From the new book by Sam Carpenter, a chapter from Making Oregon Great Again: Guide to the Grassroots Revitalization of the Oregon Republican Party (and the Defeat of the Ruling Class).
Download the entire book for free at www.makeoregongreatagain.com/book
CHAPTER 25
An Islamic Terrorist/Stolen Valor Fraud from Kentucky.
As the survivor of two Oregon U.S. Senate statewide primary campaigns, we knew rumors and test-attacks were part of the campaign game, so at first we didn’t pay attention to them. They were lame: I was accused of scorched-earth attacks on my opponents, of being a terrorist, of not being a resident of Oregon, of being rude and profane, a fraud, pals with Jane Fonda, Viet Nam war protestor, draft-dodger, and stolen-valor fraud; that I don’t pay my taxes, and of course that my campaign team consisted of bigots, homophobes, misogynists, racists, white supremacists, etc, etc..
I found it all insipidly humorous, but must admit some annoyance at the accusation that I voted for Barack Obama.
There was a steady line of attack worth mentioning specifically because of the special irony of it, and because it continues to this day: the target of the scorched-earth attacks was me.
I challenge anyone to point out where I have personally attacked anyone.
But, despite all that mudslinging, and including Wooldridge’s split-the-vote incursion, by the end of March I had become an existential threat to the Buehler campaign. I had taken the lead in the scientific polls. And with that, the ridiculous and incessant rumor-mongering of Buehler’s people – and cooperating so-called grassroots opposition candidates, Wooldridge and Cuff – began to get seriously goofy, as they searched for the ONE THING that would stick; that would take me down.
Complete fabrications. Stupid stuff…from fellow Republicans.
Note that none of these three candidates – Buehler, Wooldridge and Cuff – were attacking each other.
In the final weeks of the primary campaign, I created and constantly updated a page on my website called, “Accusations.” It was our ad-hoc attempt to debunk the tsunami of false allegations and exaggerations. You can find it here:
https://www.makeoregongreatagain.com/accusations
Here’s what I said, paraphrased slightly, when opposing campaign operatives began floating the idea I am not an Oregonian; that I live in Kentucky:
“My wife Diana’s mother, who is in her mid-80’s, and Diana’s grown daughter, live in Stearns, Kentucky. Stearns has been Diana’s hometown for 42 years. I met her in Arlington, Virginia in 2015 at a political conference. In late 2016 and early 2017, we had a vacation home built in Stearns. It was complete, in August 2017. Diana moved to Oregon with me in December, 2017. Yes, she is registered to vote in Oregon, as a Republican.
“As of November 28, 2018, I have been a full-time resident of Bend for exactly 40 years; an Oregonian for 44 years. As a single parent, I raised my two children in Bend and have had my Bend business, Centratel, with 50+ employees, for 35 years.”
Character assassination and personal destruction in politics? Here’s another outright lie, circulated extensively by Knute Buehler’s crew in the last weeks of the campaign, with a video created by candidate Greg Wooldridge (who, remember, continually touted his own unassailable character), that accused me of being a “stolen valor” fraud. It was alleged by Buehler and Wooldridge that I had claimed to have attended Army “Ranger School.”
Wooldridge enlisted another military veteran to read a contrived script to create a mushy, preposterous video. This was a despicable accusation: big on emotion and with no basis in reality, and in those last weeks of the campaign these ads were blanketed all over Oregon, online, on the radio, and in other forms on TV and in newspapers. Of course, by that time it was too late and I had virtually no way to defend myself before Election Day. The ORP did nothing (they could have immediately talked to me to find out if the accusations were true; they could have issued a press release and used social media to express their dismay with Buehler’s bullying tactics and to state the simple fact that the allegations were untrue…).
I was simultaneously maligned on multiple media outlets. The Wooldridge video has remained online since the primary race, despite my repeated personal requests to the campaign organization to take it down. The election is over and these are flat-out lies, I told them. (Update: We just checked, and as of January 6th, just prior to publication of this book, the video had finally been taken down.
For further details and my last-gasp attempt to respond to the unfounded charges, see my May 11th Facebook post with real-life Viet Nam war hero, Ty Raddue at https://www.makeoregongreatagain.com/sixty-in-sixty/point-107-ty-raddue-true-american-hero/
The stolen valor accusation is not new to Oregon Republican politics. In 2014, ORP Chair candidate and former State Representative Wally Hicks endured the ORP leadership’s ridiculous whisper campaign that spread false rumors about his military service. Though Wally (whose full name is Matthew Walter Hicks) graduated from Annapolis in 2000 and served as a Marine First Lieutenant in the Iraq War in 2004, per Wally and numerous others, rumors to the contrary were deliberately spread throughout the Central Committee before the election. Wally says, “…such rumormongering is characteristic of the ORP leadership’s almost communistic tactics for winning elections to officer positions. The National Committeeman, who grew up in China, has boasted of following Mao’s strategy of luring one’s opponent to a field, waiting for the grass to dry, and then lighting a match.”
