Forward Oregon

The old saying goes “You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.” For Oregon Democratic Senate candidate Steve Novick, the company he is keeping, in this case his Online Director Liz Kimmerly, brings into serious question Novick’s ethics and moral compass. David Steves at the Eugene Register Guard, broke a story about how Kimmerly created and heads a puppet organization barely a month old that is holding endorsement interviews (presumably to endorse her employer) this weekend:

A newly formed chapter of Progressive Democrats of America is interviewing three Senate candidates Saturday—including one who is the boss of the chapter’s coordinator.
Liz Kimmerly isn’t just the PDA state coordinator in Oregon, a position she accepted a little more than a month ago when the chapter formed. She also does online campaign work for Democratic Senate candidate Steve Novick.
Which could make the other invited Democratic candidates, Jeff Merkley and Candy Neville, a little skeptical about whether they’ll get a fair shot at the group’s endorsement.

I expect these kind of tactics from Karl Rove and the GOP but Steve Novick? I would expect that a truly progressive Democrat would have more respect for ethics and civil society than to go about creating puppet organizations run by staffers. I know Novick can’t compete in the money game and his former allies in organized labor have turned on him by supporting Merkley but are they really so hard up for support that they need to pull unethical stunts like this? If I were running I would rather quit the race than cross ethical lines in a poor attempt to fake organic grassroots support.

This action begs several questions

1. Why is the Online Director for Novick creating a group having an endorsements meeting for the candidate she works for? How can Jeff Merkley, Candy Neville or any candidate be guaranteed a fair process when the group is run by a paid staffer for Steve Novick?

2. How complicit is Steve Novick in this huge breech of ethics by his staff? Did Novick know? Did his campaign? Did they put her up to it or just tacitly approve of these immoral tactics? If she is rouge (which I don’t think she is, considering Novick accepted the interview invitation), what actions will they take to hold her accountable for what is clearly an unethical conflict of interest?

If she was acting alone, Novick needs to fire Kimmerly immediately, and if Novick was complicit voters should punish him for this unethical Rove-like behavior at the ballot box this May.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: OR-Sen, Steve Novick, 2008 Senate Democratic Primary, Jeff Merkley, Candy Neville, Ethics, Karl Rove