PolitiFact critical of Sen. Telfer’s end of session update

by NW Spotlight

State Senator Chris Telfer (R-Bend) issued a press release after Oregon’s first annual session a little over a week ago. The press release mentioned her accomplishments – including “two substantial job-creating bills and a fiscally responsible budget agreement that controls state spending.”

Today the Oregonian’s PolitiFact took issue with Sen. Telfer’s role in her second listed accomplishment: “a fiscally responsible budget agreement that controls state spending.”

PolitiFact rated that accomplishment “Pants on Fire”, based on their finding that “Telfer didn’t negotiate, or help negotiate, that agreement. Not only that, she voted against the bills that authorize operating money for state government.”

Footnote: Numerous other Oregon state legislators also issued post session press releases and those were not scrutinized by PolitiFact.  A 2011 University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics study called out “how statements are selected” by PolitiFact: “there remains a fundamental question of which statements (by which politicians) are targeted for analysis in the first place. A Smart Politics content analysis of more than 500 PolitiFact stories from January 2010 through January 2011 finds that current and former Republican officeholders have been assigned substantially harsher grades by the news organization than their Democratic counterparts.”