Beware The Hustle

It’s campaign season, the time when politicians make new promises they have no plans to keep and pretend the ones they made last time never happened. And it’s a time when everyone running for office will be asking you to send them money so they can continue to do the amazing work they have done so far.

We get it. Campaigns are expensive and there is no way around the need to raise funds. But sometimes things just get…shameless.

We receive, as many of you do, an endless stream of mass emails from legislators boasting about accomplishments they never had, ignoring their repeated sell outs, and now suggesting that you be part of one fight or another by “adding your name” to some pointless and phony “petition” which takes you immediately to a page to send them money. It’s a gimmick of course, but some are just downright insulting.

Yesterday we received an email fundraiser from Republican House Rep Cyrus Javadi.

The email opened with bold type, some in alarming red.

“Last month while we were caught up in session, the Oregon Department of Justice filed a motion to stay for Measure 114, which threatens our Second Amendment rights. M114 would be the most extreme anti-firearm law in the country, which is why it has lost at every stage of this case thus far.”

Gun owners in Oregon, and in fact nationwide, are well acquainted with Measure 114, because they have been generously funding the two lawsuits to stop it. They are, to be sure, a lot better acquainted with it than Javadi seems to be and know damn well it has not “lost at every stage of this case so far.”

While a state judge has placed an injunction on the measure, it’s well known that a Federal Judge in Portland, Karin Immergut, has declared this demented measure fully constitutional. If she has her way, and Measure 114 takes effect, gun sales in Oregon will end and countless Oregon gun owners will become instant criminals. As you know, we are currently in the process of appealing this absurd federal decision and will be fighting the Department of “Justice” in the Oregon Appeals Court.

Javadi’s email goes on:

“Friend, despite the fact that this measure has been deemed unconstitutional every step of the way, the Oregon DOJ is still working tirelessly to get it implemented. We must stop the Attorney General and the progressive left from stripping away our Second Amendment rights in our state.” Take action by signing the petition and voicing your opposition for the Oregon Department of Justice to hear. “

Of course, the hyperlink in Javadi’s email takes you to… a petition. A petition no judge will ever see or give a damn about. But that petition takes you to the real point of Javadi’s email. His donation page.

Javadi concludes his email with “Friend, let’s stop this measure once and for all.”

Apparently Javadi thinks Oregon’s gun owners are idiots. He, and the other House Republicans have done nothing to “stop this measure” and are powerless to do anything about it. But the steps they could have taken to protect gun owners, at no risk to their precious political futures, were never taken. Let’s not forget the disgraceful bait and switch they pulled in the 2023 session when they helped pass HB 2005 by providing the quorum the Democrats needed to ban personally made firearms.

All the House Republicans had to do to kill that bill, and other awful legislation, was stay home. And they would not even have risked the “unexcused absences” that have cost a number of brave Oregon Senators their seats. But they didn’t. Javadi and his fellow Republican House Reps did the bidding of the Democrats and dutifully showed up to grease the skids for another outrageous and unconstitutional attack on your rights.

But then to complete the charade, the House Republicans posed on the Capitol Steps with a giant fake check and posted a photo on social media with the text “Today, despite House Republicans raising significant constitutional issues against House Bill 2005 B, House Democrats passed their omnibus gun control bill. In response House Republicans have pledged $25,000.00 towards the inevitable litigation.”

As you know, $25,000.00 dollars would barely be a downpayment on a lawsuit of this kind. But it doesn’t matter. No one has ever seen a dime of it and now Republican House Reps run for cover when you ask them what happened to their photo-op lawsuit.

You are the reason there are court battles to stop Measure 114. Javadi and the Republican House Reps have done nothing to help in this battle and it’s disgraceful that they would try to use this vicious attack on your rights to hustle you.