Perhaps she can get a job with Tom DeLay.

It is all Erik Sten's fault: you remember why people rob banks? Because that's where the money is.

Vlad and his clients (Emilie and Lucinda) robbed clean money because Erik made is so easy: that's where the money is.

How else is an enterprising young immigrant going to make a living in P-town? You can't stay in non-profit land forever, not if you want to send your kids to college. Lord knows it's more fun to build political networks using OPM (other people's money).

Assuming Emilie doesn't drop out or give the money back, we have to assume she's now a fringe candidate. My new primary predictions:

Sten.......45%
Lister.....28%
Burdick....20%
Boyles.....4%
Others.....3%

...she has continued to meet and pray with members of the conservative Christian community.

Why didn't she seek the signatures and the $5,000 from conservative Christians rather than relying on the Russians? The Larson-ites would have loved to have one of their own on the commission.

I got several belly laughs from Boyles' posting, but two great images stand out: Sten as Machiavellian mastermind crafting the publicly funded election scheme to ensnare future challengers and ensure his continued domination as he laughs maniacally through gapped teeth.
Then she says "churches and synogogues should pray for Portland every Sunday until May 16." Is the rapture scheduled for the same day as the primary? Good to know we've only got about 6 weeks until everything is just fine, thanks Emilie.

B!X has been saying, "See? Phil Stanford was wrong. VOE didn't bring any kooks out of the woodwork." Uh huh.

B!X has been saying, "See? Phil Stanford was wrong. VOE didn't bring any kooks out of the woodwork." Uh huh.

No. What I've been saying is that Stanford argued it was so easy to get funds that we'd be buried in candidates which would bust the public campaigns bank.

Which in fact is what he kept saying.

The kooks part, frankly, is irrelevant. We had more kooks in the last mayoral campaign. So if it's Kook Kwantity that's the issue, we should, I guess, ban the regular privately-funded campaigns.

Spin, spin, spin. VOE is AFU. And soon it will be DOA. Nice idea, maybe, but Sten got hold of it...

I'm praying she'll take her voice-mail advice from Broussard and tell the truth.

However, if the truth is that she paid for the "contributions" as well as the signatures, it may not set her free...

There can be many spiritual moments in prison.

Spin, spin, spin.

How, exactly, is my correcting your error as to what I actually said, and as to what Stanford actually said "spin"?

To clear up a needling point, there is no legal issue (problem, challenge) with paying people to collect signatures and donations as a candidate. As some of you may recall, I cleared that with Susan for my own campaign before shelving it. Emilie could have paid Golovan the same $7,000 offered to Broussard and been perfectly within the rules.

The problem, of course, is duplicate signatures and forgeries. That can't really be traced back to Emilie. Golovan is going to hang for that. I don't think Emilie has any legal problems here, but her political career is over if she doesn't mea culpa and hand in the money (at least until the investigation is over).

That's my analysis.

James 1:5 clearly states "If any man lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

Well, it certainly appears that Emilie was a bit lacking in the wisdom department. It also appears that she may have confused God's "giving" with Mr. Golovan's offer.

What I've been saying is that Stanford argued it was so easy to get funds that we'd be buried in candidates which would bust the public campaigns bank.

Let's keep in mind the argument --that neither you, b!x, nor I supported-- that before this went to the people for a vote, we needed to go through a few iterations...so people knew how it worked.

If the Boyles and Tate (and Sten and Fritz) campaigns aren't held to the strictest accountability...wait'll you see the next iteration!

Don Smith To clear up a needling point, there is no legal issue (problem, challenge) with paying people to collect signatures and donations as a candidate.
JK: What about the collct $5 from every signer part. That is what made getting signetures so difficult. If it was legal to NOT collect the $5, at least one more candidate would likely have qualified.

If a candidate did qualify without collecting the $5 then the candidates that didn't make it were cheated.

Thanks
JK

Sten-Blackmer Virus Loose in CoP

Sten: Gary, this is working out just like we planned.

Blackmer: That's right, Erik. Now you won't have to go negative against Emilie.

Sten: But what about Lister?

Blackmer: Mark him absent. He's taking private money. If we have to, we'll nail him to the cross for that. There will be no runoff.

Sten: This is so sweet. I can be Commissioner ... forever!

I encountered Emilie about 15 years ago; I remember her daughter was born the day the US invaded Iraq the first time. I was impressed with her energy and committment to serving the poor. I believe she is sincere, but agree with ellie that she showed a lack of wisdom in dealing with Golovan.

