{"id":180126,"date":"2022-10-26T14:11:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T21:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=188183"},"modified":"2022-10-26T14:11:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T21:11:57","slug":"mystery-greenwashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/26\/mystery-greenwashing\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery Greenwashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cReject Val Hoyle,\u201d reads a flyer sent to many residents in Eugene-Springfield and other cities in the 4th Congressional District. \u201cShe\u2019s with them, not us!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0On the surface it looks like typical anti-Hoyle campaign literature sent by her Republican opponent Alek Skarlatos. But rather than urging voters to vote Republican, the flyer supports Pacific Green Party Candidate Mike Beilstein.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beilstein condemned the literature \u2014 and the dark money funding it \u2014 as has Doyle Canning, Hoyle\u2019s rival from the Democratic primary, as a way to confuse and discourage liberal and progressive voters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a cynical attempt to hijack the message of climate voters and progressives,\u201d Canning says. The literature is a way to sow confusion in voters intentionally, she adds, to boost \u201cultra MAGA\u201d Skarlatos, who will side with polluters and tax cuts for billionaires, as well as threaten fundamental freedoms, such as marriage and access to health care. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s at stake in this election. That\u2019s why I\u2019m supporting Democrat Val Hoyle.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Oct. 25, Beilstein sent out a press statement disavowing the flyer, saying that he doesn\u2019t discourage people from voting for him, but he denounces the use of dark money to mislead voters in an attempt to split the liberal vote and hand the 4th Congressional District to Republican Skarlatos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beilstein tells <\/span>Eugene Weekly<\/span><\/i> that while the flyer represents his political views, such as supporting the Green New Deal and holding corporations accountable, but, he adds, he doesn\u2019t attack opponents, whether it\u2019s Hoyle or Skarlatos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Green Oregon is the super Pac behind the independent expenditure, and it was formed Oct. 19 by treasurer Nathaniel Lopez, a frequent Republican contributor who gave $300 to President Donald Trump\u2019s campaign and $895 to the Republican WinRed committee in 2020. Lopez discloses a Eugene address at a FedEx mailbox at 4736 Royal Avenue in the Green Oregon super PAC filing, but his campaign contributions to Trump show him as a Virginia resident who works as an entrepreneur.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Federal Election Campaign rules, an independent expenditure supports or opposes a candidate and is not made in coordination with a candidate or their campaign or political party.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, super PACs have used a calendar loophole to hide funding sources. According to a report on the 2018 midterm general election by Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, \u201cmysterious super PACs popped up in the weeks before Election Day, spent five, six or seven figures on ads, and combined legally dubious accounting tricks with reporting calendar loopholes to keep voters in the dark about the sources of their funding until well after voters cast their ballots.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Canning criticized the use of dark money in the May primary when she ran against Hoyle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Canning says that dark money interests are dropping tens of thousands of dollars \u2014 and dropped up to half a million in the primary \u2014 and are involved with the election because they think they can make a difference in the outcome. \u201cThe difference they want to make is a fractional one,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t be spending to boost a Green Party candidate who said on the record that he doesn\u2019t expect to get 3 percent of the vote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The flyer is an act of desperation, Canning adds, and shows the length conservatives will go to. \u201cDirty tricks and dark money are par for the course for Republican interests who want to install ultra MAGA politicians who will do their bidding in Washington,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cReject Val Hoyle,\u201d reads a flyer sent to many residents in Eugene-Springfield and other cities in the 4th Congressional District. \u201cShe\u2019s with them, not us!\u201d\u00a0 \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}