Dudley's Donors - Part 2

Be sure to see Part 1 of Dudley's Donors

Seneca Sawmills (Name filed on their ORESTAR record: Seneca Jones Timber Company)
Aggregate Donation to Dudley: $35,000


If you live anywhere in or near Eugene, you probably already know about the Cogeneration wood burning power plant that Seneca is bringing on line as I type. According to the Oregon Toxics Alliance's report (PDF here):






"This project is being marketed as a source of “green” energy, but it has the potential to be a significant source of air pollution in West Eugene.

Attempts to compare the plant’s emissions to all sources in the County as a whole (including vehicle or wood stove emissions) is overlooking the fact that this power plant will be one of the single largest sources of air pollutants in Eugene and Lane County.

Air pollution facts:
• As proposed, the power plant would be the 2nd largest emitter of NOx and CO in Eugene, the 4th largest emitter of NOx in Lane County, and the 7th largest emitter of CO in the County.

• The power plant would be Eugene’s single largest emitter of styrene (a carcinogen), acetaldehyde (a carcinogen), hydrogen chloride (causes respiratory illnesses), and napthalene (a carcinogen). Furthermore, all of the existing sources of those toxics are located in one neighborhood - West Eugene.

• At 1.7 tons, the proposed plant will be Eugene’s 3rd largest emitter of formaldehyde (a carcinogen). All 9 existing sources are located in West Eugene.

• At 1.4 tons, Seneca will be the 4th largest emitter of toluene (a carcinogen). 19 of the 21 existing Eugene’s toluene sources are in West Eugene.

• A natural gas power plant of the same capacity would have significantly less emissions


Stronger Pollution Controls (NOx)

• As proposed, the power plant would be the 2nd largest emitter of NO in Eugene and the 4th in Lane County.

• The plant would emit and 186 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx).

• A natural gas power plant of the same capacity would release 115 tons.

• According to the EPA, NOx causes respiratory problems and aggravates heart disease. It can damage lung tissue and cause premature death.

• NOx is a major component of ground-level ozone and global warming."

Wow! I don't know about you, but all the assurances in the world wouldn't make me feel better about living near this thing. Environmentalists used to get happily excited about biomass plants for energy generation until they found out what these plants do to the neighborhoods situated near them.

Just a cursory Google search on pollution violations of this type of plant yielded the following results:

State settles pollution case at wood-fired plant
New Waterbury powerplant cited for pollution violations (I checked other sources, it is a biomass plant)

Closer to home, this article came out in the Oregonian today:
"Freres Lumber (Note: CEO is also a Dudley contributor) fired up its biomass plant in 2007 as part of the green power rush, banking on tax breaks to generate steam and electricity at its Lyons mill by burning forest slash and mill waste. But proposed rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- including new regulations on boiler pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the plants -- could force the company to sample emissions more and put "pollution controls on top of pollution controls," Freres executives say. The proposed regulations would make it very difficult to operate the plant, says Kyle Freres, a vice president. "And I really don't think new plants would have much incentive to start up." "

ENTER CHRIS DUDLEY!

Just what is Chris Dudley's stance on the environment: a well-known local Republican says on his blog that Dudley has dodged this question when asked. So he speculates (with much disdain and imagined eye-rolling) that Dudley believes in man-made causes of global warming. I would say, in typical Dudley fashion, he's merely dodged the whole subject. I was able to find something a bit more official-looking as far as a stance here comparing the Republican candidates for Governor before Dudley won the primary

(Under Environment/Energy):

"Chris Dudley: Would focus state policies to promote, not stand in the way of, sustainable development of ranching, timber and agricultural industries. Supports Oregon's emphasis on green economy but should re-evaluate state subsidies for renewable power. Says he is open to liquefied natural gas facilities but doesn't see public appetite for oil drilling off Oregon coast."

So the truth lies somewhere between "promoting" ...timber (et al) industries and if you consider biomass renewable power. Greenpeace does not consider it renewable, and neither do I since biomass is fueled largely by our forests. Until someone asks Chris Dudley specifically about this matter, we're just going to have to take it on faith that all Seneca (and Freres) will get in return for its donation is a Christmas card. The citizens in and around West Eugene would probably like more reassurance.

