September 27, 2004
(Updated) Who's Coordinating The Money In The Fight Over Measure 36?
'1st Pre-Election' Campaign Finance Reports For PACs Available
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
It's that time again. Today is the deadline for the various candidates and committees to file their 1st pre-election campaign and expenditure reports. While you might expect us immediately to jump into the local Mayoral and City Council candidate reports, we've found something far more entertaining to occupy ourselves and, perhaps, our readers.
Whatever would that possibly be? Why, checking out the names of the committees involved on one side or the other of the fight over Measure 36, of course.
- Beaver State Defense Of Beaver Coalition (treasurer M. Dennis Moore), out of Portland, which seeks to "work against religious-right measures and expose their hypocrisy." No 1st pre-election report is available. It opposes Measure 36.
- Defense Of Heterosexual Breeding Coalition (also treasurer M. Dennis Moore), out of Portland, which also seeks to "work against religious-right measures and expose their hypocrisy." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of August 4 it has no contributions, no expenditures, and no cash balance. It opposes Measure 36.
- Defense Of Marriage Coalition PAC (treasurer Raphael C. Antico), out of Portland, which seeks to "support definition of marriage." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of September 27 it had $659,947.78 in contributions, $666,290.53 in expenditures, and a cash balance of $17,852.20. It supports Measure 36.
- Family Alliance Of God (also treasurer M. Dennis Moore), out of Portland, which also seeks to "work against religious-right measures and expose their hypocrisy." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of August 24 it has no contributions, no expenditures, and no cash balance. It opposes Measure 36.
- Focus On The Family Oregon Marriage Amendment Committee (treasurer Michael Howden), our of Dallas, which seeks to "support the Constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman." No 1st pre-election report is available. It supports Measure 36.
- God For Oregon Deity PAC (also treasurer M. Dennis Moore), out of Portland, which also seeks to "work against religious-right measures and expose their hypocrisy." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of August 24 it has no contributions, no expenditures, and no cash balance. It opposes Measure 36.
- No On Constitutional Amendment 36 (treasurer Roey Thorpe), out of Portland, which seeks to "defeat Constitutional amendment 36." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of August 27 it had $1,166,645.92 in contributions, $402,209.58 in expenditures, and a cash balance of $769,900.89. It opposes Measure 36.
- Nurses United PAC (treasurer Terri Schroeder, RN), out of Tualatin, which addresses "ballot measures concerning nurses and their patients." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of September 17 it had $80,245.11 in contributions, $15,467.07 in expenditures, and a cash balance of $196,865.61. It opposes Measure 36.
- Oregon Public Employees Union PAC (treasurer Steve Barrett), out of Salem, which simply describes itself as a "ballot measure PAC." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of September 27 it had $24,428.89 in contributions, $3,473.43 in expenditures, and a cash balance of $59,997.95. It opposes Measure 36.
- Religious Response Network (treasurer Lucy Mciver), out of Eugene, which seeks to "network clergy, congregations, individuals from faith-based communities who oppose Measure 36, present interfaith response to defeat measure." No 1st pre-election report is available. It opposes Measure 36.
- Special Righteousness Committee (also treasurer M. Dennis Moore), out of Portland, which also seeks to "work against religious-right measures and expose their hypocrisy." Accordign to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of September 22, it had $3,055.00 in contributions, $3,515.08 in expenditures, and a cash balance of $386.51. It opposes Measure 36.
- Traditional Prejudices Coalition (also treasurer M. Dennis Moore), out of Portland, which also seeks to "work against religious-right measures and expose their hypocrisy." According to its 1st pre-election report (pdf), as of August 4 it had no contributions, no expenditures, and no cash balance. It opposes Measure 36.
Some of the above information may change in the next hour or so. As we were writing this up, the Defense of Marriage Coalition PAC went from not having a report available to having one available. So it's possible some of the others might show up shortly -- although some of the others are obviously the product of the same person or persons, and so maye just be there for show.
Thanks to the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division, you can now search for campaign finance reports via various criteria selected by drop-down menus. Go play.
Update
Someone want to post a comment of send us email if these PDFs are showing up entirely blank? That's what they are doing for us, and we're assuming none of these PACs actually filed entirely blank reports. And when we say blank, we don't mean blank forms -- we mean entirely blank, entirely white pages.
Comments (8)
Gordie on 27 Sep 2004
Whatever these groups are spending their money on, it's not readily visible down here in/near Grants Pass. Haven't seen a pro or con 36 TV or newspaper ad, haven't received a mailing, etc. Don't listed to radio enough to know there. Medford and Roseburg's papers have had no on 36 editorials, but that's about it (the GP Daily Courier hasn't opined yet, at least as of the weekend paper).
I'm disappointed that the no advocates haven't made a bigger effort in the Medford media market thus far.
I tried a few of the pdfs and they opened fine...though as has been typical of the new Adobe, I had to hit refresh on a couple of them before I got results.
The One True b!X on 27 Sep 2004
Hrm. Apple's "Preview" app under OSX won't show anything but blank pages.
steve on 27 Sep 2004
I can read them fine on my PC - maybe reinstall adobe reader?
The One True b!X on 27 Sep 2004
Yeah, after installing Adobe Reader I can see them fine. Kind of annoying, however, because Pewview is my default pdf viewing app when downloading off the web.
Tom on 28 Sep 2004
There have been a couple of differnt NO on 36 ads played on KXRK during the Stern Show (about the only time of the day im not plugged into my Zen or NPR).
The ads are mostly a person telling why they think its wrong.
One is being told by a straight female who may not agree with the practice but think puting discrimination into the constitution is wrong.
One actualy paints the horror story of having loved ones int he hospital and not being allowed to make needed decissions. It is told from the pov of a straight father who can not imagine anyone voting to allow that to happen.
Im not sure what org it is that is fronting the cash for the ads, Ill listen closer the next time it comes one. But the price of ad time on Stern time is usualy higher than most others.
-tom
pdxkona on 28 Sep 2004
OMG! I am giggling really loudly at work. A big shout out to M. Dennis Moore for the committee laugh! "Beaver State Defense Of Beaver Coalition"? That's a classic! Keep it up...
pdxkona on 28 Sep 2004
I have had issues with blank pdf's from the Elections office. I had a back and forth email with them, and it basically comes down to my pdf reader embedded in my browser won't read them, but looking at them straight through Adobe Reader will. They must have an encoding clause because they are a governmental agency which doesn't turn off all the way when creating pdf's for the public. The PDF's just don't like third party readers, only Adobe reader. What can ya do...
jesse. on 29 Sep 2004
From what I understand, the media blitz is coming a bit later in October. Why that is, well, that's beyond me. They have the cash, that's for sure.
I'd give the Ashland office a call and ask them. They'll fill you in.
Southern Oregon Field Office:
phone: 541-482-1660
email: ashland@NoOn36.com