Vote for worst Oregon politician of 2024

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

For 24 years, the Taxpayers Association of Oregon has given Taxpayer Awards to honor

(#1) Oregon’s worst political figures
(#2) Worst example of government waste
(#3) worst example of bureaucratic bungle of 2024 and
(#5) Golden Schnoz which is worst example of government sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong.

Here are the 4 nominees for worst political figure of 2024.

• Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio.  During her campaign for mayor, the media reported that she had more than 150 parking/traffic violations, including six different driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and failure to appear in court. A mere 10 days after the story broke, she was cited for being involved in a hit-and-run fender bender.  As commissioner, Rubio hid information from the public and other city commissioners that one of her departments had a tax surplus of $540 million because she wanted time to build a detailed plan to spend it so others couldn’t. (OPB 9/9/24, Oregonian 9/20/24, Oregonian 2/24/24)

• Governor Tina Kotek.  In a highly controversial and ethically dubious move, Kotek created an office space for her wife in the governor’s office and hired her a full-time, $11,000-per-month government-paid scheduler assistant. Kotek’s wife was accused of using her position to lobby lawmakers. Four top Kotek officials resigned during this scandal— chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, legal advisor, and communications director. (Willamette Week 3/23/24, KOIN 3/25/24, Oregon Capitol Chronicle 3/25/24)

• PSU President Ann Cudd.  When anti-Israel protestors began vandalizing the campus and threatening Jewish students, Portland State University Ann Cudd invited the protestors to camp out, which led to more riots that shut down the campus and stranded 21,000 students for days. The protestors took over the PSU Library, blocked anyone from using it, scrawled “Kill all Jews” on the walls, and did a million dollars in damage. Rioters demanded that the campus reject funds from Boeing Co., which works with Israel, and Cudd complied by rejecting Boeing’s $175,000 donations. Protestors punched, spit on and called slurs to Jewish students, who did not feel safe on campus during the protests. Police arrest records revealed that the campus rioters were mostly non-students. PSU President Ann Cudd agreed to demands by these non-students, which led to shutting down the school and total damage of nearly $2 million. Financial losses prompted school officials to lay off 89 employees. At the same time of mass staff-cuts, Cudd hired retiring Congressman Earl Blumenauer for $100,000. (OregonLive 5/2/24, NBC 5/4/24, OPB 9/25/24, Higher Ed Dive 10/17/24)

• Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade.  Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade was caught off guard when it was announced that 306 non-citizens were illegally on the voter rolls mere weeks before early ballots were mailed. A week passed and the number grew to 1,259 people.  The number of unverified voters still to be determined is as high as 54,600.  Griffin-Valade blamed DMV and assured the public the issue was fixed—but the number of illegal voters grew again to 1,617 by election night. While ignoring violation of voters’ rolls, she spent $350,000 on a cartoon election mascot, called Blobby, which was designed to make the Secretary of State’s office look hip to young people through cartoon ads and other goofy ideas such as celebrating Star Wars Day. (OPB 9/23/24)

Ballots have been sent to Taxpayers Association of Oregon supporters.

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If you want a ballot, please email us to the email above.

More 2024 Award nominees to be announced on this website.