In an ironic gaffe, new documents filed by Our Oregon in U.S. District Court assert the union-backed nonprofit seeks to protect Oregon election laws by breaking them.
The evidence comes by way of Our Oregon’s July 9 motion to intervene in an ongoing lawsuit against the Oregon Secretary of State, People Not Politicians v. Clarno, which challenges the secretary’s signature-gathering requirements for ballot initiatives during COVID-19.
Our Oregon opposes the plaintiffs’ position that their petition should be granted additional time and a lower threshold of signatures due to the conditions brought on by the pandemic. The organization claims it is a “watchdog” of the process.
In reality, it’s Our Oregon that needs to be watched.
In the motion, Our Oregon claims it “is opposed to (the petition) and would be involved in organizing a campaign against it if it were to qualify for the Nov, 3, 2020 ballot.” (emphasis added).
Even worse, an accompanying sworn declaration submitted by Our Oregon executive director Becca Uherbelau states that, “(A)llowing the Chief Petitioners to submit after the constitutional deadline (and at a lower threshold) would make it exponentially more difficult for Our Oregon, or anyone else, to organize an opposition campaign to IP 57. It takes months to build and fund a coalition in opposition to a ballot measure.” (emphasis added).
What Our Oregon neglected to mention is that it’s not allowed to work on ballot measure campaigns without registering as a PAC — i.e, after a petition qualifies for the ballot — and it’s currently under investigation by the Oregon Secretary of State and Attorney general for doing exactly that.
Freedom Foundation has filed the new evidence with the Secretary of State to aid in her ongoing investigation.
“We have accused Our Oregon of a lot of things, and rightfully so,” said Freedom Foundation Oregon Director Jason Dudash. “But we’ve never accused them of being the sharpest tools in the shed. They’ve essentially admitted to what we’ve accused them of in documents before a federal court.”
“It’s an ironic twist that they’re posing as defending the Secretary of State at the same time that the Secretary is investigating them for their serial election law violations”.
