I’ve been thinking… State Representative Race – Follow the Money

By Jim Heffernan

I find that the real truth in politics is not always accessible by listening to the candidate. I think the old cliche “follow the money” is a good way to find out who the candidate will resonate with.

I also believe that tracking voting behavior reveals a lot about an incumbent.

Oregon makes it pretty easy to track both the money and the vote.

Oregon is strict about reporting campaign contributions. If someone wants to make a $2 donation at the TillCoDems office, they must identify themselves on a form to meet Orestar rules set by the Oregon Secretary of State.

However, if you want to donate to a PAC (Political Action Committee), you can conceal your identity and the amount of money you are donating. Cyrus Javadi has raised more than a million dollars from various PACs. They have harmless-sounding names like “Restore Balance to Salem Pac.”

When you visit the Secretary of State’s website listed below, a search form will appear. If you enter “Cyrus for Oregon” in the name block at the bottom of the form and click “Search,” 172 donations will appear in random order. There is a button on the screen that allows you to export the completed form to your computer in Excel spreadsheet format. Once the form is in this format, you can use the table’s sorting feature to better understand who gave what. And you can sum it up.

So far, Cyrus Javadi has raised just over a million dollars. His greatest contribution is “Bring Balance to Salem Pac.” A better name for the PAC would be “Phil Knight and His Rich Friends.” Bring Balance to Salem has donated $418,000 to Dr. Javadi donated. It’s no wonder I get a mailer seemingly every day and when I check football scores on the Internet, a clever but deceptive negative ad about his opponent pops up.

Also Dr. Javadi’s voting behavior is suspicious. He trumpets what he did, but I don’t understand how he had a single deciding vote last session. The Oregonian maintains a great website that tracks the votes of individual legislators.

I was disturbed to see that 281 votes had been cast in the last few meetings, Dr. Javadi was “apologized” for 62 of them (22%). 33 were simply “Excused” and 29 were “Excused for Domestic Business.” I have to ask myself. Dr. Javadi is on three committees and David Gomberg, another Oregon Coast representative, is on six committees. David Gomberg didn’t miss a single vote.

Dr. Javadi’s opponent, Andy Davis, is competing against him with less than $17,000. Andy Davis will be a full-time legislator because conflict of interest laws require him to leave his job as an analyst for the state.

Let’s send a message to the big money interests that want to buy our votes and send Andy Davis to Salem.

As always, discussions are welcome at [email protected]