Thieman campaign approaching meltdown mode; Has sucked Patti Smith into the fray
Well we knew that the Phyllis Thieman campaign was melting down. Making snitty emails to radio stations, losing or barely winning endorsements, not raising any money and spending tens of thousands of dollars on consultants.
But now Rep. Patti Smith is sending around a very misleading email regarding Matt Lindland. AND THE EMAIL IS ALMOST WORD FOR WORD WHAT ELAINE FRANKLIN SENT TO KXL RADIO.
In other words Elaine is playing fast and lose with some opposition research that Bruce Hanna paid for and has persuaded Rep. Patti Smith to send it out UNDER HER NAME. The Thieman campaign is treading on dangerous ground.
In the emails from Franklin/Smith they speak of 5 judgements over 18 years. Except they say it like this: "Over the last 18 years..." As if there has been some "on-going" problem. But Elaine Franklin wouldn't mislead you would she?
You know what Patti Smith fails to mention in her "just the facts" email to lobbyists? She fails to mention that 3 of those judgements are TRAFFIC TICKETS! Imagine that, three traffic tickets over the period of 18 years. How many do you have over the last 18 years?
Then story gets even more seedy. Elaine said this in her email to KXL radio:
Lindland's explanation of the theft conviction bears absolutely no resemblance to the evidence in the court documents. (I have attached Lindland's explanation when being interviewed by his own consultant who runs the NW Republicans web site on which the interview was posted..I have also attached the court document of the theft conviction - pages 7 and 8 are the relevant pages for comparison.)
("Theft conviction?" Puhlease) Read that carefully folks and tell me if this looks like a "cut and paste" from Patti Smith:
He tried to explain the theft away on a blog, but the explanation bears no resemblance to the court documents. I have attached both the blog explanation and the court document - go to pages 7 and 8.
Eerily similar? Didn't some other Republican candidates just get a black eye for copying and pasting talking points from Rep. Hanna? Don't these guys ever learn?
But back to the issue at hand. I read Smith's and Franklin's attachments (I don't know how to post the pdf.) and you know what? They read almost verbatim the way Lindland explained on THIS blog!
The unfortunate thing about "pages 7 and 8" are that they are the report FOR THE THIRD PARTY and not for Lindland. So the keystone cops can't even get THAT right.
The story is simple. It was 18 years ago. Lindland was 19 years old. A kid he knew who had no food and no money to buy food came to the grocery store and ask the 19 year old Lindland if he could get him some food.
Lindland then went to the back and got a cart of the soiled produce (just like he said on this blog. Oh and the total value of the soiled produce was 29 bucks.) and started to roll it out the FRONT DOOR of the grocery store. The other kid ran off.
The ONLY difference in the official report that Franklin is passing around and the way it was reported on this blog, is that Lindland's initial reaction was to say the other kid was stealing it. Which is a natural first reaction by a scared teenager who knows he has been caught doing something.
However, what is quite apparent is that very shortly after the event had happened Lindland was pretty quick to tell the authorities the entire story and cooperated fully.
The funny thing is that the food never left the store so if Lindland were not a scared teenager EIGHTEEN FREAKING YEARS AGO, he could have probably fought the charge because the product was never stolen. Instead he pled guilty to a misdemeanor. Just like he said on this blog.
But now the story turns back to Franklin and Smith. Why are they cutting and pasting personal attacks and sending them around? Why are they not fully forthcoming regarding the nature of those events and instead try to paint a picture that is not really true?
Is it because their candidate is in trouble?
I also have another question... Did Rep. Bruce Hanna order some opposition research on Phyllis Thieman? Has she had any traffic tickets in the last 18 years? How about health code violations at her bed and breakfast? And does that stuff really matter?
Well it matters if your candidate is a "pro-tax increase, pro-abortion, anti-gun rights" republican and your candidate is trying to win a Republican primary.
Oregon Republicans have been down this road before. They have seen the liberal Republicans sell their party down the river and how that has come back to bite them to the point that they have lost the majority because of it. They tried to drum Matt Wingard out of the primary and failed. It appears they are trying it with a different Matt this time.
