As a general rule, I’m avoiding local political crap. But I do feel the need to juxtapose two parts of today’s Theo article on the failure to put a repeal of public campaign financing on the ballot.
“I’m thinking this is sabotage,” said Jason Williams of the Taxpayers Association of Oregon, which collected about 2,000 signatures for the repeal effort.
This is followed shortly thereafter by the following.
[Marvin] Prestwood fears that he received two petitions in the mail from the Taxpayers Association of Oregon or another anti-tax group — and signed them both. His wife’s signature appears twice, too. Williams, of the Taxpayer Association, says his organization sent two mailings to the same list but sent the second copy only to people who had failed to respond to the first.
I wonder if Williams truly believes that sabotage is a more likely explanation than the problematic nature of his own strategy.
Also, I find it amusing that, although there’s no direct correlation, the number of signatures William’s organization gathered — 2000 — is roughly the same number by which the petition would have qualified if not for the duplicates.