BILL SIZEMORE, THE ONLY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE THAT CAN SAVE OREGON
By
Paul Walter
March 3, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
The State of Oregon is in serious trouble. The state is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, because every branch of state government is controlled by the public employee unions that profit from bigger government and higher taxes.
These powerful unions really flexed their muscles when recently they persuaded, or should I say “ordered” the governor and the Democrat controlled state legislature to increase taxes by $700 million in the middle of a major recession.
By their constant overreaching, these powerful unions have finally reduced politics in Oregon to one basic equation. Oregon politics is now a battle between those who work for government and the taxpayers and small businesses that are forced to fund the overly generous salaries and benefits public employees enjoy.
Sadly, many voters are not aware of just how bad the situation has become. Here’s just one example: Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) is billions of dollars in the hole and self-serving judges have prevented anyone from fixing the problem. This has left the taxpayers on the hook for a retirement system that allows public employees to retire at young ages (52-58) and receive pensions that are higher than those same employees earned when they worked full time. No state can afford to do that!
The problem is
worsening and only one candidate running for governor has the knowledge
and courage to fix it. That 
candidate
is Republican
Bill Sizemore.
I’m sure you have heard lots of rotten things about Mr. Sizemore. The unions and their friends in the mainstream media have made sure of that. They have attacked Sizemore over and over and have smeared his name to the tune of millions of dollars. Being dead center in the middle of their bull’s eye is one sure way you can know Sizemore has been effective.
But don’t listen to what the newspapers and unions say about him. I have known Bill Sizemore for many years now. He’s a good man. He’s nothing like the picture the unions and liberal media have painted of him. He’s smart and he has more courage than all the other candidates combined.
One of his Republican opponents is a successful businessman. However, he is also a former staffer for ultra liberal Democrat governor Ted Kulongoski and his ties and loyalties are to the downtown Portland business community, a group that is not conservative and has never been known for bold decisive action.
Sizemore’s other primary opponent is a former professional basketball player. I have listened to him speak and even posed a question for him in one of his public appearances. I was shocked to learn how little he knows about what his going on in this state and how to fix it. He thinks giving schools stable funding should be one of the state’s highest priorities. Maybe he is going for the teachers union’s endorsement.
Bill Sizemore is nothing like the other Republican choices. He has been challenging the power of the public employee unions for many years now and they have come to hate him for being such a constant thorn in their side.
Bill told me that at one time he owed the teachers unions more than $4 million from a judgment they had won. The unions offered to forget about the money if Bill would agree to not put any more measures on the ballot.
The teachers union’s offer was probably illegal, but it didn’t matter because Sizemore rejected it and kept putting measures on the ballot. In the meanwhile, the unions kept suing him and suing him and suing him, and always in Multnomah County where liberal judges would give them whatever they wanted.
Advertisement
In the 2008 General Election, the unions crossed the line. In some of their ads, which you may have seen, the unions said that Sizemore was a convicted racketeer and that a jury had found him guilty of fraud, forgery and racketeering. Their ads were patently false and Sizemore sued them.
I am sure you never read about this in your local biased newspaper, but recently a Marion County Circuit Court judge, a man named Joseph Guimond, did a very brave thing. He actually followed the law and dismissed the unions’ motion to dismiss the case. He actually said in open court that he was not pleased with what the unions had said about Bill Sizemore in their ads, because Sizemore was not a convicted racketeer.
In fact, Bill Sizemore has never been convicted of anything. You would never know that from the mainstream media.
Thanks to Judge Guimond’s decision, Sizemore’s group will now get discovery against the unions. The unions will have to turn over emails and financial records. Sizemore’s group will get to see what the big public employee unions have really been up to in Oregon, because the suit includes the Oregon Education Association (the OEA), the SEIU, and several other entities, including some union officials. This must be making the unions very nervous.
This level of discovery Sizemore’s group should get is a very big deal, which is probably why the mainstream media has not run one single story regarding this decision. Talk show host Lars Larson has not even talked about it on his statewide radio show. Larson apparently wants one of the moderate RINO's (go-along, to get-along types) to win the Republican Primary instead of a true conservative like Sizemore.
Another way you can tell that Sizemore is the good guy in this race is the predictable way the Republican Party is treating him. Even though Sizemore is easily the best known candidate of the Republicans, he is not getting invited to the fundraising dinners and debates. Sizemore was the Republican nomination for governor in 1998 and this year the party even refuses to allow him into the debates.
The Republican Party machine has always been pretty much worthless to candidates, but this year they are actually working against their best known candidate. Sizemore told me that if he wins the primary, he will probably have to run against four opponents: the media, the Democrats, the public employee unions, and the politically correct wing of the Republican Party.
Bill Sizemore is not running just to be in office. For example, he has devised a plan to completely reform the way public employees are paid. It is a very clever idea. Among other things, it reforms PERS in a way that is fair to public employees and yet fixes the problem for taxpayers, all without violating the employees’ contractual rights.
Excessive public sector pay is the biggest problem the state faces and Sizemore has a real plan to fix it. It’s a plan that should be adopted in other states, as well.
The second problem Oregon’s next governor must address is breaking the political power of the public employee unions. The unions know that Sizemore could put an end to their control and that’s why they are smearing his name. Sizemore’s proposal to end all use of public sector payroll deductions for politics is the silver bullet that will end the unions’ control of the state. Forced payroll deductions are the key to union strength. End those and the unions will wither away.
| Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts! |
Oregon is at a very major crossroads. There is little time to turn this state around before Oregon is as bankrupt as California. Bill Sizemore is the only candidate in this race who knows what the real problems are and is bold enough to actually fix them.
None of the other Republican candidates are true conservatives. The most any of them will do is try to tread water. Treading water is not an option when the state is about to go over a waterfall.
I support Bill Sizemore and hope you will too. You can learn more about Bill Sizemore at www.billsizemore.com or www.sizemoreforgovernor.org or www.facebook.com/sizemoreforgovernor.
Send Bill Sizemore an e-mail.
Related Articles:
1- Does Chris Dudley Candidate for Oregon Governor Have a Clue What's Ailing America?
� 2010 Paul Walter - All Rights Reserve
Share This Article
