Allen Alley Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot | The Source Weekly - Bend

Allen Alley Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot

Republican state treasurer candidate Allen Alley has found another "scandal" to attack his opponent Ben Westlund with, but this one looks even less credible than

Republican state treasurer candidate Allen Alley has found another "scandal" to attack his opponent Ben Westlund with, but this one looks even less credible than the 11-year-old "sex scandal" Alley tried to revive in late July.


A press release from the Alley campaign charges that the Democratic state senator from Tumalo "has failed to pay his property taxes on time in five of the last twelve years. This pattern of delinquency in performing a basic civic duty calls into question his suitability to be Oregon's chief financial officer.

"The treasurer is responsible for 'the prudent financial management of billions of taxpayer dollars.' Part of this responsibility is to oversee more than 13 million financial transactions valued at over $120 billion each year. It is no place for shoddy accounting practices.

"'If Ben Westlund can't pay his own bills on time, why should Oregonians trust him to pay the state's bills on time?' asked Allen Alley. 'Being late on payments nearly half the time is no way to run a household, let alone a state.'"

Alley claims Westlund was late with his property tax payments in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004 and 2005.

GOP activist Ted Piccolo, alias "Coyote," was chortling about Westlund's alleged tax delinquency on his NW Republican blog this morning:

"Yup yup and as we get closer to election day we will learn more and more about the Democrats' new golden boy.

"So Ben Westlund has had trouble getting his taxes paid almost half the time over more than a decade?

"Just how is the loony left going to explain this away? Does it equal or rise above the inappropriate touching of women? Some of his bad investments?

"It's looking like maybe Ben Westlund's political career has, thankfully, come to an end.

"Yip Yip."

The problem is that property tax payments are not considered delinquent until after May 15, so Westlund's tax payment actually was late only one time - in 1998. The Wandering Eye wonders why Alley, as a would-be state treasurer, didn't know enough about state tax law to realize this.

The Eye also believes the report of the end of Ben Westlund's political career, like the report of the death of Mark Twain, has been greatly exaggerated. Yap yap.