Is Boyles campaign connected to Russian mafia?

Is it just me, or does this look a little mafiaesque?

One morning last fall, Bruce Broussard visited Vladimir Golovan to talk about his Portland City Council campaign and his struggle to qualify for public financing.

Broussard knew that raising the 1,000 $5 contributions he needed to qualify for public cash would be difficult. Golovan, a Ukrainian immigrant and activist, proposed a deal: He'd collect signatures from 1,000 Slavic immigrants for Broussard. In exchange, Broussard would pay him $15,000.

The candidate had one question. Where, he recalls asking Golovan, were all those $5 donations going to come from?

Golovan's answer: You.

"He said, 'I'll get you the signatures,' " Broussard said Tuesday. " 'But you have to provide the $5,000.' So really, he was telling me to put up $20,000 for 1,000 names."

I've never met Golovan and I'm not exactly wired in to the underground signature gathering business here in Oregon..but this sounds like something from The Godfather. Heavy palm greasing will get you a nice end run around the law?

I don't know if Boyles understood what Golovan was doing for her campaign. But this guy apparently has a history with Broussard, who Boyles is close to. Its hard to believe she didn't at least have an inkling.