Editor:
Sunday’s Democrat-Herald article by Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press absolutely reinforces a question!
Was Hasso Hering “retired” so Lee Enterprises could steer the D-H to favor Democrat and Far Left candidates, as O’Reilly comments suggest?
Previously, the only D-H DeFazio/Robinson race info was Register Guard’s quote that seemed to come from DeFazio’s campaign inferring that the Robinson campaign benefited from huge Wall Street cash contributions, contradicting Robinson’s small individual contributions claims.
I phoned the Robinson campaign office and found that:
1. The Mercer Foundation made technical grants to Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine before and unrelated to Robinson’s decision to run.
2. Mercer’s contributions to the Republican Super Pac was without Robinson’s foreknowledge or control, and had no financial connection to the Robinson compaign organization.
3. Careful re-reading of Barnard’s article reveals it is skillfully skewed to deliberately, disgustingly mislead unsuspecting readers to view Robinson as a villain and DeFazio as a political hero – just opposite of the facts on the record.
Until term limits, Liz VanLeeuwen served 18 years as District 37 state representative, had both the Democrat and Republican nomination for her last term, and ran against DeFazio in 2002.
We know DeFazio’s votes in Congress contradict the seemingly benign propaganda peddled in Oregon. In our experience and opinion, DeFazio excels in under-the-table politics and misrepresenting himself to the news media.
George VanLeeuwen
Halsey