Macpherson's second ad hits on Kroger's Oregon pedigree

State Rep. Greg MacphersonJohn Kroger's Oregon pedigree was the subject of another ad released yesterday by his opponent in the Attorney General's race, State Rep. Greg Macpherson.

The ad equates Kroger to a fictional Fred, who just got his driver's license and now wants to drive a bus or Sue, who just graduated from medical school and now wants to operate.

Of course, Kroger has taken issue with not only the statements in the ad but the timbre of the ad itself; "Macpherson's negative, misleading attack ads are exactly what you would expect from a professional politician who cares more about getting elected than he cares about the significant issues facing our state," said Kroger.

Sean Sinclair, Macpherson's campaign manager, disagreed, saying that rather it is "Kroger who has been misleading throughout his campaign – about both his own record and Greg Macpherson's."

The ad—like the one before it—takes aim at this record.

Kroger's campaign points to four claims in the ad which they believe are "false:" that Kroger has "never practiced law in Oregon," that he has "never protected one consumer from fraud," that he has never protected "one family from crime," and that has never protected "one inch of land from development."

The campaigns clearly have different views on the candidate's record. One by one, Kroger's campaign disputed the claims and one by one, Macpherson's defended their accuracy.

Kroger—who only passed the Oregon bar in September 2007—points to his time as a prosecutor on the Enron Task Force as evidence that he has practiced law in Oregon; Macpherson's camp took issue with the definition of "practicing law," noting that the Oregonian reported after the Portland City Club debate that Kroger "acknowledged that he had never practiced law in Oregon" and that the ad uses that exact quote. Rather, while on the Task Force, Kroger interviewed witnesses throughout the state, and reviewed thousands of documents generated by Enron's Portland employees.

The back and forth between legal research and practice is also entwined in the debate over whether Kroger has protected one consumer from fraud or one family from crime in Oregon.

"Kroger has consistently tried to mislead voters about his role in the Enron case. As his own statement says, his role while in Oregon was to conduct research. In fact, he has never actually tried a case involving Enron. As the ad states, 'while in Oregon, he has not protected one consumer from fraud or one family from crime," said Sinclair in an email.

Kroger's camp notes that Enron was legally incorporated in Oregon and the company's crimes therefore affected thousands of Oregonians who lost their pensions and their investments in the company, which is why they object to Macpherson's claim. Furthermore, they note that as a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, Kroger has trained dozens of prosecutors at district attorney's offices.

As for protecting one inch of Oregon's land, well, Sinclair noted that Kroger was one of 11,000 volunteers who helped to pass Measure 49—which Macpherson co-authored—and that "this is a campaign comparing the candidate's credentials to be Attorney General."