Mikey's dark money jackpot rolls in
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| From the toxic Trump mailer. |
The Weed works in mysterious ways. They had a great story about Portland district attorney Mike Schmidt's greasy campaign fundraising, but they went and buried it at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. And now it's off their front page entirely. But it's still up, here, if you know whence to dig it out.
The benefits of a mysterious $340,000 contribution to the Working Families Party of Oregon continue to accrue to incumbent Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
New filings with the Oregon secretary of state show the Working Families Party has now contributed $213,000 of that sum to Schmidt’s campaign. The top prosecutor faces a stiff challenge from Nathan Vasquez, a senior deputy district attorney in Schmidt’s office.
Their earlier story pointed out:
WHO GAVE IT?
Working Families Party National PAC, Brooklyn, N.Y....
The Working Families Party’s national PAC has in the recent past received hefty contributions from PACs funded by two billionaires who support criminal justice reform, i.e., Schmidt’s platform: George Soros’ Democracy PAC and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Accountable Justice Action Fund. Schmidt’s campaign referred questions to the Working Families Party of Oregon, which plans to use the money for the primary but did not say how.
It's almost as if the Weed is playing catch-and-kill with this, although it's more like catch-and-do-the-bare-minimum-with-it.
Anyway, when the tighty righties start blathering about Soros this, Soros that, I usually tune them out. But in this case, the gist of their complaint fits. As much as Mikey rails about his opponent's dark money benefactors, he himself is rolling in dough from a black box in Brooklyn, New York. These are the same kinds of people who pushed legalizing hard street drugs, and look what they've done to Portland.
Please, dear heavens, may these be the last 240 days we need to deal with Schmidt.
Idk that he’s so bad, but maybe inexperienced/younger, yes?
ReplyDeleteChesa Boudin was recalled in SF, but Krassner stayed in Philadelphia fairly comfortably.
I’m with you on the city council reform & ballooning there being trouble.
I’m willing to keep Mike, but I think things are just *that bad* & we’ve been sowing the seeds of a crackdown for some time now.
Sort of thought the same about Ted Wheeler; he’s not ‘the’ problem and things are worse in all kinds of ways he can’t control or forsee, and I liked him less than Schmidt, but didn’t think getting rid of him would do any good, especially with that nut Sarah as the only vaguely viable candidate.
I’m sorry, I just won’t touch any contemporary republican, Trumper-Thumper or not?
That rule applies to Liz Warren too, FWIW.
Snakes
like Warren or Vazquez were republicans in the Clinton years when democrats basically enacted/dutifully carried forward all the republican material issues , anyway; low corporate & capital gains/rich people taxes, welfare reform, crime bill.
That being the case, why the hell were you a republican those years as a fully grown adult with half a brain >age 25-30?
I’m not suffering and never did suffer any such mental fog (even as a teenager in the Clinton years).
You’re explicitly a defense contractor / murderer?
You love guns and are a religious right wing cultural issue nutcase?
What gives?
You write: "What gives?"
DeleteYour daily intake of narcotics and piss-poor basic education.
I second the "Your daily intake..." guy.
DeleteI’ll also add that many non Trumper-Thumper republicans voted with him 90+% of the time, &, apart from his petty aspiring tin-pot dictator & embedded grudges/petty manhattan 70s-80s real estate scumbag and celebrity grievances trump can whip all his hogs up to get mad about at the drop of a hat, he pretty much signed every bill any other modern Republican would, + a little extra of his own brand of sadism & random touch.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Britain, where Boris Johnson & Nigel Farage seem to be sitting this round out on the sidelines, it’s your seeming patriotic duty/unspoken unconscious zombie-like calling? to turn age 40-45 and pick 1 or a small handful off issues that you will go absolutely insane about, but minus a Trump-like figure with some real charisma/sauce who can get everyone mad at the same time about an issue he selects from his grab bag of grudges he’s been holding onto in his dying brain screaming at the sun while sundowning himself?
I think you’re right to be a little leery in a general sense of how candidates are funded, but I don’t think Schmidt’s really the problem.
That said, 100% with you on Meieran vs. JVP, good lord, so it’s not like I’m for bums and ballooning staffers all the way down, either?
I’d even have been kind of ok with Betsy Johnson if viable over Kotek.
But you voted for JVP anyway, right?