Maybe all those "forged" signatures were just parents "helping" their kids. Under the Sten-Blackmer law, my 2 year old who can barely talk can pass over $5 of her birthday money. Who's going to help her sign the form? Uncle Voldemort, of course!

As to wrongdoing here, what I often see with deeply religious types is an ability to fudge on the rules because they are so holy. God wants them to succeed so badly that it overrides the normal skepticism she should have had that this guy could produce so many signatures so fast. I don’t know if a jury will buy it. I do think comparing her to Tom Delay is a little much. Tom says he fasted when he made his decision to leave. From the picture on the website it’s pretty obvious that no fasting has gone on here.

"no fasting has gone on here"

Maybe some Ashcroft-style anointment, though. This is looking pretty greasy.

Money is not a factor in choosing to participate in the election process.

Wow, she really doesnt have any idea about how elections work in this country, does she?

"Sten as Machiavellian mastermind" ROFLMAO!

How about neither signatures nor 5 bucks, just sign on the dotted line to agree only to spend what the city gives you? No problem, as I have no money and I am not likely to get any from anyone anyway.

I did sign, by the way. But the ballot placement thing was treated as a prerequisite to getting the free money. I simply added one proviso that I did not waive my first amendment rights.

Does someone who enters Pioneer Courthouse Square voluntarily agree to comply with implied terms of a contract not to obtain signatures within the Square? Weird.

The people-are-cattle people have sows ears. The only religion at issue is that of ambition, and that demon is an individual one that each person must address on their own.

Jim Karlock:

You're correct, of course. The fundraiser does have to actually collect the $5 from each signer, but the campaign can allow the fundraiser to keep the $5. In theory, I could collect $5 for Emilie from you and you could collect $5 for Emilie from me and we could each keep the $5. Do that enough times, and you've got your signatures and in theory no one would really have to pony up the $5. How's that for a loophole. All perfectly legal because they didn't think it through.

I like how she writes most of it in the 3rd person, but then at the end, she writes "I take personal responsibility for the content of this campaign website." Ha, what a BSer!

I also like how she fired Golovan and blames him, because now he will roll on her. Please, as if she had no idea what was going on.

Yes, religious people are often crooks, invoking God to try to offset their bad behaviour.

Chris Snethen asks: Why didn't she seek the signatures and the $5,000 from conservative Christians rather than relying on the Russians? The Larson-ites would have loved to have one of their own on the commission.

Because most of them don't live in Portland, but just south of the city line in North Clackamas County.

Have to agree in general with Bill M.'s observation but I think it would be more accurate if "...deeply religious types..." was replaced with "ideologues". Similar blind spots.

Ronald M.

Amen.

Oops.

I don’t know Emilie Boyles but after reading her message, I think it’s fair to say she is a deeply religious person. I bet that’s how she would describe herself – not as an ideologue. Maybe another example would help: Our President is also deeply religious. He even talked to a higher father before the Iraq War. That helped him reconcile doing some bad things like ordering torture on people we had captured. I suspect it might have helped Emilie get past any qualms she had about what looks like a signature-gathering scheme. Sometimes deeply religious types factor in their own spiritual goodness when it’s time to do bad stuff. Is that really in dispute? Then when they’re caught they hold up their religious convictions to help get a break. Sometimes they get religion in a real hurry, as this post implies, but Emilie has apparently been religious for a while. I don’t think a last second convert would lay it on this thick.

Was that a whooshing sound I just heard, Ronald M.?

Bill,

As long as you're prejudging people with strongly held religious beliefs and insulting those with weight problems, you might as well throw in some jokes or stereotypes about national origin and race.

I think that TRUE BELIEVERS- people who believe they're on the side of rigteousness-idealogues, religious or not-,tend to justify whatever they do. Like the Democrats who seemed to see no limits to what was appropriate to quash the Nader campaigns for President.

I apologize for making a joke about fasting but I was annoyed at Tom Delay and Emilie Boyle. I anticipated some kind of backlash for that and I deserve it. However I never prejudged Emilie as I never heard of her. i guess I figured it was on my dime. Ricky, what happened to your vigorous defenses of the past? You've changed your strategy a little....and I like it.

And yet....

Somehow, I feel like I'm being...manipulated.

