PAC Contributions.
Hardly anybody cares because hardly anybody notices. I think they should notice and care.
Jessica Gomez is raising boatloads of money.
Orestar is Oregon public report on campaign donations and expenditures. Here is the link: https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/gotoPublicTransactionSearch.do
 |
| Gomez |
There is a premise embedded in this public transparency: that the identity of campaign contributors is a matter of public concern and interest. It provides some hints about the politician.
***The indebtedness premise. To whom does the politician owe gratitude?
***The policy reveal premise. What political interests does the politician believe and support with sufficient clarity that donors give support?
***The success breeds success premise. Which politicians have the support of the "smart money" interests in the state?
***The teammate premise. With whom will the politician ally him or her self?
Jessica Gomez has been extraordinarily successful in raising money from her Republican Senate teammates. Type "Jessica Gomez" in the box for filer/committee name in the above link. These are donations from State Senators in the Republican caucus, and related PACs, since the 1st of September:
$2,000 Friends of Herman Baertschiger
$1,000 Friends of Dallas Heard
$7,500 Tim Knopp for State Senate
$10,000 Friends of Jackie Winters
$5,000 Cliff Bentz for Oregon
$11,526 No SuperMajorities PAC
$4,743 The Leadership Fund
She has been extraordinarily successful, too, in raising money from industry groups, showing here PAC gifts of $1000 or more since September 1:
$5,000 The Standard (Insurance)
$7,500 Oregon Hospital PAC
$1,000 National Association of Chain Drug Stores
$2,500 Oregonians for Affordable Housing (building contractors)
$1,000 Oregon Nurseries PAC (agriculture)
$10,000 PacifiCorp
$2,500 Weyerhaeuser
$10,000 Association of General Contractors
$1,000 Natural Gas PAC
$2,000 Professional Adjusters PAC (insurance adjustments)
$2,500 Anheuser Busch PAC
$1,000 Boise Cascade PAC
$3,000 Allstate Insurance PAC
$1,000 Ophthalmology PAC
$1,000 Grocers Association PAC
$2,500 Rental Housing PAC (Apartment owners)
$7,500 Farmers Agents PAC
$10,000 Chamber of Commerce PAC
$1,000 Walgreens PAC
$3,000 IEC Electrical Contractors (two electrical contractors)
 |
| Golden |
What about Jeff Golden? No money from Democratic Oregon Senators, nor their PACs, nor any industry group PACs, nor any public interest organization PACs. Just individuals.
Gomez and Golden each have contributions from some prosperous individual donors. Golden has many more in number, typically $100-250. Gomez has fewer individual donors, but they write larger checks.
Does any of this matter? Who cares?
There is little news coverage on campaign contributions. What little there is focuses on the "horse race" elements, using donations as a proxy for support. More is better.
Presumably, if the media's own news editors thought the source of the contributions important--or if they thought the public did--they would cover it. They mostly do not.
I personally think it matters.
Both Gomez and Golden are attempting to communicate mold-breaking independence. Golden doesn't take PAC money, and the lobbies upstate punished him in the primary for that, universally backing his opponent Athena Goldberg.
Gomez represents a different kind of Republican. A former Democrat. Latina. Pro-reproductive rights. Her messaging is a return to the moderate civic minded Main Street Republicanism currently out of step in modern Trump GOP populism. Part of her value statement is displayed in her ad where a man is making a political speech and she interrupts him to say she will speak for herself.
 |
| Click: "I speak for myself." |
She is branding herself as independent. It is a great advertisement--made stronger if it is in fact true and holds up to close examination.
She needs a significant number of crossover votes from Democratic-leaning voters to see her as independent of the Republican establishment and its corporate donor base. She needs those open-minded Democrats to support this new-style progressive-sounding moderate independent-Republican. But she is paying for those ads with big contributions from the "usual suspects" of the Republican establishment.
What are Walgreens, Allstate Insurance, Pacificorp, and the Grocery Chain Store PAC doing dropping big money into Southern Oregon politics? And why are Portland and Bend senators doing the same? This money involvement ties her back to the GOP team, and it undermines her independent brand.
I consider it a problem for Gomez--if in fact people notice and if people care.
Golden is going to be heavily outspent.
Full disclosure:
1. I personally know and like both Gomez and Golden. I wish Gomez would fund her campaign with community support, not upstate PAC money. If she gets elected I think it would better position her to be the independent voice she describes in her ads.
2. Close readers of Orestar will see a $200 contribution from Debra Lee to the Golden campaign. Debra is my wife. We get along great. She doesn't tell me what to write here in this blog and I don't tell her whom to vote for or contribute to.
6 comments:
Good to know, not surprising.
It's somewhat amazing to me that Republicans have continually obstructed social democratic progress with the justification that unfettered development is the best and only way to prosperity, while all the evidence points to increasing environmental damage, and continuing problems with issues that degrade the quality of life for everyone outside the wealthy enclaves.
If they are successful, Oregon could end up looking like a Gulf state...
In a brief visit to the Rogue Valley it was impossible to miss Jessica Gomez signage going up at the I-5 Exit 33 ramps, near the turn off Biddle Road to Cosco, at the North Phoenix Road on ramp to Ashland, and probably at every other busy intersection. They were notable for their size as much as for their numbers and as I recall they used the color green. Am I accurately recalling that? Does she want the public to think she has read the recent UNCC report?
Meanwhile I noticed no Jeff Golden signs. Perhaps his coverage is yard by yard, or a bit delayed since we still have a little time before ballots arrive.
Not my district, but I do hope Golden pulls it off in spite of money being tight. How sickening is it that money counts more than ever even in our rural political races?
I see no freeway signs because I don't drive on the freeway. I see yard signs for both of them. A lot of them for each of them.
They are both pleasant people. The battle here is for party representation in the Senate. It depends on whether you want a one party state or divided representation.
In my opinion, a one party state has not been good for the effective & competent management of way too many agencies, budgets, and programs. Those signs are everywhere.
It's Pete Sage's blog, so he can include or exclude any comments he likes. But when a comment is strictly political, not personal, in nature, and he conveniently declines to publish it, presumably because it disagrees with his preferred take on things, in my mind it diminishes the value of the website by a lot.
A whole lot.
Message to "Sally and other readers of comments.
There really is n need for "Sally"or anyone else to make presumptions about my motives or to wonder what I "conveniently" do. But I am thrilled it happens.
I realize that some comment-writers wait impatiently to see if it appears as approved. Here is the situation. The blog gets three or four spam comments a day, most of which tell me my blog is great and then include a link to something. I don't know what kind of malware the link might have, so I need to read proposed comments then, of course, delete those. That is why I cannot just approve everything.
I have a non-screen life.
I was busy helping the Medford Schools Foundation this afternoon and therefore didn't see Sally's comment and therefore didn't "approve" it promptly.
I approve comments that aren't obscene." I always approve "Sally's" since they aren't obscene.
Good to know. But in that it was eight-plus hours, I wasn't *too*,impatient.
I truly appreciate this blog, for doing the reporting the Mail Tribune doesn't, AND for allowing comments, that the Mail Tribune doesn't!
Post a Comment