Karen Minnis knows how to pick an issue and use it as a stick with which to beat her opponents about the head and shoulders. One stick she frequently uses is the boogeyman of "outside special interests" swooping in with their "radical" agendas to unduly influence East County voters. For example, Minnis states in
this letter to constituents:
"I believe tax dollars from East county should go primarily to provide for police and fire protection, roads, and essential services for our families. A candidate supported by downtown special interest groups will not share these same priorities. There are a variety of reasons radical liberal groups outside our community are working for my defeat." (emphasis added)
At the same time Minnis (who was "born and raised" in Portland, according to her website) rails against "downtown special interest groups", she takes a good bit of money from contributors with Portland zip codes - $34,073 from 97205, $12,500 from 97225, for example.
Going beyond Portland and even Oregon, an April 2006 BlueOregon guest column by Jeff Alworth highlights the fact that Minnis receives about 25% of her contributions from out-of-state:
In 2004, her [Minnis's] largest contributors included the tobacco, real estate, logging, and big pharma, nearly 25% of which came from out of state donors. So who is on this year's list? More of the same, including tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and health products. She's on pace to earn a lot more from out-of-state interests--the running total is $75k, almost as much as she raised in all of 2004 from non-Oregon lobbies.
Some of the names on the list:
Pharma: GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Zeneca, Eli Lilly, Bistol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi Aventis
Petroleum: Conoco Phillips, Chevron Texaco
Logging: Hampton Lumber Sales, Associated Oregon Loggers, Weyerhaeuser
Tobacco: Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds
Power: Idaho Power, Natural Gas PAC
Aren't the dreaded "downtown Portland special interest groups" a lot closer to home than Novartis Pharmaceuticals' offices in East Hanover, New Jersey?
Followthemoney.org indicates that $93,746 of Karen Minnis' total $387,733 contributions currently reported for 2006 came from out-of state contributors. At this rate, Minnis' out-of-state contributions alone will exceed the total amount raised by the Brading campaign.
Following Minnis' own logic, should we assume that she will not share East County's priorities because she is supported by out-of-district and out-of-state special interests? It's time for Speaker Minnis to own up to her out-of-state support and cease using this disingenuous tactic with voters.