If Shemia Fagan hadn’t been forced to resign as Secretary of State, she would likely be attending the Wayne Morse Gala tonight, considered one of the biggest Democratic events of the year.
All of Oregon’s Democratic elite will be there at the downtown Portland Hilton. Perhaps they could start with a moment of silence for Fagan’s career.
Last year, Fagan was one of the speakers — along with Gov. Kate Brown, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek and various political up-and-comers.
Look at this year’s lineup, and ask yourself which one would dare to mention Fagan’s name and the kickback scandal that forced her out of office: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden; Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici; Congresswoman Andrea Salinas; Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson; Majority Leader Julie Fahey.
If the man whose name graces this event — the late U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse — were present, he might demand some soul-searching.
“Is it all about money?” he would argue. “You push to legalize drugs, then hit up drug dealers for campaign donations and tax revenue, while your communities deteriorate from drug addiction. You weaken your sentencing laws so drug addicts who steal or burglarize or assault won’t be treated like criminals and punished. You call these criminals ‘the most vulnerable.’ You treat them like victims to save money on incarceration.”
This is not Wayne Morse’s Democratic Party. It’s Shemia Fagan’s.
As detailed by Willamette Week, Secretary of State Fagan signed a contract with Veriede Holding, a company whose principals Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell own La Mota, a national chain of cannabis stores. In exchange for $10,000 a month, Fagan would act as a “consultant” for their marijuana business.
La Mota owes $7 million-plus in unpaid taxes but contributed $45,000 to Fagan’s campaign. Another $150,000-plus went to the campaigns of Gov. Kotek, Congresswoman Salinas and Labor Commissioner Stephenson, Senate President Rob Wagner, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, State Treasurer Tobias Read, Rep. Andrea Valderrama, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, and more (all affiliated with the Democratic Party).
It was Fagan’s job as Secretary of State to audit the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Control agency, which regulates the marijuana industry. She essentially let La Mota’s owners, Cazares and Mitchell, participate in overseeing OLCC, which is supposed to keep an eye on their cannabis stores.
Fagan employed Cazares’ spin — that the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Control agency was sexist and heavy-handed with enforcement, as well as punitive towards people of color.
After the audit was well under way, Fagan recused herself and told her staff about her side job as a consultant. It says something that Fagan was so blatant. She apparently wasn’t worried about the contract being exposed. Her staff knew. Did she not think any of them would be bothered? Did she think the media wouldn’t inquire or care? That Oregon’s one-party state would go along to get-along?
The backlash was quick. In a tearful press conference, Fagan said that as a divorced mom of two young children, she couldn’t live on the $77,000 annual Secretary of State salary. She was making less than she did as an attorney. She was forced to find other income. Fagan’s typically confident persona, which could border on arrogance, was reduced to bathos.
Pleading poverty is one of the most frequently-used tools in the 21st Century progressive playbook. Poverty has always been with us. Fagan’s hard times (her mother was a drug addict and sometimes homeless) are nothing unusual.
Wayne Morse also knew poverty. He was born in 1900 and grew up in Wisconsin, the son of a farmer.
“From his father, a livestock man, he learned a fear of debt and of hard times, when the cattle had to be fed on cornstalks and straw mixed with molasses. His father, Mr. Morse recalled, strongly counseled him on the evil of becoming beholden to others,” The New York Times reported in Morse’s obit.
Becoming beholden is practically a way of life now in Oregon. Get the little people beholden (to one political party in particular), make sure they’re registered to vote and then sit back and watch your politics come to fruition.
In his 24-year Senate career, Morse was a Republican, an independent and a Democrat. He was in the minority so frequently he was called “The Lone Ranger” and “The Tiger of the Senate.”
Morse was an early opponent of the Vietnam War, putting him at odds with the Democratic Party of Oregon, which at one time was stridently pro-war.
In 1966, Morse declined to campaign for Democratic nominees in Oregon because of their differences of opinion on foreign policy.
“If the truth is intemperate, then I will continue to be intemperate,” Morse said.
The gala held in his name is typically a tame affair. It’s mostly a mutual- admiration society that hands out awards to each other. As of late Friday, the email invitations were still coming from the Democratic Party of Oregon, urging people to get their early bird tickets ($135).
It wouldn’t be surprising if tonight’s soiree finds a way to include references to the salaries of the Secretary of State, the governor and the legislators. That will be their excuse for why one of their own took money she shouldn’t have.
What would Morse have thought of Shemia Fagan’s remarks at last year’s gala in his name? She boasted that she had translated the voters pamphlet into 14 languages. He might have asked: Will that help unify us — or Balkanize us? That’s the kind of provocative question Morse would not have been afraid to raise.
If he asked that kind of question today, the Democratic Party of Oregon would probably write him off as an angry, old man. Especially if he refused to state his pronouns.
Last year when she spoke at the Wayne Morse Gala, Fagan also singled out her commitment to visiting every state prison in Oregon. She wanted to make sure that prison inmates knew how to register to vote.
“As soon as they are released, they have a right to vote the same as you and me,” she said.
They will also know which political party to be beholden to.
Pamela, Have you seen on the Oregon SOS page that the Oregon Food Bank on 5/1/2023 gave "Friends of Tina Kotek" $75,000. Is this somehow part of Kotek's donation of La Mota campaign contributions? What is going on here?
Transaction Information (Original)
Transaction ID : 4564126 Transaction Date : 05/01/2023
Transaction Type : Expenditure Due Date : 05/31/2023 11:59:00 PM
Transaction Sub Type : Cash Expenditure Filed Date : 05/01/2023 09:59:49 AM
Payment Method : Check Check : 1910
Amount : $75,000.00 Aggregate : $75,000.00
Interest Rate : Repayment Schedule :
Description : Exam Letter Date : 05/11/2023
Agent : Process Status : Complete
Payer of Personal Expenditure :
Purpose : Cash Contribution
Address Book Information
Address Book Type : Other
Name : Oregon Food Bank
Address : 7900 NE 33rd Drive Portland OR 97211
Occupation :
Employer Name : Occupation Letter Date :
Did you see Oregon Food Bank is a MAJOR donor ($15,000) promoting the passage of the Multnomah capital gains tax measure 26-238? And Kotek gave her dirty La Mota marijuana cash campaign money (they gave her $68,000 in cash) to the Oregon Food Bank. So instead of buying food for the hungry OFB gives money to political campaigns. https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/cneSearch.do?cneSearchButtonName=search&cneSearchFilerCommitteeId=21677&OWASP_CSRFTOKEN=V3KX-V0I9-WULO-CI2M-NLAU-FKI2-7JXM-44EB