Further reading: Interesting article about biomass and why enviros aren't thrilled with it-
http://www.ecofriendlymag.com/sustainable-transporation-and-alternative-fuel/biomass-power-renewable-or-rotten/

We didn't do our job, therefore you suck

Have you noticed that the Oregon GOP's approach regarding Kitzhaber's first run as Governor is, 'We didn't do our job for Oregon, therefore you suck'

Kitzhaber vetoed 5 budgets, why? because of GOP deficit spending. The GOP consistently presented the Kitzhaber administration with budgets with deficit spending, they refused to either cut services or raise a tax to pay for them.

Fast forward... GOP now accuses Kitzhaber of tax and spend. ironic, eh?

More Honesty Problems

Next time you see the Chris Dudley ad "Deserve", you might pay closer attention to a certain Oregonian quote:














Of course Team Dudley didn't include the ENTIRE quote, the rest of which reads:

... and state government appeared powerless to help.

That would be the REPUBLICAN-controlled Legislature aka "State Government".

Just want to supply you with the TRUTH. When Dudley tries to tar Kitzhaber with "negative campaigning", he's at best obfuscating.

Tell me again how Chris Dudley is an outsider? He seems like just another politician to me.

Added by Bodiegroup:

I'd add to that that in every one of Dudley's attacks, pay careful attention to the dates of quotes or statistics and ask yourself why each one is post 9/11...

It appears that Dudley has a "PRE 9/11 mentality. Maybe you should ask him who was running the US when all of these horrible stats happened in Oregon and EVERY OTHER STATE in the nation.

Dudley's Donors - Part 1

First, an administrative note: I want to apologize for not moderating comments in a timely fashion. I was pulled in reluctantly to start this blog when I witnessed the RGA's disappearing tweets bragging about Chris Dudley's meeting in Aspen, CO when he should have been debating John Kitzhaber. I'm still figuring out how this all works. Doing the research is easy (yes, you can do this yourself). Finding the time to write about it is harder. I'm also an artist, always trying to get some time in the studio. And I am a principal in my family's corporation. You will find no one who is happier than I am for the elections in November to be over with, but in the meantime I will try to be more aware of the mechanics of this blog. And so, I apologize. Your comments should be posted in better time from now on.

And now, on with the show...
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In case you were wondering who is contributing to Chris Dudley's campaign, the high rollers are a veritable who's who of environmental ne'er -do-wells and inhumane shitbags. Are you surprised? I'm not. If you believe as I do, that Dudley's function at Filigree Advisors is to glad-hand and essentially pimp his celebrity for his company (and now his party) and if you read Filigree's application for IAR (see below), the types of investments they are involved in jump out at you:












Real Estate. OK. Oil and gas partnerships? Just looking at this alone, it comes as no surprise that Chris Dudley nonchalantly told Laurel Porter on KGW Straight Talk that he was "open" to off-shore drilling EVEN AS the BP oil spill nightmare unfolded before the nation's horrified eyes.

This is the "nugget" that Dudley wants the voters to believe: Because he is "pro-business" (supposedly more than his opponent), this translates into job creation. When you look at Dudley's donors, you have a list of persons and business entities that are certainly expectant of wealth creation, especially through use of our natural resources. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean "job creation". And when you look at some of these donors' behaviors, it seems downright disgusting to reward them with anything, least of all a friend in the Governor's Mansion in Salem.

So, let's start the Dudley's Douchey Donors list with the natural resources category:

Stimson Lumber
Aggregate Donation to Dudley: $50,000
Personal donation form CEO Andrew Miller: $8450

As a special interest group, these guys are no stranger to an election.

No on Measure 49 involvement (2007):
The Portland Mercury explains better than I can why scrutiny of political donors is so important:

There's a reason journalists and good government activists spend so much time poring over campaign donor lists—the motives of each side's backers can reveal what's really in store for the state. That's clearly on display with M49, and with M37 three years ago. The biggest M37 claimholder, with over 109,000 acres in contention, is Stimson Lumber, who donated the largest contribution yet ($200,000) last week to the Stop 49 campaign. Stimson, a major player in the Northwest timber industry for over a hundred years, was the preeminent sponsor of M37 three years ago.

