Ginny Burdick: Schoolyard bully

Not just a schoolyard bully, though. A stupid schoolyard bully.

Burdick's got a new ad in which the dude she hired to read the ad ticks off a laundry list of complaints against Erik Sten:

Erik Sten stands up for Portland, so he says.

First he stood up for Portland when he managed the Water Bureau, where his disastrous computer conversion cost us nearly $40 million.

Then he stood up for Portland when he tried to buy PGE from Enron. He spent several million dollars and failed completely.

And then there's his campaign financing scheme, the one that the Oregonian calls "a circus," and the Tribune calls "a scandal." Erik Sten standing up for Portland simply costs us too much money, including more than $160,000 that we're paying for his taxpayer-funded campaign.

Frankly, we would be better off if Erik Sten would stop standing up for Portland and just sit down. Since that doesn't seem likely, there's a choice: Ginny Burdick, a progressive with a track record for success as our state senator. When she stands up for Portland, things get done and things get better.

Paid for by the Friends of Ginny Burdick, not by your tax dollars.

We've already demonstrated that Burdick is lying on the disclaimer. But the cool kids at the Oregonian find Burdick running afield of the truth in the meat of her ad, too:

In tone, it's your standard negative ad: Creepy music, ominous-sounding annoucer. The basic facts are accurate, although it leaves out some context: The bulk of the "nearly $40 million" lost in the Water Bureau billing conversion came from unpaid bills. The "more than $160,000" Sten has received in public financing money would have been a flat $150,000 had Burdick chosen to limit her own spending. (Under public financing, candidates receive $150k in the primary, but can request more if their opponents spend more.) And a more cynical type might argue that the phrases "things get done" and "Oregon legislature" are mutually exclusive.

This is schoolyard bully crap and certainly not fitting anyone who wants to hold public office. I'd expect this kind of garbage from a Republican..because in my experience Republicans campaign by cherrypicking and removing context. In other words, they're dishonest.

Did Burdick really think that people wouldn't check out her ad to make sure her claims were true and proper?

Burdick claims to be a progressive...but this kind of campaigning isn't in line with progressive values.