Sockeye Blog

Happy Monday!

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when the corporate lobby was pushing a capital gains tax cut as a way of stopping all those unnamed millionaires from leaving the state? Over the weekend, though they didn't mention capital gains, the Register Guard's editorial board took on those claims, finding there to be no evidence of an exodus out of Oregon.
 
The Moving Oregon Forward approach to the state budget continues to get coverage, with the Statesman Journal agreeing that the budget debate should be broader than "which frontline services will cut the deepest?" These ideas--which will limit cuts to frontline services--should take on a new urgency. Every day, newspaper and TV reports reveal the impacts that deep budget cuts will have on local communities: Larger class sizes, layoffs, fewer school days.

Email jenny.smith@ouroregon.org to be added to our daily clips list.

Circuit Court Judge Joseph Guimond has thrown out arguments filed by Racketeer Bill Sizemore in a lawsuit against Our Oregon, Defend Oregon, and others stemming from the 2008 ballot measure campaign.

Sizemore filed the multi-million dollar lawsuit in late 2008, upset that his opponents pointed out his troubling history of fraud, forgery, and racketeering.

The court has now thrown out Sizemore’s arguments. In his opinion, the judge wrote:

The court finds that it could be reasonably inferred that Bill Sizemore was a "convicted racketeer" as he was the executive director of political action committees that were found liable for fraud, forgery, and racketeering.

In other words, when you act like a convicted racketeer and run an organization that gets busted for racketeering, don’t be surprised when people start calling you a convicted racketeer.
 
The case still has some technical steps to go through before it’s dismissed entirely, but this opinion effectively means that Sizemore no longer has any arguments or evidence to support his suit. In short, Sizemore no longer has a case.
 
Our Oregon Executive Director Patrick Green applauded the court’s dismissal of the suit.
 
“We worked hard to put an end to Bill Sizemore’s abuse of the political system,” Green said. “Now we’re glad to see that the court has put an end to Sizemore’s abuse of the legal system as well.”

What does marriage mean to you? Basic Rights Oregon wants you to start thinking out loud.

Last night, the video above - the first of BRO’s advertising campaign - ran during Glee. (Want to see more? Check out BRO’s LoveCommitmentMarriage website for all of their videos.) These ads are part of a major, state-wide campaign designed to open up dialogue about the freedom to marry.

Research shows that people who have talked to their friends about why marriage matters are twice as likely to support the freedom to marry. That means that open conversations are the key to promoting marriage equality. And right now, 1 in 5 Oregonians say they have no idea why GLBTQ couples want to get married. It’s important to promote the understanding that committed couples, whether gay or straight, hope to marry for similar reasons – to make a lifetime promise to share their joys and sorrows and all that life brings them.

These ads are the first step of that conversation. They share personal stories of shared values of fairness and treating others the way we would want to be treated. The next step? That’s where you come in.

Go start a conversation, share the videos online, and tell your own story! Check out other ways to get involved at www.lovecommitmentmarriage.org

You can also check out our Marriage Equality priorities page for some background info on the campaign.

The Ways and Means Co-Chairs' proposed budget was released this afternoon, cutting schools, health care, and public safety while leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. Advocates for education and critical services spoke out against the budget cuts, calling them unacceptable. Legislative Republicans quickly embraced the budget, which will lead to deep cuts to schools and services that families depend on.

Email jenny.smith@ouroregon.org to be added to our daily clips list.