By Jeff Church & Angela Todd, PDX Real
There are many reasons to vote for Will Lathrop for Oregon Attorney General. The least of these are his incredible stories of leading a global human rights organization in Uganda and Ghana to prosecute cases of human trafficking and femicide. In his time in those countries, Lathrop had to deal with coup attempts, land raider attacks, tribal warfare, and a society that could be very brutal and abusive to women. One of his employees was murdered, and he had his office shot up while he was there. He’s got great experience as well as a legitimate dedication to his work that is rarely seen in politics. To compare Dan Rayfield, who is a career politician with very little legal experience, to Will is truly pointless.
But yet, the Democrats desperately want him elected. Why?
In a recent private even that Will spoke at, I asked him how he would have handled the whole La Mota affair, or perhaps, how he would handle it if he was elected. Everyone involved in this political debacle was saved from any serious repercussions except for former Secretary of State, Shemia Fagan, whose grift was more than even the Democrats could ignore. Fagan was taking fat stacks of cash from the La Mota couple, who have since escaped to New Mexico (to apparently illegally sell Oregon weed), in order to use her political influence to obtain them access into other states’ cannabis markets – Michigan being one – in order to expand their operation. And yes, Fagan was literally receiving cash from the couple, since that is the only way cannabis funds can be distributed.
Unfortunately, the politicians who received large donations from the La Mota couple (Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell), such as Governor Tina Kotek, Val Hoyle, and a $10,000 contribution to FuturePAC, the primary funder of, you guessed it, Dan Rayfield, didn’t receive any repercussions, even though their involvement with them seemed to include rather close personal relationships. The pictures of Kotek playing pickleball with Mitchell and Cazares is a rather humorous illustration of the couple’s ability to get incredible access to some of the most powerful politicians in the state.
If you recall an event that has seemingly become a blip on the legacy media screen over the last year, Val Hoyle, who not only received considerable funding from La Mota for her winning campaign for Oregon congress, but also got very cozy to Cazares and Mitchell, including Hoyle taking their advice on marijuana legislation, which was going to be a boon to their cannabis operation. Much of this pay for play was done over Hoyle’s work and personal phones while she was still the head of the Bureau of Labor and Industries.
When the correspondence between Hoyle and Cazares was made public last year, BOLI demanded that all the correspondence be revealed by Hoyle by handing over her cell phones to BOLI, so they could do an internal investigation.
Hoyle outright refused. In the year plus since the scandal reared its ugly head, the individual who should have been leading the investigation into the scandal, AG Rosenblum, has refused to investigate, undoubtedly due to Rosenblum’s close relationship to Kotek, Hoyle and Rayfield.
As Lathrop spoke about the scandal at the event, not only has Rosenblum refused to investigate Hoyle and others, she has actually run interference against the FBI for those who were involved. This is a gross misuse of power. Within a few months of the scandal breaking, Rosenblum announced she would not seek reelection, perhaps in an attempt of leaving the office before her seat got too hot. Lathrop made it very clear that this would not be his tactic. “The Attorney General of Oregon is the chief law enforcement officer of the state. One of the office’s main functions is to investigate political corruption, which I plan to do to the fullest extent of the office, if I am elected.”
Lathrop also has heard rumblings that if he wins, the machine will try to gut the AG office’s funding, in an attempt to cripple his efforts. It is often said that, universally, Americans have serious issues with political corruption no matter what side the political divide an individual is on. We should all want Oregon to be free of it. It is why those who engage with it don’t want to see Lathrop win. This election might be the most important election in Oregon’s history. Indeed, it could significantly change the direction of Oregon politics for decades to come.
Jeff Church & Angela Todd and PDX Real seek “the nuanced truth no matter where it takes us. We provide honest, community led reporting with a common-sense moderate perspective. We challenge our readers to stay informed, fight off apathy and to be involved in their community.” https://pdxreal.substack.com/