Riverbend amasses $477K for campaign
By DAVID BATES
Of the News-Register
Riverbend Landfill is spending a lot of money to defeat Measure 36-119 - a lot of money.
Backed by its Texas-based parent company, Waste Management Inc. of Houston, the McMinnville landfill has raised nearly $477,000 so far in its campaign to defeat the initiative filed by neighbors opposing the siting or expansion of landfills within 2,000 feet of a flood plain. And it has spent nearly as much - more than $429,000.
The expenditures obliterate whatever the previous record was in Yamhill County. The most expensive campaigns typically are legislative races, and those generally remain at the lower end of five-digit figures.
Of the four candidates vying for office in the county's dominant House and Senate districts this year, Republican Jim Weidner has raised the most at $81,000. Next comes fellow Republican Brian Boquist at $54,000.
To appreciate the level of financial resources Riverbend is pouring into the campaign, a countywide comparison isn't the best measure. What needs to be considered is the statewide picture, which features 12 initiatives.
Only three political action committees - two union-backed groups and the PAC supporting Kevin Mannix' mandatory sentencing initiative - have raised more than Riverbend for their respective causes, according to a computer-assisted analysis of campaign finance records conducted by the News-Register. That means the battle over the landfill initiative is one of the most expensive in the entire state, despite being limited to a single county.
The reigning champion statewide is the tobacco industry, which spent a record $12 million last year to beat back a legislatively referred cigarette tax to finance health care for children. Labor unions, health care organizations and insurance companies spent $3 million trying to pass Measure 50, but it failed by a 3-to-2 margin.
Riverbend has raised and spent more than some of Oregon's biggest PACs have in 2008 - the Oregon Restaurant Association and Associated Oregon Industries, for example. The company has also raised more than the $365,193 accumulated by the state's Democratic and Republican parties combined.
Oregon State University's Bill Lunch, who heads the political science department and also provides commentary for Oregon Public Broadcasting, said he'd not heard of a local measure that expensive. But he added that years ago an initiative on Multnomah County's ballot aimed at closing the old Trojan nuclear power plant might have generated more spending. If so, however, that would have been in Oregon's most populous county.
Of those PACS that are registered to work on one of the dozen statewide initiatives, only three surpass Waste Management's efforts. They include:
n Defend Oregon, a union-backed umbrella group that is either supporting or opposing nine of the 12 measures on the ballot. It's raised more than $6.5 million.
n The Don't Silence Our Voice Committee, which also draws heavily from unions. It has raised $776,409 to oppose Measure 64, a Bill Sizemore initiative it believes would stymie union political activity.
n The Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance, which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from out-of-state Republican benefactor Loren Parks, has raised $677,300 in its effort to pass the Kevin Mannix mandatory sentencing initiative, Measure 61.
"It does seem like a lot of money," says Waste Management spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews. "That's partially because we are being scrupulous in reporting all the staff time and other in-kind that could be connected with the measure campaign."
Waste Management's revenue side of the ledger is divided between cash and in-kind contributions - staff time, travel expenses and legal fees, for example. The PAC, Neighbors Against Higher Garbage Bills, identifies $207,000 in cash contributions and $269,800 in in-kind contributions.
Compared to what PACS are spending on statewide measures, however, the cash component still ranks very high.
By contrast, the PAC formed by Measure 119-36 co-petitioner Lillian Frease, the Stop the Dump Expansion Committee, lists contributions of $580 with no expenditures.
Andrews questions the veracity of that amount, noting both sides spent plenty of time in court this summer haggling over the ballot measure title and explanation. Whether paid for or donated, the legal fees have value, she said.
"The proponents of the measure don't seem to be reporting all their expenses," she said.
Co-petitioner Lillian Frease said today that the attorney who helped them in the legal squabble over the ballot title and explanatory statement did her work before the PAC was formed, and had been paid only last week. That might appear on the financial statements later as an in-kind contribution, she said.
She said it was "unfortunate" that Riverbend is spending so much, but added that "it shows that there's big money in garbage."
"We'll be lucky if we can get one mailer out," she said. "We'd be very lucky if we can do that. We're scurrying around trying to get neighbors to chip in fifty bucks."
Andrews said that in terms of advertising, Waste Management so far has produced two television spots and two mailers.
