OR-GOV: Kulo Smacks Saxton for Kicker Two-Face

Wow, what got into the goobernor's Wheaties?

Today, the Kulongoski Campaign called on Republican Ron Saxton to pull his radio advertisements that attack Kulongoski for proposing to modify Oregon's tax kicker law, calling them "another example of Saxton saying anything to get elected."

While Saxton is shifting his position on kicker policy (again), telling the news media he is now open to amending the kicker, he continues running attack ads on right-wing radio blasting any change to the kicker as a "tax increase." [Saxton for Governor, "Stopwatch"]

Saxton pledged to anti-government groups to oppose any and all tax increases. [Americans for Tax Reform, 1/31/06]

As the Oregonian reported today, "Creating a state savings account is Saxton's priority, and he is open to using some, but not all, of the kicker to create an account to cushion state spending in a downturn, said his campaign spokeswoman, Angela Wilhelms."

"Saxton is a typical politician who moves according to polls, not best policy," said campaign manager Jim Ross. "Leadership requires a clear and consistent message - not speaking out of both sides of your mouth."

This really is pretty blatant. On the one hand, Saxton refers to an effort to use the kicker for rainy day savings as a "1 billion dollar tax increase." On the other, his spokesperson says doing almost exactly the same thing is a "priority." That ought to be a fun bit of doubletalk for Ted to ask Ron about in their next debate--and the fact that Saxton seems to be a fairly reliable fount of mixed messages and incompatible statements makes Kulongoski all the smarter for giving his challenger four more lengths of televised rope to hang himself with.