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January 05, 2007

Sizemore Has a New Sugar Daddy

I just received the latest news bulletin from Our Oregon, the arch-enemy of Bill Sizemore. As the news it contains does not yet appear to be up on their website [update: it's posted now], I will reproduce it in full here. In a nutshell, it seems Sizemore has found a new sugar daddy: Jeld-Wen's very wealthy owner, Dick Wendt. And it appears to be a mutually beneficial relationship.

Breaking news - Bill Sizemore's new best friend

It seems that Bill Sizemore has planted his flag into the moonscape of Oregon's land use laws and has at least one new sugar daddy to pay the way.

Last year Sizemore moved south to be closer to his BFF, Dick Wendt, the Jeld-Wen window magnate. Sizemore and Wendt aren't new pals, of course. Wendt gave Sizemore more than $40,000 for his embarrassing gubernatorial run in 1998 and has been a loyal funder of his numerous ballot measures. But now the relationship seems to have gone to a new level. They're even living in the same town.

On Dec. 7th, Sizemore started a new company, the innocuously named "Oregon Homeowners Association" based in Klamath Falls. Also located in K-Falls are Wendt, Jeld-Wen, and Wendt's well-funded "think tanks," Americans for Full Employment and For Our Grandchildren. Wendt uses these organizations to spread propaganda for his pet projects such as paying sub-minimum wage salaries to workers who are "in training," and privatizing Social Security for the benefit of investors, not retirees.

Wendt seems to keep his misinformation machines well oiled. Americans for Full Employment had revenues of more than $6 million in 2005. Both of the Wendt groups are housed at 2636 Biehn Street in K-Falls. And in an AMAZING COINCIDENCE, that's exactly the address of Sizemore's new "company."

Hmmmmm....

Well, as The Oregonian recently pointed out, Sizemore is an "initiative peddler," and he certainly has a knack for anticipating political profit centers. Case in point: Sizemore has filed several measures relating to Oregon's land use system at the same time the state legislature is discussing how to make Measure 37 more fair for regular people and stop big land speculators form cashing in on the change in the land use law.

Dick Wendt, one of the richest men in Oregon and an unabashed land speculator. His company contributed $47,000 to pass Measure 37 and Jeld-Wen is part of the Suncadia development group that is working to build 3,200 vacation homes on timberland on the eastern side of the Washington Cascades, near Roslyn. The land was sold to Jeld-Wen/Suncadia by Plum Creek Timber out of Seattle, the largest private landholder in America.

Hmmmmm....Plum Creek. Sounds familiar.

Last month - at the last moment before the deadline - Plum Creek Timber filed the largest Measure 37 claim in the state. They want to put up a housing development on timber land in Lincoln County. If current forest protection rules aren't waived, they claim, the local taxpayers owe them $94.8 million.

So Bill Sizemore is living in K-Falls working on land-use ballot initiatives...probably living off of M37 funder Dick Wendt...who is probably in line to get a juicy development contract...thanks to the biggest M37 claim ever filed. Got it.

And to make things even more interesting, according to the address Sizemore listed on several of the ballot measures filed for 2008, he's been staying in some pretty nice digs for someone who has said under oath that he has no income. The house at the address on Vale Street is a five bedroom, four bathroom $725,000 McMansion. Here's a picture. My golly, you may ask yourself, where did Sizemore get the money for that? It's unclear. The house is currently being leased with the option to buy.

Sizemore is also on the street with several ballot measures not related to land use. Signature gatherers are working in Portland, Coos Bay and Ashland, among other places. Mostly they claim to be employed by the Sizemore & Tim Trickey company, Democracy Direct. Meanwhile, the fraud and racketeering lawsuit against him continues on. Here's the most recent update.

Posted by Becky at January 5, 2007 04:53 PM