Follow the Money
Paulie Brading
Letters claiming State Rep. candidate Lynn Howe has accepted wads of out-of-state cash for her campaign have been circulating for days. Three term Republican incumbent, Sal Esquivel seems to particularly like making that accusation in letters asking for contributions to his campaign.
Thanks to Orstar every voter in Oregon can check campaign financial transactions.
Well, what do you know?
Esquivel wins the most out-of-state $$$$ award by a more than two to one margin. Ten contributors from out-of- state have lined up behind him since 9/1/10.
GMRI Inc, National Rifle Association, Idaho Power, Avista, Grocery Outlet Inc, Conoco Philips, Liberty Mutual, Waste management, Chevron and K 12 Management all made the list.
The biggest in-state donor to the Esquivel campaign is Oregon Right To Life to the tune of $7,500.
Let's look at Howe's out-of-state list of contributors since 9/1/10.
Emily's List, United Transportation, American Federation of State and County workers and two individuals who each wrote a $50 check made Howe's list.
Her largest in-state donors are the Oregon Nurses PAC. Lynn Howe had a long career as a nurse.
I feel better now.
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12:12 p.m.
Oct 29, '10
Follow the money, indeed.
Lynn Howe's largest in-state donor is not the nurses PAC or any of the other union PACs that support her; it's Future PAC House Builders, the committee owned by Peter Buckley (surprise, surprise) and Dave Hunt.
To the tune of about $100K.
As you say, "Thanks to Orestar every voter in Oregon can check campaign financial transactions."
Which I just did. You're welcome.
2:46 p.m.
Oct 29, '10
And because it would be an interesting comparison, who is Sal Esquivel's biggest in-state donor, and how $$$ much?
2:55 p.m.
Oct 29, '10
Didn't Paulie Brading post that in the original post? If you want to double-check it as I did Ms. Howe's the website page is https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/jsp/CEMainPage.jsp?CONTENT_PAGE=CommitteeSearchFirstPage.jsp.
6:34 p.m.
Oct 29, '10
Sal's biggest in-state donor is the Oregon Republican House PAC. Lynn's is the Democratic House PAC. Aside from the obvious regarding PAC money, Sal has accepted more out of state donations by over an 2 to 1 margin. The list is provided above.
The Howe campaign has been on the ground for over 10 months. Through the process Lynn Howe has listened to thousands of Medford voters and heard their genuine concerns.
Medford Sally is loyal Esquivel follower whom I respect. In four days we'll all know who will represent the Medford citizens.
8:44 p.m.
Oct 29, '10
Thank you, Ms. Brading. A caveat: I was not a loyal Esquivel follower; I was an outraged and probably naive citizen voter horrified at Lynn Howe's campaign. And thus the saga began.
As I have said from the beginning, I had fully expected her to win but do not want her to win this way.
Only one campaign has my heart and it is strictly local.
1:37 p.m.
Oct 31, '10
Update: in yesterday's mail we got the FIRST mailer in this WHOLE season from Lynn Howe that was positive about HER and not negative (not one word, in fact) about Sal Esquivel. Did you see it, Paulie?
Early in the season I had laid a wager with my spousal unit that she would win. I liked Esquivel because he opposed additional regressive cigarette taxes and advocated a total ban on cell phone use while driving. But I knew that she had nearly beat him last time. I thought this was her year.
Then Peter Buckley (as near as I can tell) funded that VILE campaign and if they hadn't gotten their hands around that delayed property tax payment issue, I think it would have sunk her.
But looking at the mailer that came yesterday, I couldn't but think her campaign might well have succeeded without being so vicious (and deceitful, and lying).
I'd say Peter Buckley is a rodent but I like rodents.
Anyway, the mailer is such a stark contrast I hope you got to see it.
I will never support Lynn Howe. :)
I wonder if this year will reshape at least some campaigns in the coming years a little differently.
2:54 p.m.
Nov 2, '10
I think it somewhat disingenuis for Sally to imply that she kinda thought Lynne was OK right up until the "campaign", after which she was so "horrified", blah blah blah. I don't buy it, not one word. I will further add that I don't buy Esquival's victim act either. The error on flyer is a distraction from the overall gist, which is he promoted sales tax. His failure to pay his property as a "business choice" is insluting to those who scrape together their property taxes in these financially crushing times. Enough already, it is sounding like whining!
7:42 a.m.
Nov 3, '10
Madam, I never said OR implied I thought Lynn Howe was "OK." I said I thought she was poised to win. I thought her first flier was nasty but the second (sales tax on food) was over the top. It was not an error; it was a calculated lie and the fear tactic backfired, probably thanks largely to Politifact.org.
Esquivel never "promoted" a sales tax; he and other legislators attempted to craft an enormous tax reform bill (70-some pages as I recall). Many many people over the decades have called Oregon's two-legged tax stool unbalanced. The reform measure cut income taxes dramatically and also property taxes. I learned this all looking up the bill cited on the Howe mailer. The bill never got out of committee and Esquivel has never "promoted" a sales tax. Too bad this nasty campaign has helped poison that well. As a native Oregonian I have voted against a sales tax every time it has come up but I would be willing to entertain a tax reform measure. Our income and property taxes are too high and the income tax is very regressive in that it is essentially little if at all graduated.
I've written many posts about all this there and I have never at least deliberately told a single untruth in any of them.
2:56 p.m.
Nov 2, '10
please excuse the spelling error. insulting was the word i was looking for.
2:59 p.m.
Nov 2, '10
Oh by the way, I support Howe because she is working hard to make contact with her citizens. Anybody seen Sal at your door.
4:00 p.m.
Nov 4, '10
Update: Lynn Howe lost by 57/43 percent, a four percentage point greater loss than in 2008.