Understand: Stimson logs and then parcels the land for housing.
"In Washington County, west of Beaverton, Stimson Lumber holds the largest M37 claim, for nearly 15,000 acres subdivided for residential development. The cumulative area slated for development under various Measure 37 claims would immediately double the suburban land area in Washington County—and the Stimson claim is the lion's share of that potential sprawl."

In explaining the Stimson claims, CEO Andrew Miller told the Willamette Week "his company’s claims are 'political leverage'.” It should be mentioned that Stimson was also a $30,000 contributor to the original Measure 37 campaign.

Luckily, the voters prevailed and M49 passed.

No on Measure 67 involvement (2009/10):
Stimson Lumber has not been in agreement with the majority of Oregon voters on other issues. As explained in an excellent article regarding campaign funding which is worth a full read, it is not surprising that they pumped massive cash into defeating M67 campaign which passed this year. Measure 67 primarily effected large corporations such as Stimson, and closed a huge inequitable tax loophole for large corporations in this state. The anti-tax crowd is still complaining about it and Chris Dudley has plainly stated he was against it. But so far there is no proof that a single company has left the state as a direct result of Measure 67. No doubt, this issue will still be discussed this election until there is proof positive to shut the Chicken Little's up. In any case, Measure 67 was not the job-killer that the lousy economy in general is.

More Stimson/Measure 49 links:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/politics/2007/10/stimson_lumber_adds_money_to_m.html
http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3349/9812/
http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/news/print_story.php?story_id=116906024346035100

More Stimson/Measure 67 links:
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=5692411&auid=5773288 (Some of the same donors to both the campaign to defeat M67 AND Chris Dudley are named on this list.)

Legal matters:
Being a company over 100 years old, you are bound to run afoul of the law and regulations now and again. Stimson has its share of polluted ponds, DEQ and OSHA violations and deplorable as those are, three more egregious matters should make anyone wonder why any campaign would take this company's money.

Most recently, just this year "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ... Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) v. Brown, No. 07-35266, a three-judge panel overruled a Federal District Court's dismissal of NEDC's suit alleging that the Oregon State Forester and several private timberland owners had violated the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA)." Stimson was named as one of the defendants in this case. Basically they fought for and lost the right to dump their polluting run-off water in the ditches where they log without a permit.
More:
http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=infco20100817216


Before that, there was the biggest fire-related settlement in Idaho's history, paid by Stimson Lumber for negligence.

"BOISE – A North Idaho logging operation is one of two companies that must pay $1.5 million to the state to settle negligence claims stemming from a 2003 wildfire.

The Hunt Creek fire torched nearly a square mile of state-owned timber on the eastern shore of Priest Lake.

Babbitt Logging Inc., based in Coeur d’Alene, and Portland-based Stimson Lumber Co. signed the settlement Oct. 9. The state had alleged that the companies caused the fire by improperly rigging logging equipment.

The money represents the largest forest-fire-related settlement Idaho has ever received, said Roger Jansson, head of state Department of Lands’ northern operations."

That takes us back further to Oliver vs. Stimson Lumber, a case that by everything I could find and understand (I am not a lawyer), seems to be some sort of precedent case regarding evidence destruction through negligence where an employee was injured on the job and evidence was re-tooled so as to render it useless even after it had been named as evidence.


But there's nothing like a Civil Rights case against a Reservist to really drive the case home: These guys suck.

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Stimson Lumber Company to Enforce the Employment Rights of Oregon Reservist

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with Stimson Lumber Company (Stimson) that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint, also filed today, that Oregon-based Stimson failed to reemploy Oregon reservist David Eckhardt in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).
...

