news
BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
DeFazio chats with
Eugene press Oct. 19
Buying the Race
Shadowy campaign finances and shady science
I
s it a tempest in a tea bag? The Peter
DeFazio – Art Robinson contest for
the 4th District congressional seat has
gone from a sleeper race to one making
national headlines. The district, which
includes Lane, Coos, Curry, Douglas and
Linn counties, as well as most of Benton
and Josephine counties, is an odd mix of
rural and urban voters, conservatives,
liberals and libertarians. The race recently
made the Rachel Maddow Show and the
front page of The Wall Street Journal.
DeFazio, whose buck-the-trend ways
have earned the respect of his constituents,
hasn’t faced a true challenge for his seat
in years. Polling data from the 2008 race
showed challenger Jaynee Germond at
13 percent to DeFazio’s 82 percent. “I’ve
made it look easy,” says DeFazio of his
district. “It’s not easy.”
But in this year’s race, Robinson and
the money behind him from the Concerned
Taxpayers of America (CTA) seem to be
banking on the idea that the Tea Party
politics and anti-incumbent sentiment that
has come to the fore in other states might
sway Oregon voters.
DeFazio says it’s odd that Robinson’s
campaign put a quarter of a million dollars
into thousands of lawn signs and car
magnets early on in the race, at a time most
candidates would have been putting funds
into political ads. Then CTA came out of
nowhere to fund the political ads.
It appears Robinson had plans to buy
the race from the beginning. A letter from
Rob Taylor, Jaynee Germond’s campaign
manager (Germond was DeFazio’s
opponent in 2008, and Robinson’s
challenger in the Republican primary)
recounts a meeting between Germond and
Robinson in March. Robinson allegedly
told Germond he was willing to spend a
quarter million dollars in the primary to
defeat her and “I will send out an email
to all my connections and raise enough
money to pay for this election. This is
how I support my institution (the Oregon
Institute of Science and Medicine) and
this is how I plan to raise enough money
to win.”
Taylor writes that he found Robinson to
be “belittling with a misogynist demeanor
towards Ms. Germond.” Germond has
been popular with the Libertarian voters
Robinson seeks support from.
It was recently revealed that the
Concerned Taxpayers group funding
Robinson, in addition to the out-of-state
cash raised by OISM supporters, is more
of a singular taxpayer who would perhaps
like to keep paying less taxes. Bob Mercer,
the co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies
LLC, is funding the CTA ads against
DeFazio.
Renaissance, which The Wall Street
Journal has called “one of the most
successful hedge-fund companies ever,”
uses high-speed computers and intricate
math algorithms to manipulate the
market. The computers make billions of
transactions in one day, holding onto some
assets for only a few milliseconds. Firms
like Renaissance have been blamed for
the kind of market speculation that ruins
pensions and economies.
Mercer has spent $300,000 through
CTA, and it looks like he’s willing to throw
a half million dollars of his out-of-state
money into the race. “It’s a great investment
for him if he can buy Art Robinson a seat
in Congress,” says DeFazio. “It’s chump
change.” DeFazio has called for a tax
on securities trades and is known for
“defending Main Street from Wall Street.”
DeFazio has been pointing to
statements in articles written and approved
by Robinson, in his newsletter Access
to Energy and on his website, that make
controversial calls to add nuclear radiation
to Oregon’s drinking water, stop funding
public education and drastically reduce
regulation of industries. The CTA ads
have been less based in reality. According
to DeFazio’s campaign, the ads are so
baseless that local television station KEZI
has stopped running them.
James Simons, described in The
TRASK BEDORTHA
It appears
Robinson had
plans to buy the
race from the
beginning
Wall Street Journal as “a secretive
mathematician and Cold War code
breaker,” founded Mercer’s hedge fund
company. Robinson, too, was a Cold
War scientist and maintains books on his
website featuring information on nuclear
war survival skills and homeland defense.
While Robinson has a Ph.D. and calls
himself “professor” — he has not taught
at an actual university since resigning
has position at UC San Diego in 1972 —
some scholars are more dubious about his
science.
Robinson and his son Noah have
published repeatedly on “deamidation of
asparaginyl and glutaminyl residues in
peptides and proteins.”
John Moseley, professor emeritus of
physics and UO senior vice president and
provost, says, “I don’t necessarily criticize
his work in deamidation but I do think that
some of his other scientifi c ideas are not
credible.”
Moseley, whose own fi eld is in atomic
and molecular physics and deals with
atmospheric issues, says Robinson is
“certainly not an expert” on climate or
atmospheric physics.
UO emeritus professor of molecular
biology Frank Stahl says of Robinson’s
work on deamidation, “I fi nd that so
boring I couldn’t bring myself to read
it.” He says he’s more concerned with
Robinson’s stances on global warming
and evolution. Robinson is the author of
a climate change-denying petition and
a signatory on a petition questioning
Darwinian evolution. Stahl points out
that certain industry supporters have a
vested interest in supporting someone who
denies human-caused climate change. And
as for Robinson’s stance on evolution,
particularly in relation to the home
schooling curriculum Robinson sells on
the internet: “If he puts it in the education
books, I’ve no sympathy with him as a
ew
scientist.”
We are proud to announce the addition of
Michelle T. Wyatt, M.D.
Village Health Services
2868 Willamette St., #100
Eugene
541-684-3988
www.villagehealthservices.com
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
Dr. Wyatt has been Board Certifi ed in
Internal Medicine since 1994. She has an
interest in the prevention and treatment of
chronic disease including heart disease,
diabetes, women’s health, as well as
acute illness and injuries. Her focus is
on wellness and preventative medicine,
including the mind/body/spirit connection.
Most insurance plans accepted. Not accepting Medicare.
Please call to schedule your appointment with Dr. Wyatt soon.
EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 21, 2010 15