palms for Oregon Republicans
Carla Axtman
Mitt Romney wants to be President of the United States. Since his failed attempt in 2008, Romney has been squirreling away cash and chits in an effort to build an infrastructure as he prepares to try again in 2012.
Other than efforts to build this infrastructure, I'm not aware of any significant ties to Oregon for Romney. A search (albeit not comprehensive) yields no news stories of Romney visiting our state, not even during his bid for President. But apparently he thinks he knows us:
If it's Tuesday, it's another round of endorsements from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who is backing four Republican candidates in Oregon and contributing a total of $17,500 to their campaigns.
Romney's Free and Strong America PAC announced that it is backing Oregon gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley, Rep. Greg Walden in the 2nd district, state Rep. Scott Bruun in the 5th district and businessman Rob Cornilles in the 1st district. The PAC is giving $10,000 to Dudley and $2,500 each to Walden, Bruun and Cornilles.
"Oregon -- and our nation -- needs leaders who will say no to the culture of higher taxes, higher spending, and higher debt, and that is why I am proud to stand with these candidates today," Romney said in a release.
It sort of makes sense that Romney would give to Congressional candidates. They work at the federal level and a reasonable argument can be made for trying to influence national policy, because it has the potential to effect him. But shoveling cash at Dudley is simply a shameless attempt to curry political favor.
Plus, what we do here in Oregon is none of Mitt Romney's damn business.
Other than genuflecting toward some sort of political base, it doesn't make much sense for Dudley to drag Romney out here, either. He's already got plenty of out-of-state donors with deep pockets.
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10:17 a.m.
Sep 1, '10
Romney must favor a phase out of social security by privatizing to Wall St. since he is supporting candidates who want that.
10:52 a.m.
Sep 1, '10
Good. Dudley hopefully will stop the sodomites in the campaign-cash-rich unions from raping the tax dollars of private industry in WhOregon, shielding themselves from recession problems the rest of us are dealing with. Funnel Dudley as much cash as possible. look where 25 years of leftist vermin rule has gotten us here in Oregon?
11:20 a.m.
Sep 1, '10
Yeah, cuz the GOP in Oregon and nationally have been such fantastic policy leaders...(rolling eyes)
It was just reported this week that corporations in Oregon are raking in profits. Apparently they're managing just fine in the recession. And you'll need to look no further for "vermin" than George W. Bush's presidency, or the Karen Minnis regime in the Oregon House.
Seriously, Mitt Romney has no business inserting himself into Oregon politics. The guy has no idea who we are or what we're about.
1:23 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
"Sodomites"...?
"Vermin"...?
Really?
2:01 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Well, I guess if Dudley's supporters are any reflection on Dudley, he's not much of a moderate after all. My father was a moderate Republican elected official in Medford. One day a group of the right wing GOP and members of the Ore. Citizen's Alliance trooped through town with a banner, "Impeach the Sodomite City Council." I think that kind of bigotry convinced him the GOP had jumped off a cliff, so he eventually switched his party registration.
4:00 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Was a former Republican raised in a Rockefeller Republican house. Last time I voted GOP was the first time I could vote (1982). Finally officially switched parties in 2000 (though I had voted Democratic for more than a few cycles) thanks in no small part to the OCA.
I'm like an ex-smoker now, and view the GOP as suspect (at best) on all matters.
3:48 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Let's see, the Oregon House had a Republican majority from 1991 to 2007, and the Senate from 1995 to 2003. Which 25 years are you referring to?
7:56 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
You're gonna have to help me out here, because I get confused easily. "Sodomites". Is that sodomite as in gay bashing, or sodomite as in Sodom was destroyed in the Old Testament for, well, I think Isaiah is talking to the TEA Party, so I'll leave him to it.
"Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow... your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves, they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.”
So do you mean the biblical Sodom that was destroyed because the rich didn't want to pay their fair share for a just society, or what insecure males yell in the locker room to cover their doubts about their sexual identity?
If you mean the biblical one, and one would assume a "good Christian gentleman" would, then we agree. That is what is wrong with Oregon!