The Department’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., alleges that Stimson violated USERRA by failing or refusing to promptly reemploy David Eckhardt upon his return from military service in the Naval Reserves. In March 2007, Eckhardt attended a required military training program. After a short recovery period from an injury sustained during his military training obligation, Eckhardt contacted Stimson in April 2007 to seek reemployment as a boiler operator. The complaint alleges that Stimson failed or refused to reemploy Eckhardt, notifying him that the company had hired another individual to replace him. Under the terms of the consent decree, Stimson is required to provide remedial relief to Eckhardt in the form of an undisclosed monetary payment. Stimson is also prohibited from retaliating against persons who exercise their rights under USERRA.

Regulations? Laws? Who cares about laws?

In closing, Stimson already has its tentacles in all levels of forest management, and I realize that the timber industry in Oregon has fallen on hard times in recent years (ironically causing much of the job loses that Dudley is blaming on John Kitzhaber during the time when he was Governor). But Stimson has proven by the examples shown here and by their political activism that they are scrambling hard to get a Corporate Welfare Savior in Salem. Dudley is their guy and the association may not be beneficial to the rest of us.

If you have links to other Stimson Lumber stories, please tweet them to me @bujeeboo

More of Dudley's Donors in coming days...

And allow me one last divergence. What is up with the Republican Party of Oregon? No platform yet? I guess they have Empty Suits and no standards by which to judge them, even amongst their own party.

Kitzhaber on education funding.

While Dudley spent the last 6 months having his Washington DC staff and Haley Barbour tell him what his "positions" were, John Kitzhaber was laying his out.

Here is his short answer on education funding.For the long answer go to his website.

Dudley when recently asked "what SPECIFICALLY would you do to imporve education" responded with "I'd make sure we're doing everything we can to move education forward"

gee that's specific, dud.

Kitzhaber takes the High Road. Voters get No Road.

Update: We've been asked to show some examples of the information we cite below. It's all available, public record stuff. And I was rather angry about matters last night when I wrote my piece that my feelings at the time were essentially "I won't do the media's job for them, let them find this stuff". Trust me, it wasn't hard! But here is a screen grab of the Biography section of the Form ADV so you can see what I am talking about. Chris Dudley is a biography for Filigree. He has a super awesome title and no apparent role.




























This is the ONLY mention of Dudley with the SEC.












-----------------------------

In light of the very recent news that John Kitzhaber, who I have the greatest respect and admiration for, has told the Democratic Governors Association (in effect) to cease and desist with any negative campaigning for the time being, I thought I had better make a few things abundantly clear about this blog and vent my frustration.

First of all, this blog is written and researched by my husband and myself. We are Oregon residents. We are not part of the Democratic party in any official or unofficial capacity. You may have noticed a lot of this blog is formatted in the form of questions. As voters, we have questions! The media seems to have exhausted and bored itself with research on Dr. Kitzhaber because he is a known quantity. But we know even less about Chris Dudley.

We are not impressed with Chris Dudley. That is obvious. For one thing, the media seems to have bought into this enchanting notion that Dudley is somehow this experienced business person who knows how to create jobs. Chris Dudley doesn't create jobs in his career at Filigree Advisors. He (supposedly) creates wealth on paper for a living. And there's really no proof of success there either. The guy who did have some direct knowledge of business and job creation was Allen Alley but the Republicans didn't think Alley was glamorous enough so they invested no resources in his campaign. Chris Dudley, is above all, a campaign donation machine. So we "get" why his party likes him.

We fell into our role of exploring Chris Dudley quite by accident when we witnessed the Republican Governors Association post and then remove some tweets about where Chris Dudley REALLY was when he said he was unable to attend the ONPA debate because he was on a "family vacation". Now that we see how much the RGA has received from News Corp, the parent company of Fox News, we understand why Oregon voters came last on July 16th when Dudley had a choice between debating and going to a fund raiser. Screw us, the dumb shit voters of Oregon. Oh boy! The RGA has money and Haley Barbour to rub elbows with! What do we matter?

Since my husband and I witnessed Dudley's lie firsthand, we have been curious about him but there is little to know about him. Everything we can find on our own in local press says he has no specifics and that he has no experience in government. Then his 26 point plan comes out, and all be darned. It's true. The man needs a civics class on how Oregon government works!

