Bill Sizemore

One can't talk about the Oregon initiative system without mentioning "racketeer" Bill Sizemore. This particular initiative fraudster makes his living off of direct democracy and since the 1990's, Sizemore and his anti-government, anti-union allies have dominated Oregon's initiative system.

"Sizemore rejects all criticism of his methods and motives...He said he hasn't mounted serious campaigns to pass his measures because it is difficult to raise the kind of money it would take to be successful. It is much easier, and cheaper, to get the measures on the ballot. As for diverting resources from his opponents, Sizemore said, "It's not my goal. It's something I have in the back of my mind. If a measure keeps my enemies busy, that's not necessarily a bad thing." (The Oregonian: Oregon has voted against him, but Sizemore fights on." September 6, 2008)

Bill Sizemore's strategy is simple:

• Pick initiatives that would defund Oregon, take away the rights of workers like nurses, firefighters, and teachers, and attack the services which Oregonians rely upon and value;
• Find wealthy sugar daddies (aka: Dick Wendt or out of state sex-hypnotherapist Loren Parks) to fund his various initiatives;
• Qualify initiatives to the ballot, using fraud, forgery, and racketeering;
• Rinse & Repeat and do it all over again in two years after Oregon voters defeat his harmful initiatives.

In 2008, Sizemore backed five ballot measures, ALL which failed at the ballot. Three of which were repeats of similar measures he has tried to pass in the past: Measure 59, would have created an unlimited deduction for federal income taxes on individual taxpayers' Oregon returns beginning in 2010, Measure 60, which would have mandated "merit pay" for teachers based on "classroom performance," and Measure 64, a "paycheck deception" initiative.

Sizemore's record of pushing policy gimmicks to starve state priorities is outdone only by the "$2.5 million racketeering judgment" against him.

In 2002, Sizemore was the subject of a racketeering lawsuit against two of his organizations: Oregon Taxpayer's United and the OTU Education Foundation. The Oregon Education Association and the Oregon American Federation of Teachers charged that Sizemore and his organizations had engaged in forging signatures and filing of false financial reports as part of his effort to put two anti-union initiatives on the 2000 ballot. A final judgment of approximately $2.5-million was entered against Mr. Sizemore's organizations.

In 2003, the court once again also entered an injunction limiting Mr. Sizemore's ability to utilize the assets of those organizations. The judge declared that Sizemore had "illegally used large tax-deductible donations" to fund a PAC.

Sizemore refused to pay the fines and attempted to avoid the liability by changing the name of his organizations to Oregon Taxpayers Association and carrying on with business as usual.

In 2006, the Court of Appeals denied Sizemore's attempt to overturn the jury ruling and affirmed that his organization engaged in a "calculated course of criminal conduct" and "cynical, criminal manipulation of the democratic process."

May of 2008, a Multnomah County judge found Bill Sizemore in contempt of court Tuesday, saying he chose to ignore a court injunction by transferring money out of his organizations for political activity. (The Oregonian, "Judge rules Bill Sizemore in contempt, must pay." May 27, 2008)

July of 2008, Our Oregon, an initiative watchdog group, asked the Secretary of State to investigate whether signatures on initiative petitions circulated by Bill Sizemore and his cronies were forged. Click here to watch the video.

July of 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals findings, upholds the multi-million dollar jury award, and confirms Sizemore as racketeer.

"Mr. Sizemore is the ringmaster," Hartman said. "Mr. Sizemore is the one who makes it all work. He leveraged that into circumstances where he received very substantial amounts of money from ATRF."   (Oregonian: "Oregon anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore admits personal use of funds." Oct. 8, 2008.)

October of 2008, the Oregon Education Association and American Federation of Teachers of Oregon asked a Multnomah County judge to cite Sizemore with contempt of court for violating a 2003 order which both prohibited Sizemore from using his tax-exempt charitable organizations for political purposes, and which required him to file accurate campaign finance reports about his political activity.

Both the OEA and the Oregon AFT believe that Sizemore set up American Tax Research Foundation in Nevada in 2006 as a "sham foundation" that he used to funnel money to himself for work done on the 2008 Oregon general election ballot. Sizemore himself acknowledged in court that he tapped hundreds of thousands of dollars from a tax-exempt Nevada foundation in recent years and used most of it for personal spending. (Oregonian: "Oregon anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore admits personal use of funds." Oct. 8, 2008.)

December of 2008, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Janice Wilson found Bill Sizemore in contempt of court for the fourth time and ordered him to serve jail time until he signed and filed the appropriate documents required by law of his nonprofit organizations. Sizemore spent one night in jail and walked out after signing a federal tax form claiming he did not try to influence proposed bills. IRS officials have declined to comment as to whether Sizemore is under investigation. (Associated Press: "Sizemore form conflicts with judge's ruling." Dec. 5, 2008)

February of 2009, The Oregon Elections division announced that they are launching an investigation on whether Sizemore violated election laws during his campaign to put five measures on the ballot last November. The investigation will determine whether any of the five organizations that were directly or indirectly controlled by him should have registered as political committees and whether they made in-kind contributions to initiative campaigns that were not reported as required by state laws.
(Oregonian: "Oregon investigates whether Sizemore broke campaign laws." Feb. 12, 2009)

March of 2009, Multnomah County Judge Wilson placed a permanent injunction on Sizemore from operating any charity and said that from now on, Sizemore must get court permission to operate nonprofit political committees. (Associated Press: "Sizemore permanently banned from charities." March 7, 2009) 

So what now?

Sizemore still hasn't paid his $2.5 million fine for his judgement against him of racketeering in 2002.

Sizemore has already filed 13 initiatives for 2010.

To learn more about what you can do to help, please visit: http://www.ouroregon.org/

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