Bill Sizemore
From dKosopedia
Bill Sizemore is a right-wing anti-tax poltical activist in the state of Oregon. He has made a name for himself as the author and driving force behind a tremendous number of state ballot initiatives. Several have passed (including property tax cuts and expanded compensation requirements for regulatory takings), but many more have failed.
Politcal Career
Sizemore, previous to his ballot measure acvities ran as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Oregon in 1998 and lost in a landslide to Democrat John Kitzhaber after stories began circulating about his shady business practices, both in his personal past and in his then current operation of his political action committees and non-profit educational foundation.
Several lengthy and detailed exposes were published in The Oregonian, but are no longer available on-line, though they may be purchased in the archives. These included tales of his bilking fellow church members and friends (inlcuding a disabled person who passed away without ever being repaid) out of tens of thousands of dollars, using money investors had intended for a start-up business to buy property and a home for himself, attempting to sell fishing club memberships for a lake that was not stocked without proper licenses, among other serious allegations.
Eventually, the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against Sizemore's organizations (Oregon Taxpayers United and the OTU Education Foundation). During the trial, Sizemore's top aide, under protection of state and federal immunity deals, testified in detail about the unethical and illegal activities in which various members of the organization participated.
These included the Bill Sizemore and Grover Norquist political money laundering scandal [1]. Also included were falsification of tax returns and forging of signatures.
After three weeks of testimony, the jury found Sizemore's organizations guilty of racketeering [2] and a fine of approximately $2.5 million was levied against the organizations.
Sizemore, who refused to pay the fines and attempted to avoid the liability by changing the name of his organizations and carrying on with business as usual, was found personally liable for his organization's civil racketeering liability [3]. Eventually, a Judge shut down Sizemore's 501(c)(3) education foundation [4] and [5] and nearly a million more was added to the fine as a result of Sizemore's resistence to earlier Court orders/decisions.
Sizemore continues to be a featured writer on a number of Web sites, such as http://www.americandaily.com and http://www.newswithviews.com.
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