So here's what I want to know based on my own research:

Why does the CFP Board website list Dudley's CFP license as current but that he is not practicing? A call placed to the CFP Board told me this means he's licensed but he isn't taking new clients.

Update: Chris Dudley is also not registered with SEC as an IAR (Investment Adviser Representative)

The Willamette Week in their July 21st article said Filigree has a value of $55 million in accounts they manage and the article speculated how much they made using a very generous 1% commission rate. The actual rate (if you do the damn research) is a sliding scale with the most generous being .85%. They have 30 clients according to their most recent filing with the SEC. We can assume that these clients are not all equal in wealth. So if we use the highest .85% commission rate, that's $476,500 annually that this firm makes. Hardly Fortune 500 stuff. It's three guys on commission in a high rent office in Lake Oswego, which I found leases from anywhere between $21 and 25/sf/yr. Oh yeah, a real job and wealth factory there. I'm not impressed.

All this leads me to my pivotal question: what the hell does Chris Dudley DO? His bio on the Filigree Advisors website says he is a "Wealth Strategist". In fact, the Filigree website doesn't even mention Ian Crawford, the third partner but instead leads the visitor to believe that it's Gerald Graves and Chris Dudley's s show. However Filigree's FORM ADV with the SEC says lists Chris Dudley's biography and that's it. No duties, no detail. He's not a controlling partner. The ADV goes into some detail what Graves and Crawford do. But for Dudley, it's just a biography.

And I would contend, that's all he is in his job and that's all he is in politics. A biography. A story. A hand-shaker. Someone to bring clients in, or bring donors in. The thinking is, where the money goes, the voters will follow. Where is the evidence that Chris Dudley has created a single job? Where is the evidence that he's even created any wealth?!

As for negative ads, Dudley's expensive campaign ads have already gone negative on Kitzhaber in spite of Kitzhaber wanting to take the high road. In Dudley's recent ad, he blames Kitzhaber for poor job creation in Oregon during the recession in 2001 after we were attacked on 9/11 and when the whole country was in recession. He neglects to say that the Republican Legislature at the time also shares the blame if there is any blame to give. He neglects to say that the Oregon Progress Board set goals for itself and basically gave itself the F grade as depicted in the ad. It's disingenuous crap and half-truths. If Kitzhaber doesn't have the money right now to put out something positive in defense of this BS, then I have concerns that this will never be an even race, which I believe most Oregonians believe in.

So John Kitzhaber may have shut off the DGA, but this humble husband and wife team will keep on chipping away at the facade that is Chris Dudley, "economy fixer and job creator" until we see evidence that he can do either.

Your Humble Blogger
~bujeeboo

The Tax Foundation

this publication represents a big problem for the Oregon GOP candidates, why? cause it pretty much exposes everything they've been telling you about taxes and democrats as lies. Please note that during 1979-1987 Oregon was under GOP rule. 1987-current, Dems. Note the improvement in Oregon's rank under Dems and the fall under GOP. Then ask them why is that?

On a side note: Did you know that over the last decade Oregon spending as a percent of GDP has gone down?

Question Dudley

The next time you see Chris Dudley ask a few simple questions.

1.) if you suggest taxes are the cause of Oregon/US recession why is it that Oregon currently has the 14th best business tax climate in the country yet jobs aren't here?

2.) If you suggest that Dems had a "failure of leadership" why is it that under Vic Atiyeh Oregon went from 6th highest tax burden to 3rd and under dems it went from 3rd to 26th?

3.) If reducing taxes is what creates jobs, how many jobs were created by the Bush tax cuts?

4.) If Democrats are "tax and spend" please explain question 2

5.) If GOP is fiscally responsible, please tell me how much GOP cut federal discretionary spending when they owned executive and legislative branches of government.

After he stumbles through those questions. Ask him to name a company that left Oregon when their minimum corp tax was "increased 1500%!" from $10 to $150.

Remember that debate, no... family vacation? Errr... couple hours of RGA work?

UPDATE: Further investigation on ORESTAR reveals that Chris Dudley was also reimbursed for one plane ticket on United to Aspen. (Ironically, my husband took the exact same United flight the week following Dudley's trip and it cost EXACTLY the same.)