If Bruce Hanna has any intestinal fortitude at all he will make a call to Elaine Franklin, Patti Smith and the Thieman campaign and tell them to stop with the erroneous personal attacks.
What were other legislators doing when they were 19 years old and in frat houses? Or as I was, in the military? Hmmm? Is Rep. Hanna willing to find that out for us?
What does Rep. Smith say about President Bush and his DUII? Did Rep. Patti Smith and Rep. Bruce Hanna actually VOTE for President Bush? Heck the President's offense was worse than what they are trying to smear Lindland with AND IT WAS A MORE RECENT EVENT than Lindland's.
Franklin/Smith are attempting to smear with spin.
But none of this matters to Franklin. She has already hurt her candidate beyond repair. Now she must attempt to permanently damage the other candidate in the hopes that she is not proven wrong.
She has a history of that you know? When will the folks in the caucus send her to the woodshed for good?
16 comments:
Will somebody put Elaine Franklin out of our misery?
Three traffic tickets? Are you kidding me? She has Patti Smith sending out foreboding emails about court judgements that include three traffic tickets?
What next? A late payment on a parking fine?
This is so sad. Patti Smith was a great legislator. Why is she doing this stupid stuff? Really not the way to go out.
So we have three traffic tickets and a theft incident. What were the traffic tickets for, specifically? What's the fifth "judgment?"
I heard Matt Linland once crossed the street in a crosswalk.....WHEN THE RED HAND WAS FLASHING!!!!!
OMG!! Doesn't he know that whe the RED HAND IS FLASHING he isn't supposed to cross the street!!!!
I hope Elaine Franklin doesn't find out about this, because she will probably accuse Linland of attempted murder or something.....
Sheesh...
The other judgement, from what I understand had to do with a business deal with a promoter named Buddy Rose.
Not unlike a lot of businesses who end up from time to time being taken to court or going to court to get paid.
We asked him about this and he said that he eventually took everything to a judge and that a judge ended up, in the end, finding in favor of Lindland because the other guy intentionally sent the notice to a wrong address.
Oh and the amount of that dispute? A whopping $1,500 and it was reversed or something.
I have not seen those documents but those who have have given me the impression that this is much ado about nothing and that it is really petty of Franklin/Smith.
Uh oh. Since my last post Phyllis has more expenses to consultants.
Command Consulting Account Payable $3,000.00
Command Consulting Account Payable $4,476.90
Command Consulting Cash Expenditure $1,795.85
Conservative Republicans should be very wary of Hanna.
Scary dude!
It is a good thing I am not Matt Lindland. I would tell Hanna after the primary that he will not have my vote for Speaker, if the R's take back control of the House. I would vote for another R, but not Hanna. Hanna's actions in a primary race like this one are inexcusable, well unless he publicly apologizes now.
If R's take the House, Hanna will probably need Matt's vote to become Speaker. Control will probably be that closely divided. He and Matt from Wilsonville, a recipient of similar Hanna treatment, might form a little coalition and call the shots. Seriously, it is about time the R's in leadershp, who are trying to turn the party to the left, got a taste of hard ball politics themselves.
As for Patti Smith, she is probably doing, simply put, whatever Elaine Franklin asks her to, and for that she ought to be embarrassed.
It sounds like Elaine Franklin needs to be run out of the state on a rail.
I think I am up for this challenge.
It's pretty clear that the Republican RINO guard has an ongoing attack on genuine conservatives in an attempt to paint the conservative as the problem causing the minority and irrelevant status the Oregon Republican Party whallows in.
These despicable RINOs would prefer the party return to the perpetual minority status which Packwood and Hatfield so thoroughly enjoyed for decades.
The scurrilous attack on Wingard and now Linland by the Republican power capitulators is only making them the clear targets for removal they so deservedly will soon face.
I'll add my disdain for the (bad word) Elaine Franklin with the full recognition that whatever she gets plastered with will never surpass the repugnant nature of her methods and ways.
Other than that she's pretty cool.
