Jeff Golden mailers. And more mailers.

A mailer from the a Salem PAC

I have received four mailings from Jeff Golden in five days.

He isn't spending big money. Someone else is spending big money, on Golden's behalf.

It seems weird. I am getting as much stuff from Golden as I see from Gomez. 

The mailers are big. Slick. Stiff paper. They appear to be from the Golden campaign. Nice photo of Jeff from his campaign brochure. Someone is spending some serious money. Support Jeff!

If one looks really closely one sees that actually one of the mailers is from the OEA. The other three are from from Southern Oregon Priorities PAC. The mailers don't say they are independent. They don't say they speak for the candidate or that they don't speak for the candidate. The mailers certainly appear to be directly from the Golden campaign.

The GOP partisans have made accusations: Golden is pretending not to get PAC help, but is letting the upstate PACs do the expensive campaigning  on his behalf. I asked Golden for a statement: 

Statement from Jeff Golden

STOP

           

A group called the Southern Oregon Priorities PAC continues to run ads and send out mailers supporting my election to the state senate.  These flatly ignore my repeated appeals to them, going back to the middle of the primary election (when many of them supported my Democratic primary opponent, who wouldaccept PAC money), to stay out of this senate race. Watching them step up the pace of interference in recent weeks makes it clear that private messages don’t do the trick. Enough is enough.

Two things make me angry about these unwanted ads. 

   1) The damage to democracy.  This goes far beyond one state senate race. It’s  one of the ways we’re losing the power to choose our own representatives.  Organized outside groups are flooding most legislative districts across the country with propaganda ranging from smiley-faced predictable “This Candidate’s Just So Great” mailers to outright lies (none, thankfully, in this race so far). These PACS don’t seem to believe people are competent to pick their own representatives...or don’t want them to. 

   2) The damage to my own campaign. This senate district has a clear history of outside “support” ads defeating the candidate they were supposed to help. That could happen this time, too. My campaign is based on a fierce belief that big special-interest money has corrupted our system, and that its stranglehold has to be broken for us to solve our major problems.  Part of the powerful response to this message is that well over 1200 citizens have stepped up to make individual donations, providing enough funding for us to run a successful campaign.  

    Now this big influx of outside ads have people asking my volunteers “if Golden is supposed to be the no-PAC guy, how come I keep getting and hearing these PAC ads telling me to vote for him?” It understandably gets them wondering if I’m just another trickster.  That, to be honest, is what angers me the most.  

So, one more time to the PAC people upstate, this time in public: stop. Stop pretending that you speak for me (going so far as using photos we shot for my campaign material, and leaving off the standard “This piece not authorized by” disclaimer that would make this slightly more honest). You don’t. You’re part of what’s hurting democracy. You are hurting my campaign.  Whether you believe it or not, people in this district can figure out who they want to send to Salem without your help. I assume you’re hoping to work with me when and if I become a state senator. What you’ve been doing the last few weeks makes that more difficult. 

Stop.