Jason Williams - Is Oregon’s Secretary of State crossing the line?

Oregon’s chief election official is facing criticism after appearing alongside active candidates at taxpayer funded town halls while ballots are already in voters’ hands. Does the timing undermine public confidence in election neutrality?

Jason Williams is founder of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon. He joins the show to discuss concerns surrounding Tobias Read’s public events with current candidates, questions about election related ethics and government resources, and whether the state’s top election official should avoid political appearances during an active election period.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. Here's a question for you. Is Oregon's top elections official, and that is the Secretary of State, is he rigging the game for his own party? That allegation has been laid down by Jason Williams, founder of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon, and more recently, very much involved in the referral that put the gigantic tax increase on the ballot in Oregon, and I think it's going to go down hard on Tuesday. Jason, welcome back to the program.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

It's great to be here, and it's great to kind of call out some of this electioneering that we're seeing from uh politicians at the last minute.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Well, let's talk about Tobias Reed, who does stand out on this show only because he's the only Democrat who's been willing to come on the show and take questions, although not so much lately. What has he been doing that is specifically forbidden by law?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Well, the th the Secretary of State, who's our highest election officer, has been doing town halls using government resources to do town halls uh featuring candidates or lawmakers that are also candidates on the ballot. So this is a terrible time to be showcasing lawmakers who are candidates when people actually have the ballots in their hands. There's only a 40-day window when you shouldn't do that, and yet the Secretary of State's doing that. And and from the uh invites that I'm getting, it's all one political party that they are uh sending invites to, and that's also makes it kind of partisan. But you have someone like Jeff Merkley, Senator Merkley, he's doing a town hall with uh Tobias Reed. Like I said, this is government, this is coming from the elections office, and this is a Secretary of State sending it out on the on the government's email saying, join us for a town hall with this senator who is in a contested candidate race right now. Uh and so uh and the idea that this is what we call electioneering, and we feel it violates the spirit of electioneering. You cannot do certain things during an election, you cannot do certain things near an election uh office where the voting takes place. You cannot, you know, you cannot have a teacher put out information and give it put it in the backpack of the kids to take home on a certain ballot measure or a candidate. You need to stay away from that. And so we we put up a pledge that we think the Secretary of State should sign that they would not do any candidate showcasing, even if it is they're not talking about the race, don't showcase any candidates while they are on the ballot. That simple.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Okay, and let me ask you to make it even more pointed, you've called it electioneering. There's a thing called the Hatch Act, is there not, that says nobody is allowed to use public resources to push an election issue one way or the other, correct? Yes. Okay, and and obviously elected officials uh are somewhat excused from that, except that when Tobias Reid, Secretary of State, uh promotes these town halls, is he putting them on? Because if his he is allowed to do it because he is an elected official, uh they're given a lot of latitude when it comes to uh what they are allowed to say, because clearly elected officials can come out and endorse a pr a candidate of one kind or another. What they can't do is use their staff to be able to because that would be using public resources to aid an election issue, right? And that would violate the Hatch Act, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yes. And it the and this kind of it this opens up the door to problems because now we're gonna have our labor secretary do town halls, you know, two weeks before an election with uh all of these lawmakers who happen to be running for office, and we're saying, oh, you know, we're not really supporting the candidate, we're just supporting the lawmaker who happens to be a candidate. Well, it's like, for goodness sakes, stay out of that 40-day window of when people are voting on candidates. If lawmakers want to go do that on their own, but when you have your the highest election official doing town halls with candidates and spreading their name all over, you know, promoting the town hall and their speakers, which are candidates, uh, you know, it's it becomes a form of promoting the lawmaker and the candidate uh, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I I'd go with that, Jason, because I think that's what he's doing. And if you asked him, so when you have these town halls, do you have some of your staff members from the Secretary of State's office assist? Do you have them write up any of the materials ahead of time? Do you have them preparing, say, the uh the website announcements or the invites, things like that? I think that would definitely cross the line. Jason, congrats on getting that measure uh on the ballot, 120. Any guesses on on how bad it's going to go down? Because I've been saying 7030 is where I think that tax increase is going to go. You notice none of the Democrats who actually voted for it are out campaigning uh to pass that measure. I think they're all sitting back thinking the public is about to throw us down the toilet.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Well, I do want to sound the alarm that there's only four percent voter turnout so far, which to me is very low. Uh traditionally taxes can go down between 55 to 65 percent, 70 percent when they really hate it. Um for me, I've been I've been hurt so many times, I try not to forecast this, and I keep fighting to the end because some people might think that voting yes is a repeal of the gas tax when we really want them to vote no. And there are some people there in in Oregon who they look at a raising a tax as a uh statement of virtue and they feel like they're better people regardless if it's wasted or not, or it's gonna hurt people. But again, you know, this is it is it's gonna hurt people.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Don't I remember there was a judge named Learned Hand who said it is not a patriotic duty to pay taxes? You know, they he said and and any man or woman may arrange his affairs so as to pay the lowest amount of taxes possible. I think he was the smart guy. That's Jason Williams from the Taxpayers Association of Oregon. Let me go to uh let's go to Mark. Hey, Mark, what's on your mind on a First Amendment Friday?

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Hey, bud. Uh can you hear me?

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Yeah, great. Uh thanks, Lars. I want to say right off the bat that I really agree with you on uh the uh the the filibuster and the proving your citizen to vote. I think you're right on. I wanna I want to say that uh I you bet, buddy. I'm supporting Christine Dresden because she's conservative, she's smart, and she's competent. She's been around long enough to know and understand that we have our own deep state in Oregon with dysfunction and waste, and she knows where the bodies are buried. These untouchable lifetime bureaucrats caught in their golden cages, they're comfortable, and they need to be made uncomfortable, and she'll expose uh all this to objective light, and she's not afraid to make changes.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

If she wins, I hope you're right, Mark. I have been disappointed by Christine Drazen before, and on the Second Amendment, I think she's a huge disappointment. But I I've said that I think Ed Deal is the best candidate, but you're entitled to say that Christine Dresden is. And if she wins the primary, I think every Republican in Oregon should get behind the winner of the primary and make sure that Tina Kotec is sent packing. You're listening to the Lawrence Show and the Radio Northwest Network.