The BS at the beach,courtesy of GOP Rep Alan Brown

Something stinks at the beach. And it isn't the stuff washing onshore from the Pacific Ocean.

Its the odor eminating from the campaign of incumbent GOP Rep. Alan Brown out of the 10th District in Newport. Very fishy indeed.

The Oregon Education Association gave out their endorsement in that district to Brown's opponent, Democrat Jean Cowan. But in a sneaky bit of dishonest campaign litter, Brown's campaign attempts to make voters think otherwise.

In an insert to the August 2 Newport News-Times and the Lincoln City News Guard, Brown's campaign ran a slick yellow ad quoting Steve Kenney of the OEA:

"We value your friendship, Alan. You command a great deal of respect among the teachers of Lincoln County and among teachers elsewhere who know you".

Its my understanding that this quote came from Brown's OEA thanks but we're endorsing your opponent letter, which of course isn't cited on the insert.

The OEA has asked Brown to not use the quote in his campaign literature. But the campaign has thus far refused. The OEA has sent letters to the newspapers in an effort to set the record straight on Brown's ad:

Letters
The News-Times
P. O. Box 965
Newport, Oregon 97365

Subject: Teachers’ association supports Jean Cowan

Dear News-Times Editor:

May I correct a misleading impression that the Alan Brown campaign may be communicating to your readers? The misleading impression is found in Alan’s yellow campaign flier that was included with the August 2 edition of the News-Times. In his flier Alan includes a gracious and respectful quotation from me. The use of my name and affiliation, however, may cause the reader to believe that the school teachers’ association endorses Alan for re-election.

The truth is that the teachers association endorses Alan’s opponent, Jean Cowan.

Here is what happened. On January 20 I wrote a letter to Alan, informing Alan that the Oregon Education Association (OEA) had decided to recommend Alan’s opponent, Jean Cowan, for election to the Oregon Legislature. Both Alan and Jean had sought OEA’s recommendation. Both Alan and Jean had completed OEA questionnaires and participated in our interviews.

My January 20 letter contains three paragraphs. The first paragraph thanks Alan for participating in our candidate interview process.

The second paragraph contains just one sentence. The sentence says, “This letter notifies you that the Council has recommended Jean Cowan for the Oregon House of Representatives, District 10.”

The third, and final, paragraph says some nice things about Alan, thanking him for supporting public education in Lincoln County. I was trying to be as gracious and respectful as possible to Alan, even though I was the bearer of bad tidings.

Then, over six months later, Alan’s campaign decided to use my January 20 letter in their August 2 newspaper flier. Instead of quoting my entire letter, however, the Brown campaign quoted just my 3rd paragraph, where I say the nice things about Alan.

By omitting the first two-thirds of my letter—the part where I explain that teachers recommend Jean Cowan—the flier may leave the impression that OEA endorses Alan. We don’t. We recommend Jean Cowan.

OEA decided to recommend Jean Cowan because she will bring leadership to Salem that will be good for Lincoln County public schools. We also believe that Jean would not manipulate a person’s attempt to be gracious and respectful.

Thank you for allowing me to set the record straight.

Sincerely,
Steve Kenney, Field Representative
Oregon Education Association

Jeez. The OEA tries to be nice to Brown and instead of accepting their gracious letter, he screws them over by trying to mislead voters.

If he's willing to mislead over something this minor, imagine what he lies his ass off about when things get serious.