He's baa-aaack. Sizemore caught on tape, reveals strategy.
Kari Chisholm
Back in July - before he went to jail for tax evasion and became an activist for better jail food - Bill Sizemore spoke at an Americans for Prosperity workshop. At that workshop, he revealed his strategy for crushing progressive politics in Oregon.
There's a reason why he's used the same line of attack on the ballot four times. As he says, "it's so much fun!" By which he means: it ties up Oregon's labor unions, forces them to spend millions defending their rights.
Watch the video, courtesy of Defend Oregon. Sizemore makes it clear: By attacking the ability of public employees to make voluntary donations to nonprofit organizations through their paychecks (as many privately-employed workers can do), his goal is to wipe out the political strength of working families in Oregon.
And make sure you catch the laugh line about "commingling". It reminds me of the 1948 campaign against Senator Claude Pepper (D-Florida) in which his opponent was reported to have said (though he denied it, vigorously) to uneducated rural audiences:
"Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper before his marriage habitually practiced celibacy."
The folks circulating Sizemore's measure are doing their level-best to keep his name away from the measure -- but this video leaves no doubt. It's his measure. And he's back.
Update: There's been some question in the comments below about whether this tape was captured surreptiously without Sizemore's knowledge. In fact, the tape was produced by Americans for Prosperity and published online back in June. (They've since taken it down.)
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6:26 a.m.
Sep 8, '11
Union rights to employer payroll deductions are hard fought for and central to any representation drive. It is the lifeblood of collective bargining in that it funds almost everything else. sizemore has BTDT and failed before. The best way to stop this is to insure that petitions making the initiative ballot eligible are not signed (legally of course).
Many private organizations form PACs through work that are funded via voluntary payroll deduction and sizemore has also tried this gambit. Unfortunately it would actually cost public employers more to segregate out the payroll deductions under Sizemore's plan. Everyone loses when the electorate is subjected to Trojan Horses such as this.
3:44 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
If he didn't know his voice was being recorded, recording it was likely a crime...
10:05 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
You can't be serious.
This was not a private phone call, it was a presentation in front of an audience. If these kinds of tapes were illegal, the bitch who recorded Obama's off-the-cuff comments about "god and guns" at an event that was emphatically "No Press" would be doing time.
11:05 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
We also don't know if the camera was in plain sight or not. If it was, well, then the conclusion is obvious.
10:08 a.m.
Sep 9, '11
True. But the quality of the video suggests it was secreted.
4:22 p.m.
Sep 9, '11
Jonathan, the source video was videotaped by Americans For Prosperity at their meeting, then publicly posted to the Internet by them on Vimeo.
10:07 a.m.
Sep 9, '11
Larry, it's a state law, and it's not about phone calls, it's about in-person communications. Haven't you ever wonder why security cameras don't have sound? Now you know.
10:43 a.m.
Sep 9, '11
Larry - Although it is illegal in other states, it is legal in Oregon to record a private phone call without someone's knowledge, so long as you are calling from your home telephone. It is not legal in Oregon to audio record someone in-person without their knowledge, unless the meeting is public.
6:06 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
The clips look like he is talking about past ballot campaigns, and in one of the clips he appears to say that he isn't doing more of these measures because he can't raise the money.
I understand that tying Sizemore to anything you want to kill is good campaign strategy, but do we have any actual reason to believe that he is involved in any current ballot measure campaign?
10:05 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
Sizemore's language seems to pretty clearly indicate involvement: "I have this measure..." and when talking about commingling: "I got that language into our measure." The commingling language he's talking about is part of Initiative 3, targeted for next year's ballot.
11:04 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
Um, Sal, he wrote it.
From Jeff Mapes:
8:47 a.m.
Sep 9, '11
Got it. Thanks.
9:05 p.m.
Sep 8, '11
unless it was a private function where they said no recording -- and it was AFP, so it was a semi-open meeting -- then it's not illegal. at some point, meetings will start having TSA pat-downs & worse, such as being closed, but right now: speaker beware. if you're in an open meeting, choose your words with care.
4:33 a.m.
Sep 9, '11
Just to be extra clear, the original source of this video was Americans For Prosperity. They shot the video in their meeting, then posted it publicly to Vimeo.
5:08 a.m.
Sep 9, '11
If you run across this petition and folks collecting signatures please contact the folks at Defend Oregon. We don't want another Wisconsin situation here.
3:24 p.m.
Sep 9, '11
It's amazing that anyone would look up to this guy. Much of what he's done is widely known but a short list of things known by few include:
1) Sizemore tried to sell shares in a toy company he owned to members of his church congregation while the company was in bankruptcy;
2) Sizemore or his cronies took names from headstones at one cemetery and perhaps others and listed the dead people as political contributors. This was done to conceal real contributors, including Robert Randall who gave Sizemore about $170,000 for an interest in I&R Petitions. Sizemore later re-purchased the stock from Randall for $100.
More wildly know is that Sizemore set up a non-profit and then illegally funded political campaigns with the money, along with paying himself generously to the tune of a minimum of $200,000. He even bought a farm tractor. Contributors got a tax write-off when they couldn't with a political contribution. That's tax fraud. Specifically, the Circuit Court ruling stated, "... Mr. Sizemore illegally used large tax deductible donations to fund the PAC. The large amounts of money which were donated to the charity by his supporters were secretly funneled to the PAC and to Mr. Sizemore's corporation (I&R Petition Services) in order to serve Mr. Sizemore's own personal and political goals. In effect, Bill Sizemore ran a sham charity."
What I can't figure out is why the AG or procecutors aren't going after Sizemore. Judge LaBarre's ruling prohibited Sizemore from being involved in any 'successor organization' to Oregon Taxpayers United and the Oregon Taxpayers Union. He specifically wrote: "A 'successor organization' is defined as any education foundation [or any political action committee], or similar organization ... in which Bill Sizemore is a manager, officer, director, trustee, or controlling person of the successor organization or otherwise participates, directly or indirectly, in the direction or control of the activities of the OTU-EF [or OTU-PAC] successor organization."
While the burden of proof is "beyond a reasonable doubt" for a criminal case, this video creates strong evidence. Among other things Sizemore says, "I have this measure..." and "Our measure..."
9:41 a.m.
Sep 14, '11
In my opinion, Mr. Sizemore is not chief sponsor because, just like Cheers, everyone knows his name. He has proven to me, to be just a chink in the wheel. The more trouble and inconvenience he can cause, the better he likes it. I don't think there's one county in the entire state, he hasn't tried to cause a problem. The main problem with him is the amount it costs to counter him.