Letters to the Editor for March 10, 2010

Questions remain about recall

In last Friday’s Baker City Herald, Jamey Hardy, chief petitioner of the Recall Dorrah and Calder Committee, was quoted as saying, “It was ridiculous for it (Elections Division’s investigation of recall violations) to go as far as it did in the first place. We knew we weren’t doing anything wrong.”

Oh, really! 

Elections Division investigator Alana Guiney didn’t think the complaints were “ridiculous,” as may be seen in her letter to Hardy dated March 1, 2010:

“There were an uncanny number of double signatures in this campaign.... We received multiple complaints relating to the content of the recall petition, the inconsistencies regarding double signing, and the possibility of police officers collecting in uniform.  There were also issues regarding possible false signatures.”

And in a letter to Milo Pope, Guiney wrote, “...there were a huge number of double signers and other issues.”

Guiney concluded, “Considering the relatively small number of signatures needed for the recall, the number of problems were disproportionate and troubling.”

“In the first place,” to use Hardy’s words, what should NOT have happened was the Dorrah-Calder recall attempt.

OK, let’s move on. 

Well, not quite yet.  

There’s still the unresolved issue of who financed the recall campaign.

Oregon election law requires campaign financing be open to public scrutiny. Campaigns must report within seven days all financial transactions. So, we know that the Recall Dorrah and Calder Committee had three individual contributions of $198 each. And Milo Pope made inkind contributions of $704 and $897 to finance his big ads.  

But who donated $666 and $2,041 of the transaction type “Personal Expenditure for Reimbursement” dated Oct. 8 and 13, 2009? These loan-like transactions form the bulk of the recall committee’s finances.  

When I inquired of the Elections Division, I was told there’s a loophole in election finance law. That type of transaction does not get a contributor attached to it until the recall committee either reimburses the person or closes its books.

The recall is not over until the public knows who put up the bulk of the money to finance it.

Gary Dielman

Baker City