We know that this Golovan guy is tight enough to get his picture taken with Kolonoscopi. Could he be the hit man for the West Hills mafia? Y'know, "go out there and find a couple of naive nOObs, sell 'em this package, do a really shitty job by doin' a buncha signatures yourself, and then have your kid do a bunch. Make it look really crooked. You can try it out on Bruce, first, and he can help us establish an MO."

There's more than one way to manipulate public opinion. If you can't gather enough signatures, find the holes in the program and make 'em look really, reeeeeally bad.

Or, is that just my paranoia from thirty years of Goldschmuck spin-doctoring?

I dunno, godfry; that crowd is so weird that it is hard to define its limits, if it has any.

Okay, Jack, you denigrated Boyles' neighborhod ("Felony Flats") and I'm sure you think that the Bungalow Belt area that Sten hails from is too hip and trendy. So where exactly is the True Eastside of Portland that sensible people like you and Lister inhabit?

Actually, before you criticize others for their attempts at good-natured humor, you might want to look up the connotations of "denigrate." Tsk tsk.

"I think that TRUE BELIEVERS - people who believe they're on the side of righteousness - ideologues, religious or not, tend to justify whatever they do."

Bingo, Cynthia. Self-righteous justifying and blindness cuts across any/all religious and ideological lines. One need not be a conservative Christian in 21st century America to display it.

Having said that, there is something particularly distasteful about seeing that human tendency in TRUE BELIEVERS of the religious variety... they are, after all, supposed to be trying to lead a life above that kind of thing. Smacks a bit more of 'double standard' when they do it as opposed to when secular TRUE BELIEVERS do.

Whoa!!! I just got back from the Midwest and Southwest, where I was for a couple of weeks on business, picked up the Portland Tribune for a little reading with my Captain Neo burger and Terminator lunch and couldn't believe my eyes (well, I could actually, which is the sad part). Looks like we're heading for nine prime digits on the tram, docile Chief Foxworth may be a pervert (reading his article in the Trib sounded like a common profile of narcissitic personality disorder), the ENRON crime syndicate that City Hall didn't want to condemn to get PGE back because it would be "bad for business in Portland" ended up screwing the city (they screwed the entire state of California last time, so maybe they're improving), and a former campaign opponent cheated to get the 1000 signatures for the finance fund.

Jack, you helped talk me into dropping out of this race, so maybe I owe you some thanks. Why would I want to make a lot less money to participate in the circle jerk down in City Hall? I'm being sarcastic, because I do care and will probably enter public service someday when I'm fully vested with my stock package. Good points in the Trib' article, by the way. However, I think it has less to do with the death of the old system than it does the old adage about the crows coming home to roost from years of incompetence by people like Sten.

Anyway, I was catching up on the Boyles story and was astonished at what I read about "questions" if what she did was actually illegal. I filled out all those documents for possible participation in the Campaign Finance Fund. I think Eric Sten and Gary Blackmer covered all the bases with the fine print on what was allowed and not allowed. There was absolutely no question in my mind that paid-for signatures were a violation of the city code that enacted the Campaign Finance Fund. The city actually did do a good job of trying to make the rules clear and fairly easy to understand. Candidates are not allowed to offer anything of value, period. Seemed clear enough to me. What the City Code didn't cover, it specifically referred to state and federal laws. While I was awaiting the offer for my new job and planning my strategy to get 1000 $5 donations (in case I didn't get the position), I spent much time studying the data which the City Elections Officer does an outstanding job of making sure everybody gets and knows who to contact if they have any questions. For example, you could have parties with free beer and pretzels, but the free beer and pretzels could not be contingent on requiring signatures. That's the same legal premise that Publisher's Clearing House got busted all those years ago for throwing away entries that didn't have the "I want to buy magazines" sticker in the envelope window. Duh! Of course it's illegal. Emily Doyle should pray for her own soul if she believes in God so much, because she just bought herself a first class ticket to Hell. I hope she spends a little time in early jail on the way.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHA

Where is Batman when we need him? I'm glad I didn't read the link to Emil-IE's website before I wrote my last comment. I can barely type, I'm laughing so hard!!! Can somebody help me remember what muppet she looks like?

"Having said that, there is something particularly distasteful about seeing that human tendency in TRUE BELIEVERS of the religious variety... they are, after all, supposed to be trying to lead a life above that kind of thing. Smacks a bit more of 'double standard' when they do it as opposed to when secular TRUE BELIEVERS do."

Agreed. Jesus himself made it clear in his admonitions to the Pharisees that a religious pit is the worst kind.