HD-51: FuturePAC has no plans to make Flores financial woes a campaign issue

FuturePAC’s executive director said Wednesday that the Oregon House Democrats’ political action committee had no plans to make Rep. Linda Flores (R-Clackamas) current financial woes a campaign issue.

On Tuesday Flores sent out a letter to her constituents, explaining that her husband’s business had fallen on hard times. Because of his businesses’ inability to keep up with certain payments, a collection agency recently garnished Flores’ wages. In her letter, Flores said she wrote to her constituents so that they could get the story from her, before Democrats made it a campaign issue.

“Because politics can be so negative, so partisan, and downright nasty, I fully expect my opponent or his friends to attack me on this very personal issue and probably distort the facts,” Flores wrote.

But FuturePAC executive director Michele Rossolo said Wednesday that FuturePAC did not have any plans to address constituents on the issue.

“We’re not interested in beating up Flores because she can’t pay her bills,” Rossolo said. “But she does have a horrible record when it comes to protecting consumers. She voted against protecting homeowners from bad mortgages. She voted against shutting down payday loan sharks. She voted against raising cigarette taxes to pay for health insurance for kids. Now that she has her own medical bills to pay, it’s both sad and ironic that her own financial woes might have been helped by some of the very legislation she voted against.”

Nick Smith, a spokesman for House Republicans’ Promote Oregon committee, acknowledged that Democrats had yet to bring the issue up with HD-51 voters. But he was doubtful that would remain the case, recalling Flores’ race in 2004 when, according to a story in the Oregonian, the legislator’s wages were garnished because of late payments to an automobile finance company.

“They have attacked her on financial issues in the past,” Smith said.

It's unclear whether such attacks would impact the race, but Flores told the Clackamas Review that voters had appreciated her upfront honesty on  the issue.

Flores is running for her fourth term against Brent Barton (D-Clackamas).