Oregon's Democrat election donation cartel finally may have gone too far.
Recently, two election scandals have roiled Oregon Democrats. But it isn't so much the overt thievery and lying that stunned the populace; it was the unabashed cover-up by the left's elected fellow travelers who tried to justify it. Power has its perks, and one-party rule is all.
For many decades now, from the deepest recesses of Hells Canyon to the woods of Estacada, in the dry fields of Klamath Valley and farms of Yamhill, the people dismissed as rubes by Oregon's ruling class — until election time — have known the dangers of the Democrat cartel running their state. Water is turned off to farmers, trees are worshiped instead of treated as crops, Soros prosecutors construct chaos, universities are perpetual woke machines, black-cloaked criminals destroy freedom, and people are abandoning the state. But it's a series of campaign election scandals that may have awoken even the bluest of blue Dunthorpe doyennes to the fact that they have a problem—and it's them.
The erstwhile newspaper of record in Oregon, The Oregonian, recently noticed that this could be a problem.
In a September 4 editorial entitled "The perils of a one-party state," the Oregonian notes that an investigation into the illegal reporting of its biggest one-time donation was blithely papered over by Democrats. The $500,000 donation from one of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX partners was claimed as a donation from the company that provided the wire transfer. That's a felony — for the little people. But not for the Democrats.
But even the wishy-washy Oregonian had to throw a flag.
The Oregon Democrat Party's 2022 election coffers were part of the FTX scam. That in itself was a Democrat Party money laundering scheme. "Despite many clues that now-disgraced FTX executive Nishad Singh should be identified as the true donor of the October 2022 contribution," the editorial points out, "party officials attributed the donation to Prime Trust, the Nevada company that handled the wire transfer. But the justice department decided earlier this summer that no criminal charges are merited."
No criminal charges? Howzzat? Oregon's state political party has washed money for the national party before, but Sam Bankman-Fried was running a Ponzi scheme with cryptocurrency and using those ill-gotten gains to seed money to Democrats all over the country.
The Oregonian believes the Democrats knew exactly where this money was coming from. Of course, they did. But as I say, it got worse. Just take a look at this rotten, incestuous family tree of "leaders" who were in charge.
Elections Division Director Molly Woon, who previously served as the Democratic Party of Oregon’s deputy director, never recused herself from oversight of the investigation. Her boss, then-Secretary of State Shemia Fagan – who was both a heavy donor to and recipient of party contributions – agreed there was no need for Woon to recuse herself. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who has given more than $115,000 to the Democratic Party of Oregon over the years, made a $2,500 contribution at the same time the party was under active investigation by elections officials – even though Rosenblum’s office would be responsible for pursuing any criminal charges that the investigation might prompt.
And while Rosenblum finally recused herself from overseeing the case, she did so only after elections officials cut a deal with the party that slashed a proposed fine from $35,000 to $15,000 and pledged not to request a criminal inquiry. These are not reasonable actions by leaders who take seriously the conflict of interest that their deep connections presented. [emphasis added]
The Oregonian could only accuse the Democrats of "a casual attitude toward campaign finance compliance and an arrogance by leaders about conflicts of interest." The paper worried that stories like this would justify the Republican Party pouncing.
Which brings us to yet another Democrat election donation scheme that Portland Democrats are hoping to take statewide.
Oregon Catalyst first alerted me to the abuse of the free election money scheme started by the Democrats for the Democrats in the Democrat city of Portland, using taxpayer money. Candidates are now conspiring with each other to game the system and take more taxpayer money.
Willamette Week reports that they've seen "emails exchanged in August between candidates for the Portland City Council" and a mayoral candidate, which reveal that many candidates agreed "to exchange campaign contributions with one another in pursuit of unlocking public financing dollars for their campaigns."
That's not a scam or anything.
You'll love Willamette Week's next sentence, given the Oregonian's take on the other campaign scheme.
Three elections experts and attorneys say donation swapping is a violation of Oregon Revised Statute 260.665, which prohibits “undue influence” when soliciting campaign contributions. The Oregon secretary of state’s office, which administers elections law, declined to comment, saying it won’t weigh in without having done a full investigation. [emphasis added]
Oh, we're sure the SOS will get right on it. Eyeroll.
So many candidates have taken part in the free-money-for-campaign program that it has already exceeded its cap and the taxpayers are on the hook for $5 million and counting. How much of this is a scam will be sorted out by the Secretary of States Office. Oh, who are we kidding?
What's that stench? That's not Antifa burning down a federal courthouse: that's the smell of corruption.
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