Given that Dudley was so adamant that the trip was a family vacation, and that he told Lars Larson that he did "a couple hours of work", should the campaign be paying for this trip at all? Even if these charges were for a staffer, that's quite a hefty hotel charge. Also, whoever bought the plane ticket got an upgrade. Must be nice working for the Dudley Campaign.














A real-time charge for a United upgrade:














Frequent Flyers: Please feel free to corroborate or refute. These charges EXACTLY match my husband's who took that same flight (with upgrade) the following week.


++++++++++++
Weirdness surrounds the Chris Dudley family vacation back in July.

Recap: Dudley begged out of the ONPA debate because he had a pre-scheduled family vacation.

"Chris made a commitment to his family and he's going to uphold that commitment," said campaign spokesman Leroy Coleman.

Then it was revealed that he was caught in a lie when the Republican Governor's Association tweeted that they had spent a "productive couple of days" with Dudley. Those tweets were promptly removed so as not to implicate The Tall One in a lie. Too late! The Dudley Camp is then in the awkward position of having to explain that vacation/RGA meeting overlap (from Mapes' column):

Dudley's spokesman, LeRoy Coleman, said Dudley had long before blocked out a period of Wednesday through Saturday for a vacation in Aspen with his family. He chose that location in part because of the GOP meeting, Coleman said.

So imagine our surprise while sipping coffee in bed on a fine Saturday morning and scanning Dudley's campaign expenditures when we ran across this (click to enlarge):















Yup, that would be the hotel charge for the 2010 Dudley Family Summer Vacation Extravaganza and Debate Dodge. And it's a reimbursement. It's not illegal. At least, I don't think it is. But to be sure, we've written the Secretary of State and inquired.

However, it still eludes to an Honesty Problem and a problem if you happened to have donated to his campaign. You might have purchased a family vacation at a luxury hotel in Aspen for a family that can afford to buy its own vacation or even its own house in Aspen. I think it warrants an explanation because controversy has been surrounding this event from the git-go.

Gosh... A free vacation in Aspen in July sounds wonderful.

What part of tax deductable don't you get?

Idiots piss me off, the assumption that tax cuts to the rich trickle down to the rest of us is assinine.

Let me ask a simple question to Dudley supporters.

How many jobs did the tax cuts to the rich create under Bush?

Or how much of a budget surplus was created by those tax cuts? 

Over the past 30 years unemployment skyrocketed under GOP presidents and dropped dramatically under Dems. It is indisputable. But since when did facts actually matter?

I've created 3 businesses: 1 event consulting that I merged into my 2nd business (graphic design and media production) which I sold, and started a new similar business which is doing quite well. When taxes are very low I pull money out of my business & I bank it. I don't re-invest it & I don't hire new employees. 

Under Bush corps have stashed HUGE amounts of cash. They aren't hiring. In fact many are buying new businesses to drive growth (as opposed to growing their own business and hiring new employees) and as a result they lay off employees. don't believe me... look at unemployment stats from 2006-10.

BREAKING NEWS: employees are tax deductable. yes, it's really that simple.

All thinking people understand that there is a cause and effect between what is happening nationally and what happens in Oregon. The rest vote for the tall guy.

Daddy, please tell me again how the GOP are deficit hawks?

Seriously, do facts matter anymore? If you think Dudley is out to protect Oregonians, think again. He's GOP, what else do you need to know.

This chart shows deficit spending as a percent of GDP note the trends in the past 30 years. Curously Obama is driving HUGE deficits, you hear that meme all the time from the right. The part that they leave out? $1.2T of the debt generated under Obama was handed to him by Bush, and much of the other deficit spending is the result of several things:

1.) an economy left in ruins by the GOP

2.) wars started under Bush

3.) wall street bank bailouts under the Bush

Nope facts, don't matter, right Chris Dudley?

George Carlin -"Who Really Controls America"

It's really rather frightening how true this is:



Remember this when Chris Dudley and other CORPORATE PUPPETS come knocking on your Statehouse door.