"These despicable RINOs would prefer the party return to the perpetual minority status which Packwood and Hatfield so thoroughly enjoyed for decades."
Please, Mark Hatfield was able to retire as one of the most admired, accomplished and respected politicians in US, let alone Oregon history. How? By not being a complete jerk and by representing the best interests of the people of Oregon. Mark did not enjoy Oregon Reps minority status, more to the point the state Dems moved to the rational center and took the urban Republican vote away. Mark was the republican majority in Oregon through his term as governor and state legislator. The party left (or righted ;) ) Mark Hatfield.
I would say the same thing about Packwood until his pathetic inability to act like a gentleman ended his political career.
So are conservatives the problem or the answer? neither because no reasonable narrative about being a conservative exists in Oregon. Were the party not beholden to anti-choice extremists, a lot more urban voters would be willing to vote Republican.
Mark Hatfield was personally opposed to abortion, but as a true conservative he rightly thought of it as a matter between and woman, her conscience and her doctor. I predict that an entire generation of folks who worked for Mark and have no ascended to the tops of their respective fields will soon enter the public arena and maybe, just maybe Oregonians, Dems and Republicans will follow them into the true conservative fold where the government leaves you alone for the most part, you can travel from one point to another with out a state issued ID card and the unconscionable abuses of the executive branch will be reined in and a bit if fiscal sanity restored.
Red,
Unfortunately historical facts do not support your theory.
There is a reasonable narrative about being a conservative in Oregon. Especially when it comes to the legislature.
The Republicans took control of the House and Senate in Oregon after staunch conservatives like Mark Hemstreet put together the original "round table."
It was also done in the midst of some high profile conservative issues.
Marylin Shannon won, Eileen Qutub won as a staunch conservative. Max Williams was sold to the party as a conservative (I remember the promise given to Don McIntire that Williams was solid and would make them proud.).
Those are onl a few of the Republicans who took office AS conservatives.
How did they lose? It was not by being conservative. They lost because they supported some tax increases in general and in a couple of cases a gas tax increase in particular.
THAT is how they lost. It was not by being CONSERVATIVE it was because they became MORE LIBERAL.
That is the narrative in Oregon.
Hatfield and Packwood won their seats before the big fights within the party and since they were entrenched incumbents by the time the real battles came around they were not about to lose.
In the case of Elaine Franklin's involvement in ANY race she will ALWAYS try to make the narrative about abortion. Even if no one really cares she will make sure that that is the biggest issue and that either her candidate will win or the earth will be scortched so badly that NO ONE will win.
That way she gets to say "see!"
She does not care about a Republican majority. She only cares about HER majority.
red,
You're delusional, confused and naive all at the same time.
The state Dems have beeen overtaken by left wing loons and are no where near the center. Mark Hatfield may have been the Republican majority in Oregon through his term as governor and state legislator but he failed to stand firm and resist the pulling of the left.
The Republican Party of Oregon, having been dominated by maleable and capitulating RINOs, taken moved the party to the left pretending to be moderate.
Conservatives trying to resist the left, maintain ground and preserve the traditionalism in conservatisim are not the problem.
The loony left and cowardly RINOs are.
Coyote- I read somewhere you are working to elect thieman's opponent. Shouldn't you disclose that somewhere on here? At least Kari tells us when he posts about Merkley, etc.
Oregon republicans definately like to eat their own!
anon 9:59,
You probably read it right here on this blog. Because I have said it a couple of times.
Oh and I don't care what Kari at BO does. He does a LOT of things that I don't like or agree with.
So if he jumped off a bridge does that mean all Republicans or other bloggers should follow?
Of course not.
Now as far as "eating their own." I'd look to the folks running the Thiemann campaign first. Because up until they started sending around erroneous emails about Lindland's personal life this campaign has been about the issues.
Then Elaine Frankline tried "eating" Thiemann's opponent and got busted.
The biggest difference between Hatfield, Packwood and conservative Republicans is that Hatfield and Packwood were elected to statewide office.
Rather than joining the back and forth here in the comments, I have posted about this issue on my blog robkremer.blogspot.com
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