Mountain West Investment Corporation gives $125,000 to conservative Salem PAC

Back in March I wrote about how the Chamber of Commerce appeared to be trying to hide a $25,000 contribution from Mountain West Investment Corporation, whose president is Larry Tokarski. 

(See Salem Chamber of Commerce apparently trying to hide $25,000 in PAC money.)

Now Mountain West Investment Corporation is making campaign contributions in an indirect way by funneling five times as much money through a different political action committee.

On August 26th, Mountain West Investment Corporation gave $125,000 to the Jobs PAC.

Just two days prior, the Jobs PAC gave $2,500 to Republican Danielle Bethell’s campaign for Marion County Commissioner. On the same day, the Jobs PAC gave $10,000 to Republican Raquel Moore-Green’s campaign for the Legislature and on September 4 they gave $15,000 to Republican Denyc Boles' campaign for the Legislature.

Here's a screenshot of part of the most recent Secretary of State's transaction report for the Jobs PAC. I indicated the Mountain West Investment Corporation contribution in red. 

As I noted in a May post, Hit piece on Trevor Phillips gets facts horribly wrong, the Jobs PAC is run by the Public Affairs Counsel firm in Salem. The treasurer of the Jobs PAC is James L. Wilson, who heads up that lobbying firm.

 

Public Affairs Counsel lobbies for Salem Health which is where Denyc Boles works as a lobbyist. Yes, the same Denyc Boles who received a $15,000 campaign contribution from the Jobs PAC.

 

Hopefully soon campaign finance reform laws will be in place that prevent these sorts of large corporate contributions from being laundered through political action committees like the Jobs PAC.

Comments

[Skyline]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Mountain West Investment Corporation for giving back to our community in ways that will make a meaningful difference!
GREAT JOB!
Keep up the good work!

[Kurt]

I don't understand what the concern is. Salem government exists for the primary purpose of promoting and accommodating the work of real estate companies. Why would they not be allowed to select individuals that work for or serve the city?

This is consistent with the neo-liberal trend towards oligopoly. If those with extreme wealth are unable to express their power in overwhelming ways, what good is it?

[Skyline]

You hit a home run there, Kurt!
Ha Ha Ha Ha
Attaaaa-boy!

[Kurt]

You set a high bar for sarcasm when you thanked Mountain West "for giving back to our community". The refusal to build the Lone Oak bridge was a telling act, not an aberration.

Neo-liberalism became a thing subsequent to the Reagan administration's destruction of anti-trust laws. This helped enable wealthy members of both parties to amass wealth and that led to acceptance of the deterioration of representative government and to the holy grail of special interest power - Citizen's United.