And in 2016, the ORP target was Joseph Rice. In his own words:
“The most despicable thing I have witnessed in this all-volunteer organization are the Maoist tactics employed against those viewed as a threat to their position in the form of the ‘whispering campaign!’”
“I have served my nation honorably for 17+ years as a Commissioned Army Officer, helicopter pilot and continued to serve as the Executive Officer of the 186 BN, Oregon State Defense Force. I was recruited by the Conservative base of the ORP to run for Chair in 2016. This immediately launched a whispering campaign that I had not served in the military, was never a helicopter pilot, made false claims, about my three tours in Afghanistan as a contractor and I was ‘stolen valor.’ I have endured four surgeries and dozens of medical procedures to my right leg for an injury I sustained during my third tour in Afghanistan. A number of ORP Executive Committee members were actively involved in a smear campaign attacking my integrity with false claims and innuendo. (I have written documentation to prove it.)
“Never once did any of them ask me directly to see my military records or documents.
“One County Vice-Chair went so far as to call former co-workers from Afghanistan asking if I was ever in the military or a helicopter pilot. I found this behavior from ORP leadership disgusting and cowardly. Attorney General Candidate Daniel Crow, a former Judge Advocate with the United State Army, wrote a lengthy opinion rebutting the whisper campaign against me.” (see Appendix E for Crowe’s assessment).
“There are many good, decent, Conservative members in the Oregon Republican Party. Unfortunately, we have broken leadership that berates, bullies and lies. It is an act of cowardice to accuse someone of ‘stolen valor’ who has served with honor and integrity, for their own personal gain. I will walk with a limp the rest of my life due to my service to country. I am proud of my service and make no apologies for it. I find it sad that small-minded, shallow people participate in the ‘whispering campaigns’ without verifying the truth. It says more about them, then the person they gossip about. If we continue to forsake our Conservative platform, fail to choose leaders, but instead prom kings and queens, the ORP has no future as an organization. It will be the counties that become the strength of the ORP and our future”
As for me, although I tried to enlist, I never served in the military and have always been very clear about this. My public statement has always been that I had attempted to enlist in the Army in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1971 – 48 years ago(!) I had passed a battery of written tests that made me eligible, according to the recruiter, to go into Army special forces. (Back then, in the heated throes of the Viet Nam war, a new enlistee could qualify for the equivalent of special forces boot camp, with the opportunity to try to qualify as an elite service member, and in my case, it was the Army. Or other times, one ended up with special forces duty without formal training at all. Chalk it up to the fog-of-war….
In any case, a week before my scheduled induction in early 1971 at the age of 20, I was disqualified from enlisting because of a minor brush with the law two years prior.
My “Ranger School” attendance was at the NY State Ranger School three years later! It’s a forestry tech school in upstate New York, as I have previously described, not an element of our military. Buehler and Wooldridge conveniently convoluted that part of my personal history with my efforts to enlist three years earlier, to accuse me of stolen valor.
Shallow and stupid.
And of course, even back in the early ‘70’s, there was no “Army Ranger school.” There was no “Navy Seal school,” or “Green Beret school,” either. That is ridiculous.
These days, entering military special forces takes not just guts-of-steel, but years of preparation within the regular military, as well as a higher education and a flawless personal history. No more do outsiders just walk in to see if they can qualify, like back then in the early 70’s as the much-less-than-popular Viet Nam war was raging. But even back in those days I would have to go through a physical and mental nightmare to qualify for special forces. At the time, I knew very well, at the tender age of 20, that my invitation to go to San Diego for boot camp/training did not guarantee that I would have the fortitude and skills to qualify to become a member of the military elite. But, I wanted to try.
Ty Raddue, (U.S Army, 4th ID, RVN 1968/1969. See video), offers a simple explanation that ties into what I said above. He states this, about certain nefarious Army Recruiters: “Sam, my guess is that you encountered an Army recruiter who lied to you – a starry-eyed military hopeful. My guess is that after you enlisted you would have been inserted into regular ground-force duty.”
Note that my dad, Tom, saw action in the Pacific in WW2. His brother, my uncle Steve, served in the Marines in the Pacific, WW2; another brother of my dad, George was a career man in the National Guard. More uncles, from my mother’s side: Elton, saw action in Korea and came home permanently disabled; Hank was a navel Lieutenant Commander when he retired, having served in the Pacific, WW2; Edward was in the Navy, again in the Pacific, disabled in a reconnaissance mission ashore, WW2; Morris was an infantryman in the Army in Europe, WW2, also disabled; Joe, recently deceased, the last of my living uncles, was in the infantry in the Army in the Battle of the Bulge in France, taken as a Nazi prisoner, to be freed by Russians the very day of his scheduled execution.
