Forward Oregon

It was shortly before Jeff Merkley’s appearance at Willamette University.  The College Democrats, of whom I am the Political Director, picked an ambitious site to stage the event, ASWU Sound had not performed the sole purpose of its existence when it failed to deliver the reserved sound equipment, the podium facilities brought us looked a lot like a music stand, and I was freaking out.  Before every event disaster strikes, this one no different.  So when the huge crowd of nearly 80 materialized and the event was set up, I breathed a sign of relief as all I had left to do before the event was check for trackers.  We had decided that as this was an event for Willamette Students and invited members of the community that we were going to ask them to not record the event.

I saw one tracker who was not hard to spot.  He was sitting in the back setting up a tripod and camera.  I asked him if he was a student.  He said that he was not a student but rather an alumni and that the alumni office sent out an invitation, something that I was not aware of nor did I confirm afterward. I nicely asked him not to tape it and he went away.

Little did I know there was not just one but three people from the GOP camp. The other was a huge guy who stood way too close to the podium and pulled a small audio recorder out which I hadn’t previously seen. Before the event started I had asked a group of people he was sitting with who they were and one of them said that they were a law student. Since they were sitting so close I assumed that they were speaking for the group.

Then there was Tim Lussier. It would make sense that NRSC was using multiple trackers to capture Tim’s aggressive question on the War in Iraq. It would have been to no avail because Merkley did a great job of rejecting the false premise of the question, reframing it, and taking on the issue on Merkley’s turf, a quality which will serve him well on the campaign trail against Smith and in the Senate.  After the event I talked to him to find out what his deal was. He told us that he was president of the Clackamas CC College Democrats, said and asked if he could come to the WU meeting.  I didn’t think anything of it until the MSM picked up on it.

From David Steves of the Eugene Register Guard:

On Thursday, the Merkley campaign got an e-mail sent from an address with “Merkster2008.” The message said it was sent by Tim Lussier, who wrote that he was “a local activist and a big fan of Jeff. I’d love to find out when I can see him speak. …”

When the Merkley campaign did some research on Tim Lussier, it found a treasure trove on the Web.

Tim Lussier’s MySpace page features a photo of Lussier — he’s identical to the tracker “Tim” who Merkley’s campaign photographed — posing with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The Merkley campaign also found out he was a 20-year-old West Linn man who’s been active in student government at Clackamas Community College and with Young Republican organizations.

The same day, Kelley said, the Merkley campaign got a phone call from someone who identified himself as “Tim Thompson,” asking about a fundraiser that night. He gave a phone number — which turned out to be the number of a landscape business owned by Tim Lussier’s dad: Bob Lussier.

It’s not that Lussier has been tracking Merkley around that’s upsetting, said Kelley, explaining that it was one of his own jobs when starting out as a campaign intern years ago…

“But there’s an honest way to do it, and there’s a dishonest way to do it. You find out where they are through public notices and things like that. You don’t call and misrepresent yourself,” Kelley said. “And you especially can’t do that and get caught.”…

So is there a code of conduct for these political campaign workers? Both of Oregon’s major political parties seem to think so.

“I think a good standard code of conduct would be honesty,” said Oregon Republican Party spokeswoman Brianne Hyder. “If somebody asks you, you don’t lie.”

One of my good friends is the DSCC tracker watching Gordon Smith.  Tracking isn’t a bad thing by any means but in this case a clear violation of the code of ethics occurred.  It wasn’t Smith’s campaign but it sure was someone (the National Republican Senatorial Committee) he throws his lot in with, and expects to receive substantial financial backing from.  Just like how Gordon Smith throws his lot in with the national Republican party, voting over 90% of the time with George Bush.  We need someone who will campaign ethically and will vote for Oregon’s best interests in the Senate.  That person is Jeff Merkley.

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Tags: OR-Sen, Trackers, Tim Lussier, Gordon Smith, NRSC, Jeff Merkley, Willamette University,