Curious timing? Oregon Libertarian initiatives sponsor announces for Governor, a week later indicted for Tax Evasion

by Eric Dondero

Grass Roots Libertarians are well-familiar with Bill Sizemore. He has been the sponsor of numerous anti-tax initiatives and other government reform measures in the State of Oregon for over a decade. He is the longtime chairman of Oregon Taxpayers United. He has worked with numerous national libertarian organizations and libertarian petitioners.

He's been called in Daily Kos, the "sponsor of all things extremely libertarian..."

Sizemore gained his greatest fame going after the Public Employees Union in Oregon in 1994. Measure 8:

would have prevented the current billion PERS deficit by eliminating years ago the eight percent guaranteed rate of return on money in the PERS fund. Measure 8 was invalidated in 1996 by a four to three vote of Oregon Supreme Court justices, all of whom were PERS participants.

The Measure was defeated. But in 1996, Sizemore racked up a significant win:

Bill Sizemore authored and was chief petitioner for Measure 47, which voters approved in 1996. Measure 47 reduced property taxes in Oregon by approximately $450 million dollars per year and limited future increases to not more than three percent per year, unless voters approved higher taxes. With Bill Sizemore's cooperation, Measure 47 was rewritten by the state legislature and approved by voters as Measure 50.

(Source: BillSizemore.com)

Politically, Sizemore is often associated by the media and others as affiliated with the Constitution Party. However the registered Independent, has been quite critical of the CP over the years, and has kept an arms length. Rather, he's worked more closely with the Libertarian Party. In a 2004 column, "Why the Constitution Party is going nowhere" he wrote:

On the other hand, consider perennial Libertarian candidate Harry Brown. Harry’s a smart, articulate guy, and not only speaks well, but has some good things to say...

Additionally, Sizemore has been criticized by the Oregon media as being a pawn of "big money libertarian interests." From the OregonLive.com, Oct. 8, 2008:a

[Two of Sizemore's supporters from Nevada] are big financial backers of conservative and libertarian causes.

Sizemore has been in an out of courtrooms over the last decade, always managing to not only beat the State, but additionally embarrassing state bureaucrats, union officials, and the media in the process.

On November 23, Sizemore announced his intentions to run for Governor on the Republican ticket. He was the Republican nominee once before in 1998, getting beat by Democrat John Kitzhaber. Less than a week after his most recent announcement for 2010, indictments came down from the Attorney General's office - completely Democrat controlled - on Sizemore.

From the Washington Examiner, 11/30:

SALEM, ORE. — Bill Sizemore, Oregon's high-profile anti-tax activist and Republican candidate for governor, has been indicted on tax evasion charges.

The Oregon Department of Justice announced Monday that it has filed the charges against him and his wife, Cindy.

A grand jury indicted the Sizemores on three counts of evading Oregon personal income taxes.

More details from NW Republican:

Sizemore told NW Republican that he was running for governor to break the stranglehold the public employee unions have on the state of Oregon, saying he is the only one willing to challenge that behemoth head on.

Sizemore said the public employee unions, especially the OEA, run the entire state from top to bottom. He said they own every state office in Oregon and almost every legislator in the capitol is scared to death of them. He said the public unions are the ones who set the state budget and are the ones pushing the Democrats to vote for huge tax increases.

Moreover...

Sizemore said he realizes he has his work cut out for him at the moment, because the entire Democrat machine is aligned against him and aggressively pursuing him. The Secretary of State is conducting a criminal investigation into his activities, which he said is based on a complaint filed by Our Oregon, which is a union funded front organization.

Sizemore said that he knows for a fact that staffers with the state attorney general, who was elected almost exclusively with public employee union money, have been meeting secretly with public employee union lawyers and conspiring to bring him down.

Sizemore is not the first Libertarian to face charges for wanting to run for public office. In 1996, Irwinn Schiff, author of the Great Income Tax Hoax, declared for President on the Libertarian ticket. He later dropped out and endorsed Harry Browne for President. A year later he was sent to Federal Prison for tax evasion. Today his son Peter Schiff is a leading Republican candidate for US Senate against Chris Dodd in Connecticutt.