On September 5, we reported that Oregon District 23 Representative Mike Nearman holds a leadership position in the anti-immigrant hate group Oregonians for Immigration Reform. Our research garnered some national attention from The Daily Beast, ThinkProgress, and other outlets.
We reported that while the OFIR website listed Nearman as their Vice President, Nearman denied ever holding that position, though he admitted to holding a position on the Board of Directors. The Daily Beast followed up with OFIR Communications Director Jim Ludwick, who claimed that Nearman was indeed the Vice President, saying “Sometimes the protocols of who’s what and who’s not what gets lost in the shuffle, maybe next meeting we should sit down with badges.”
Whether or not Nearman has sorted out his position at OFIR remains unclear, as he has not responded to further attempts at contact. That said, we don’t see much of an effective difference between being the vice president and a board member of a hate group (but maybe that’s just us).
After this news was first published, the first sentence on Nearman’s Wikipedia page read: “Mike Nearman is an American politician and a member of an Oregon based white supremacy group.” This information was removed on September 24, the edit reading “removal of slanderous and false political attacks.” A note to Wiki user “Sslater7293,” false attacks in writing are referred to as libelous rather than slanderous, and this was neither.
To note, on September 20, Nearman’s campaign spent $5000 on the political consultant PNW Strategies, a consulting firm led by Betsy Shultz, owner of the Eugene florist company Artis Flora. Nearman pays for Shultz’s services regularly, but $5000 is an irregularly large amount considering his usual payments of $450-$1000. Fortunately for Nearman, he can afford it thanks to large contributions from AT&T, Charter Communications, Oregon Soft Drink PAC, Kroger (owner of Fred Meyer), and Koch Industries. We reached out to Nearman and Shultz to inquire if this payment was intended to mitigate the effects from Nearman’s recent press, neither responded.
While the news of Nearman’s hate group ties has been picked up nationally, local outlets like the Gazette-Times and the Statesman Journal have yet to report this information.
By Jay Sharpe
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com