5:40 p.m.
Sep 2, '10
Way to lift the level of discourse in our democracy!
11:52 a.m.
Sep 1, '10
@Carla
The guy has no idea who we are or what we're about.
Given his well documented flip flops I don't think HE even knows what he's about
12:21 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
I'm fairly certain he came in 2007 when his presidential campaign was getting going. Gordon Smith was a McCain supporter, but I think Ron Saxton was a Romney guy.
4:01 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Right on both counts, Kari.
12:27 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
I think Mitt is just making sure he doesn't alienate the republicans here, since Mitt's plugging conservative money all over the nation. He's got millions to spend and is giving it away in tiny $k chunks. That's a lot of "endorsing" to do.
The question is whether this will follow the trend: Mitt endorses, then Sarah endorses and cleans up the all the credit IF a success results.
I think I'll just concentrate on preventing the last part.
12:34 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
I wouldn't draw the line where you imply, Carla - between state and federal races.
In my mind, either out of state contributions are problematic, or they're not. (Follow-up - are out-of-city, out-of-county, or out-of-Metro contributions appropriate, even if they come from family?)
What we do as the state level very much affects the rest of the country. State level legislation is often the driver of federal legislation, from social security in the 1930s to Oregon's energy efficiency efforts today.
2:02 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Romney should stay the hell out of Oregon politics, beyond PERSONAL contributions as limited by election laws (after all we like to contribute to our 'cousins' around the nation, fair is fair.) RomneyPAC has no business in Oregon politics or anywhere outside Mass. ** Mr Stone, if former OR Sen Gordon Smith had not championed the insane kicker laws while he was in the OR legislature, we might have a far more stable tax revenue system here and we would not be in as deep a hole as we are. And more than a fraction of our problems are due to Bush and the 1996-2006 republican Congress that totally sold out the nation's working families while waging two wars on a Chinese credit card. The Dems are always cleaning up the republican's messes. And boy is it expensive!
10:30 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Excellent idea and I completely endorse it. Of course you suggestion also holds true for George Sors, MoveOn.org, the AFL-CIO and the NEA; n'est pas?
2:44 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Romney has no chance considering he was at the helm of a "socialized" healthcare plan when he was governor.
I can't think of a single GOP candidate that wouldn't help bring a single-payer HC system to the US more than Romney running against Obama. And it would take a large portion of the steam off the repeal/repair movement by having Romney be the GOP nominee. He would also test the right wing's tolerance for religious beliefs.
Off topic, on the fair and balanced side, I was certain that Mary Volm's problem would be at least a blog entry here, even if uncommented on, and would be written about by you, Carla Hanson. But not a peep. :)
2:46 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
I meant Carla Axtman, sorry Ms. Hanson... :)
5:20 p.m.
Sep 1, '10
Tom,
I very rarely cover Portland stuff. There's lots of other people that do that.
I honestly don't find a DUI for an unelected person whose got no name ID outside of PDX especially interesting.
I'm happy to leave that kind of stuff to Prof. Bogdanski.
5:39 p.m.
Sep 2, '10
Here's what I want to know - who is bankrolling Romney's operation? Is it coming from corporate treasury money now that the Citizens United case ruled they can do that? Could someone dig that up for us?
6:28 p.m.
Sep 3, '10
If his Presidential bid was any indication, the banksters are solidly behind him. This isn't edited for banksters, it's a complete list, in order of size of donation. His support is that industry specific.
Goldman Sachs $234,275 Citigroup Inc $178,200 Merrill Lynch $173,025 Morgan Stanley $170,350 Lehman Brothers $144,100 UBS AG $123,850 Bain Capital $123,150 Bain & Co $121,475 Marriott International $121,150 Kirkland & Ellis $109,400 Compuware Corp $103,550 Credit Suisse Group $102,600 Huron Consulting $102,050 The Villages $102,000 PricewaterhouseCoopers $92,250 JPMorgan Chase & Co $84,300 Affiliated Managers Group $82,112 Cerberus Capital Management $79,450 American Financial Group $78,350 Wachovia Corp $77,200