Most Active Stories
- Sources: KATU set to release eyebrow-raising poll showing Merkley in 3rd place
- Monty Python and the Neverending Campaign
- Walker ready with budget-cutting pen
- Rural county voters give serious consideration to a Democrat
- Adamson to be Merkley’s business liaison
- Haugen: Support from ORGOP is like 'holding our jewelry while we get water boarded'
- SD-20: The replacement process for Schrader
- OR-5: County fairs have a Mike Erickson problem
- Future PAC, Macpherson lead in fundraising
- House Dems scramble to keep majority
Recent Press Releases
- Sep 23 2008
- Jun 12 2008
PolitickerOR Partners
August 14, 2008 - 6:05pm
News
Smith campaign: 'He is flat-out lying'
By Britten Chase, PolitickerOR.com ReporterU.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) campaign spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride accused Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley's (D-Portland) campaign of lying about the specifics of Smith state director Kerry Tymchuk's approval of State Capitol renovations.
Gilbride was responding to the Merkley campaign, who claimed that controversial state capitol renovations, approved by Merkley as Speaker of the House, were also approved by Smith's state director, Kerry Tymchuk. The Merkley campaign made those claims Thursday, after Smith's campaign released their second television ad attacking Merkley for the capitol renovation. Gilbride said it wasn't Tymchuk that approved of using tax payer money to buy new office furniture.
"What Kerry Tymchuck approved of was a barebones improvement, not lavish furnishings," Gilbride said.
The report stated that the capitol building, which had not been redone since the 1970s, needed improvements.
"As the peoples' building, it should be cared for not on behalf of the people who work in it, but as a symbol of Oregon government," the report says. "The price of renovation, no matter how extensive, will only increase over time. Therefore, the Legislative Assembly should consider funding a renovation of the capitol a priority."
The report that Tymchuk approved of placed the decisions for improvement specifications and budgeting in the hands of a Legislative advisory committee, requiring that the committee stay under-budget. According to Rep. Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay), head of that committee, all refurbishing to the capitol, including the furniture, came in under budget and on time.
The decision to include the furniture was nowhere in the report that Tymchuk approved of.
"He cannot defend his leadership on this issue so he is flat out lying," Gilbride said. "Jeff Merkley is responsible for two million dollars in furniture."
Syndicate
This is what I hear
Gordon Smith: notarepublicannotarepublicannotarepublicanOBAMAnotarepublicanKERRYnotarepublicanFURNITUREnotaprepublicanHOTDOGSnotarepublican.
Jeff Merkley:
End the war in Iraq
Create jobs
Health care for all
Energy independence and conservation
on so on, and so on.
The report that Tymchuk
The report that Tymchuk approved of placed the decisions for improvement specifications and budgeting in the hands of a Legislative advisory committee, requiring that the committee stay under-budget. According to Rep. Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay), head of that committee, all refurbishing to the capitol, including the furniture, came in under budget and on time.
The decision to include the furniture was nowhere in the report that Tymchuk approved of.
Wait a minute...
Tymchuk was on the committee, said that price of renovation was worth it because it would only get more expensive...and we're supposed to believe that didn't include furniture replacement...? Even after Senate Minority Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) and Rep. Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach) complained loudly and publically about the reprehensible conditions of the Capitol's furnishings?
Smith's OWN STATE DIRECTOR was for this furniture replacement and Gilbride knows it.
She is flat-out lying.
Lindsey Gilbride clearly believes Oregonians to be too stupid to think for ourselves.
In fact, Tymchuk gave the report his UNQUALIFIED approval. Whether it itemized every single component in the remodel is completely irrelevant.
Gilbrides frothy assertions that Tymchuk only meant to approve of a "bare bones improvement" simply does not have a shred of supporting evidence. Indeed, as the piece here clearly demonstrates, whether the remodel would be "bare bones" or "lavish" was intentionally given by Tymchuk over to the referenced Legislative advisory committee.
Lindsey Gilbride is the one flat-out lying.
pants on fire?
Lindsey Gilbride clearly believes Oregonians to be too stupid to think for ourselves.
You're thinking of Chuck Schumer. He didn't believe we were competent enough to select our own grassroots candidate to challenge Smith, so he swooped in and recruited his third choice, Merkley.
When the initial cash infusion from the DSCC and most of the institution endorsements didn't blow away the rest of Merkley's competitors, Chuck and the DSCC came to the rescue with more DC cash, enough for Merkley to hit the air waves and create some pretty Rovian attack ads.
As for lying, Merkley lied about giving an "anti-war" floor speech after the US invaded Iraq and he lied about publishing and "anti-war" column. (Publishing implies making "public" ... not writing something to dear Diary or in your club's newsletter.)
Either lying or incompetent
Thanks Thom. How's living in the past working out for you?
If Tymchuk wasn't aware that the aforementioned renovation included furniture replacements, then Tymchuk must have either been blind, deaf, absent, or stupid.
This renovation has been coming down the pipes for years and ANYONE associated with it has been discussing furniture options for as long.
Tymchuk is either lying, or is so incompetent as to sign off on something without knowing the most basic aspects of the plan.
Either way, it doesn't bode well for the Smith campaign.
replay
Gordon Smith is one of the most usless bastards I have ever known. He goes bye bye as well. Has he even shown an interest in looking at the new Unemployment Insurance extension.
Post new comment