My position re stolen valor charges? It’s the same as former U.S Army Judge Advocate and current Veteran’s advocate, Daniel Crowe’s position, and I quote him here: “In my mind, a knowingly false allegation of ‘stolen valor’ is as detestable as the act of stealing valor itself, as false allegations undermine the credibility of future truthful ones in the same manner that false allegations of rape undermine the credibility of future allegations of that horrid crime. (I do not shy away from the analogy, as it fairly equates the level of detestation professional Soldiers carry for those who would trifle with the solemnity of military service.)” (See Daniel’s full statement in defense of Joseph Rice in Appendix E).
Here was another rumor-mill gem from my Republican opponents’ political operatives: that I’m in cahoots with Islamic terrorists because for the previous 13 years I’ve had a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, a country just to the east of Pakistan. Here’s what I say on the Accusations page: “I have a 501(c)3 non-profit in Azad Kashmir, assisting impoverished back-country schools.” See www.kashmirfamily.org.”
Good grief.
And Buehler et al blanketed the airwaves with the utter distortion that I have 21 court liens filed against me for unpaid taxes. Here’s the actual truth (that can be verified via the Deschutes County Clerk’s records): in the early 90’s – that’s pushing 30 years ago – I had trouble paying payroll taxes in my business in Bend, Centratel. I actively initiated contact with the IRS and the Oregon Department of Revenue to arrange to pay back the debt over time. Both government entities were good with that. In the process of setting up a payment schedule with the state and the federal government, each entity informed me that claims would be filed against my business and against me personally, a normal government protocol for a business in a delinquent-tax situation. This one overdue-tax incident resulted in eight separate liens (two government agencies filing separate claims against my business and me personally)
I paid back every cent of what I owed over the next couple of years and of course the liens were immediately removed by those tax agencies. I had a similar challenge in 2004 when, without my knowledge, my bookkeeper at the time failed to pay payroll taxes for a number of months. I again initiated contact with the IRS and the state. A single claim was filed by the IRS, and I again subsequently paid back the taxes and penalties in a couple of years, and the lien was lifted.
(These tough business-survival days were the genesis of the book I wrote in 2008, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, which goes into detail about how to take a failing business and turn it into a stand-alone money machine. The book is in its third edition, and as I mentioned in the Introduction, over the last eight years, my partner Josh Fonger and I have assisted over seven hundred small businesses to, “survive and then thrive.”)
A third incident was when I filed a suit against a Bend legal firm in 2014 for their sub-par legal services. The attorneys countered by placing a lien on my house. They later removed it when I won the suit (and also provided me a substantial cash settlement).
So, due to two rough times in my business, almost three decades ago, I had 9 claims, not 21 as Knute Buehler’s ads declared, as they suggested I still owed the money and that my whole world was caving in. Buehler lied.
Claims can occur in a struggling small business! It’s not uncommon for an entrepreneur who is fighting for survival to be saddled with liens, but they also come with regular business activity too. When a business borrows money it’s standard banking practice to place a lien on existing assets. Anyone in business knows this. In fact, my debt-free business of 35 years, Centratel, garnered one from our bank just a few months back when I borrowed 100K to go with my own 100K cash, in order to pay for an HVAC replacement in the business building I own in downtown Bend. That replacement is complete as 2019 begins but the lien will remain until the 100K debt is paid off..
Again, why did my political opponents resort to flat-out lies and distortions directed at me personally? They had nothing else. I’ve explained that it was Buehler’s hail-Mary/throw-caution-to-the-wind last-ditch effort to salvage his nomination. I was going to win, hands-down, and Buehler and his Ruling Class could not let that happen. Of course, the consultants on those campaigns hoped that after they took me down and Buehler won, I would fade into the woodwork, or if I didn’t stay silent, they would just have to somehow try to clean up their mess should I take legal action…and/or expose them by writing a book like this one…
At the time, the only thing that mattered to Buehler’s operatives was winning the impending primary election. Ethics or potential lawsuits be damned.
I could sue Buehler for this. Wooldridge, too, for his part of this B.S. The laws are lenient in the realm of political mudslinging…unless the outcome of the election is decidedly changed due to that mudslinging…
And beyond that, also remember the ORP did nothing to stop this mudslinging that ultimately took me out of the race. BTW, here’s ORP president Bill Currier’s written response to my complaint about ORP’s non-action regarding the Buehler/Wooldridge smear campaign. On June 19th, 2018, Currier wrote to me, saying: “If I could do it all over again I would take a stronger stand with all of the candidates about the rules of engagement, and the importance of the long game.” Oh great. Of course, it’s a toothless statement, as he suggests “all of the candidates” had taken the low road; that somehow it was the general atmosphere that was at fault and every candidate took part in the sliming.