Sen. Wyden says OR needs Merkley and other Oregon Political News

In this edition of my irregular series on Oregon political news, I discuss another set of interesting stories that have popped up.  These include Sen. Wyden’s (D-OR) new ad for Merkley as well as the Bill Sizemore’s admission that he was using private foundation funds for his own purposes.

Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/sh…

Story List:

1. Wyden says we need Merkley in the Senate.

2. Sizemore admits to personal use of funds.

3. The Oregon Citizen’s Alliance and John McCain.

4. Debate Night in Oregon: Smith vs. Merkley tonight!

Wyden says we need Merkley in the Senate:

In a new ad released this morning, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has never before done an ad for any one of Smith’s challengers, talks about why he needs Jeff Merkley to help deliver the change Oregon wants and needs.  The popular Senator is a true progressive, having stated his career as the Rep. for Oregon’s 3rd CD (currently represented by Rep. Blumenauer).

Video:

Sizemore admits to personal use of funds:

Story here: Oregon anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore admits personal use of funds

Anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore is known for many things, such as running a series of insane ballot measures every two years.  However, one thing he would prefer not to be remembered for is his mis-use of funds donated to nonprofit organizations under his control, which partially led to a judgment against him several years back for racketeering.  Under the terms of an injunction resulting from that lawsuit, such usage of funds was not allowed.  Despite this, it was revealed that Sizemore “wrote checks from the foundation account for $660,326, almost all of it for his own benefit. Sizemore also charged another $88,176 to a foundation debit card at Wells Fargo.”  Included in his purchases was a car for his wife, braces for his daughter, a time-share in Mexico and my personal favorite, 15 1-ounce gold pieces.  It seems that perhaps the real reason Sizemore doesn’t like paying taxes is that the pesky government insists he follow the law.

The Oregon Citizen’s Alliance and John McCain:

Story, as picked up by Raw Story: McCain connections coming back to haunt him

In a report during last night’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith reported that John McCain had attended a 1993 fund-raising dinner for the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA), a virulently homophobic group that was behind several ballot measures in the 1990s which would have effectively mandated discrimination against the GLBT community.  However, the fun doesn’t stop there as apparently, during the dinner, one of the speakers praised those who had shot abortion doctors.  This was no surprise to either of Oregon’s senators, both Republicans, who themselves refused to attend the dinner.  In fact, Senator Mark Hatfield, a liberal Republican (and I mean that, he would most certainly be a Democrat if he ran today) strongly urged McCain not to attend but McCain did anyways.

Debate Night in Oregon: Smith vs. Merkley tonight!

Finally, just a quick note that Gordon Smith will debate Jeff Merkley tonight from 7-8 PM Pacific (10-11 PM Eastern) on KGW (Channel 8 in Portland).  The debate is also sponsored by the Oregonian and streaming video will be available at: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/.  There you can also submit questions for the debate.

Let me know what you think.