How can I resist?
The Republican spin machine deems it a bad day for Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber's re-election campaign to find out that his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, once took money to marry an 18-year-old Ethiopian man to help him get a green card. Kitzhaber's Republican challenger, State Rep. Dennis Richardson, thinks this association between the governor and a lawbreaker is an issue worth commenting on:
Richardson, trying to gain traction before voters begin casting ballots next week in Oregon's all-mail election, has tried to shift attention to that story.
"It's clear from her past history that the first lady has had no qualms with breaking the law in order to make financial gains," said Meredith Glacken, a spokeswoman for Richardson ["Oregon ‘First Lady’ Cops to Green-Card ‘Marriage of Convenience’ in Exchange for $5G," AP via Fox News, 2014.10.10].
Hayes says she made $5,000 on her immigration scam back in 1998.
Much more recently, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds was in bed politically with state employees Joop Bollen and Richard Benda, who appear to have had no qualms with breaking the law in order to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling hundreds of green cards to Korean and Chinese immigrants. But the Republican spin machine says pointing out those facts is a cowardly lie.
Cylvia Hayes' story has far more to do with the expense of college education, the desperation of immigrants and the convoluted world from 17 years ago, that has only intensified since.
I hope she takes time to get over her regret, turn this into a positive and becomes governor of Oregon.
How much did Bollen & his associates pay Rounds since Rounds left office?
$5k is charity. Few years prior to that a man in Griffen Georgia paid $20k for his greencard.
And Rounds cheated SD out of, let's see, $140 million. Kinda makes that $5000 look pretty puny. Any comparison to Rounds' fraud does him no favors.
Exactly, Deb. I welcome the Republicans to raise more fuss over the Oregon governor's fiancée. Such fuss will only reinforce our legitimate critiques of Rounds's direct participation in his immigration scam.
Didn't South Dakota pols take money from ALEC to push ALEC"S agenda in your state? Didn't they accept money from the koch suckers for the same reason?