Delete"I’d even have been kind of ok with Betsy Johnson if viable over Kotek."
Uh huh... and pigs can fly too...
Nah, Meieran all the way!
DeleteOnly vote where I felt good about the candidate/choice being pretty clear, but bad about the odds & got a ton of JVP glossy fliers in the mail.
Off year & month elections are unusual, especially these days.
Low turnout elections on abortion referendums helps democrats sometimes now, which is a little interesting/unusual.
More motivated to vote for obscure weird stuff on off years?
I’m sort of pro-industry & pro competence/experience in a weird way that’s sort of results in being pro Betsy Johnson or Meieran?
DeleteBut also weirdly anti staffer, bumps, double-dippers, contractors, real estate weasels & reactionary law and order crack downs.
Minority opinion I know, & I don’t think it’s misguided to be suspicious of not want to drink the advertising kool-aid, but I don’t think it is *all* Schmidt’s fault or even close to being.
Whether or not ‘progressive’ DAs that want to act in a way that’s largely not how their parent institution does idk?
Works for the republicans appointing people outright opposed to the EPA to head it (such as it was all that effective at the stated missions or avoided all that much regulatory capture in more discreet ways previously).
I think a reasonable argument can be made that trying to chip away at police reform &/or appointing or electing a progressive DA can breed anti-politics & undermine public trust.
If I thought the police union would behave any differently/not continue to push their agenda (take care of their own and quietly be on strike whenever it suits them with tons of malign media presence) as they do if we got rid of Schmidt, maybe I’d think differently?
Whether or not having a progressive DA that wants to act in ways different that their parent institution has historically is an effective strategy idk*
DeleteBut I don’t think recalling/getting rid of Schmidt is going to help.
I don’t think he’s a bum / total clown show like much of our city council is likely to be (or otherwise unemployable US Congress is).
Rene Gonzales really is a suburbanite creep transplant, if anyone competent or viable candidate would run to replace him, I’d be thrilled in that case!
" if we got rid of Schmidt, maybe I’d think differently?"
DeleteThere are 8 million stories in the Naked City...
It’s interesting that the Weed showed some light on the money trail. If their limited resources were able to find can find some of the money path, it’s notable that the news companies with really deep pockets don’t bother.
ReplyDeleteDirty out of state money in our elections? I'm shocked!
ReplyDelete"He used to be a republican" is the Portland equivalent of waving the bloody shirt.
ReplyDelete"Progressive" conjures up the famous Delacroix painting: "La Liberté guidant le peuple" ("Liberty Leading the People")...
DeleteI'm sure the current crop of non-student (i.e. antifa/black-bloc-head) protesters arrested at PSU are banking on this...
^it is, but at this late date, but unless you really have to have deacon levels of enlightenment beyond ‘Orange-man-bad,’ but maybe just came from a very republican area & worked hard/people around you mostly were republicans to be remotely redeemable. ,
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of that lot that are/were republicans in the Clinton years & beyond &/or are in all but name *cough* Gonzales *cough* suburbanite creep/looks like the molester girls soccer coach in The Sporanos in his ad, don’t let the door hit ya on the way out!
Move to AZ, TX, FL or ID with all of CAs like rejects just like you, no backsies!
We have all the money and commerce.
You can have all the boomer retirees & skyrocketing healthcare costs & fry in the desert or drown in Florida for all I care!
Call it woke, but most corporations want to advertise to the widest possible audience & make $, no? Same as Taylor Swift probably does as a general careerist to be all things to all people & only weigh in on issues that are ~80/20 like abortion?
Yeah, ok, urban living has its challenges, & yeah under capitalism gentrification & developer weasels it suck too, but there’s no way in the pyramid/ponzi scheme to continue with car & truck dependent heavily subsidized sprawl with limited and separated uses & exclusionary zoning as we have been without bankrupting everyone to maintain the roads and long sewer lines to a luxurious level of nicer city-like amenities (paved cul-de-sacs with only 3-4 houses on them, long roads to get to them, many sewer and water pumping stations etc.)
Philly has suburbanite creeps & republicans on its public transit snd housing boards as they include surrounding areas and it’s an absolute nightmare to get anything that be good for the city built out.
Spoken like a true PSU Urban School grad...cum barista... Do you participate in the SBUX employee stock purchase plan too? Or, is that too capitalist for you?
Delete