(Updated) The Financially-Lopsided Battle Over Creating A Public Utility District
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
I'm not sure if this will end up in tomorrow's Oregonian. It's credited as an Associated Press report and is available today on KGW and OregonLive:
A grassroots effort to take over the largest remaining asset of bankrupt Enron Corp. has already resulted in a half million-dollar opposition campaign to defeat a ballot measure that would create one of the biggest public utility districts in the West.
Opponents of public ownership for Portland General Electric -- purchased by Enron in 1997 -- say it will raise electric rates, decrease reliability and remove PGE from state regulation.
...
They're using television and radio commercials, full-page newspaper ads, direct mailings and even notices on PGE bills to sway voters against approving a public utility district that would cover Multnomah County, the most heavily populated county in Oregon with Portland as its seat.
Supporters of the measure, meanwhile, are trying to transform PGE from a private to a public utility on a shoestring budget of about $20,000, handing out fliers, setting up lawn signs and trying to talk their neighbors into spreading the message that Houston-based Enron cannot be trusted to restore the oldest utility in Oregon to local ownership.
Here's how the article addresses the issue of the industry front group:
The Enron campaign to fight off the takeover bid has been organized by the Citizens Against Government Takeover, led by Brian Gard, a longtime public relations and advertising veteran.
But the article doesn't quite make it explicitly clear that Gard isn't merely "a longtime public relations and advertising veteran" but is, in fact, part of a PR firm which counts PGE among its clients.
As for the OregonLive version of this AP story, its "On the Net" addendum provides a link only to Portland General Electric, not bothering to also provide readers with an opposing link to the Oregon Public Power Coalition.
Update
And here is an OPB story on this from three days ago, which does report that the industry front group's campaign has raised more than half a million dollars, and that "about three quarters of that money came from Pacific Power and most of the rest from PGE."
It's just that the deceptively-named Citizens Against the Government Takeover isn't required to inform viewers or readers of its advertisements that they are funded by the regional electric power industry.
October 06, 2003 at 10:31 AM
Whether you are for or against the proposed PUD, the sad reality is that the side with the most bucks almost always wins. This is also true in City Council elections. A friend of mine researched campaign expenditures of the city officeholders going back several election cycles. Without exception, the candidate who spent the most money won the election.
October 06, 2003 at 11:19 AM
And indeed, although I do tend to lean, philosophically anyway, towards public power, my main concern about this particular campaign is that we're just not going to get a real debate about it. While this would still be true with truthful disclosure about the nature of the "Citizens" group, it would at least be a more honest debate in terms of transparency of motive.