The Real Story – A Column
Good Sunday Evening to all! We are all very busy, but very important elections are at hand. The Voter Guides and your ballots have been sent out, and we hope you are reviewing them carefully. The Data Center Moratorium called for on April 7th by candidates for local office, including Kipperlyn Sinclair, Myrna Munoz, and Dr. Tammy Carpenter, has sparked a political firestorm of nasty campaign tricks from their opponents. From confusing phone calls telling voters that these same candidates are Socialists to fake handwritten letters sent by an autopen, these three powerful candidates have scared the power elite into desperate measures.
Senator Janeen Sollman is trying to resurrect last year’s failed Senate Bill 1586, which she sponsored, to open 1,700 acres of prime farmland to AI Factories and Data Centers. She was joined by sitting Hillsboro Mayor Beach Pace, County Commissioner Pam Treece, and a host of others in Salem, where a unified front and full-court press were mounted to pass that bill; fear-mongering included claims that Oregon was broke and that this was the key to our future. Then, after Sinclair/Munoz/Carpenter laid down the gauntlet of a Data Center Moratorium in Washington County, these same promoters and their ilk have tried to hide their tracks, with some claiming they deserve credit for the call for a moratorium. The whole thing has become downright disgusting. But hey, that is politics, I guess…