Forward Oregon

Late Thursday night, David Steves broke a story about the sham endorsement process of a puppet organization run by a Steve Novick’s senior staffer.  Forward Oregon brought you the first blog coverage of the story that I am now deeming “Kimmergate”, after the ethically challenged staffer who is behind this mess.  Little did Forward Oregon know at the time, Steves’ piece was just the beginning.  Blue Oregon dug deeper revealing even more insidious details that were previously unknown, like that Kimmerly’s actions were not sanctioned by the national Progressive Democrats of America.

BlueO commenter Jack Murray did an excellent job of succinctly summing up what has come to light:

a) Liz Kimmerly is the Novick campaign online director
b) Liz Kimmerly set up the PDA-Oregon chapter and
c) Proceeded to move the endorsement process within 48 hours of forming the group for this Saturday (giving the campaigns involved only 4 days’ notice) and
d) Failed to contact or notify many of the 2300 members of the national PDA here in Oregon, which
e) Violated the rules of the national PDA endorsement process with require 30 days’ notice and a written questionnaire. What’s more,
f) Kimmerly should have known about these processes due to her ‘long involvement’ with the PDA, and would have followed them if her intentions were purely fair, but
g) Since she didn’t, this is clearly an attempt to game the endorsement process of a large national organization for the perceived benefit of her employer, Steve Novick.

The implications of that information are vast, and they beg significantly more questions. Did Steve Novick know about the unethical acts of his Online Director?  Did the Campaign Manager Jake Wiegler know? 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? Why hasn’t Kimmerly been fired already?

Further, it is not just Forward Oregon asking these questions.  The Swing State Project, an influential national blog covering close federal races around the country, chimed in with similar questions and concerns about Novick’s ability to head a legitimate campaign.  Preemptive Karma, wonders how a progressive that lived thought the rampant use of unethical tactics of the Bush administration, would be able to engage in such shady dealings. Blue Oregon, as mentioned above, does the best job of adding more insight into how the dirty ploy was perpetrated.

Steve Novick entered the Senate race promising to be “a different kind of politician.”  Kimmerly’s unscrupulous tactics show that apparently, that promise was false.  Kimmergate brings into question whether Novick would seriously be able to take on Gordon Smith.  Despite popular belief, it is the campaign, not the candidates, that win or lose races and these events are even more evidence that those Novick surrounds him with are not able to take on Smith.  If this stunt was pulled during a general election, game over, Novick would be branded an unethical hack, pundits would demand Kimmerly’s head, Smith would win.  We can not afford to leave such an important race to those who are ethically challenged and lack the moral compass to see the potential disaster waiting and back away from these kind of underhanded tactics.  We cannot afford unethical amateur hour if we want to beat Gordon Smith.

I requested comment from the Novick Campaign but thus far they have refused to answer.

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Tags: OR-Sen, 2008 Democratic Senate Primary, Steve Novick, Kimmergate, Swing State Project, Blue Oregon, Preempitve Karma, Liz Kimmerly