Plaintiff’s election lawsuit unwarranted

A local pro-Trump faction calling itself Citizens Restoring Liberty (CRL) despite Trump winning Coos County by more than 20% have been making accusations of voter fraud and corruption within the county clerk office since 2020. When Coos County Clerk Debbie Heller took her planned retirement midterm CRL took that as confirmation of their allegations.

When the Coos County Commission unanimously voted to appoint the uniquely qualified Dede Murphy as interim county clerk CRL were vocally outraged. Murphy worked in the clerk’s office for years and retired before Heller but was encouraged by friends to apply to fill in the vacancy until the next elected clerk could take her place. The issue with Murphy, according to CRL and many local Republicans, is that she is active in the Democratic Party. Murphy resigned her leadership position in the party upon taking the job.

For those not familiar with CRL, the group organizes and energizes around far right hot button issues like mask mandates.  The police were once called when co-founder Rod Taylor stood outside a family’s home and harassed them with a bullhorn for reporting a business for unsafe operating practices during the Covid pandemic.

Their website promotes alt-news outlets like InfoWars and Breitbart. InfoWars host Alex Jones profited from the Sandy Hook mass shooting tragedy claiming the parents were crisis actors and their children had not actually died. Breitbart co-founder Steve Bannon is under indictment in NY for mail fraud and money laundering after allegedly fleecing small donors to the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign and diverting the funds for personal use.

Speaking of fleecing, losing candidates Pam Lewis and Diane Rich are attempting to raise $5,000 around a lawsuit they filed last July alleging they are “victims of Election Fraud.” Last May, Lewis lost her bid for commissioner losing to incumbent John Sweet by more than 12%. Rich resoundingly lost the county clerks race by almost 28% to Julie Brecke.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants Coos County, County Commissioners John Sweet and Melissa Cribbins* and County Clerk Dede Murphy “…willfully allowed flagrant bias, and partisan manipulations to affect the nomination results during the 2022 Primary Election… and resulted in the Petitioners loss of nomination for the General Election.”

Curiously, in an exchange with someone by the name of Paul West on social media, Lewis admits that her loss was not due to any illegal acts.

West:

Before I donate an of mv hard earned money that I swear my rear off for, I have a few questions I’d like answered.

Question: do you feel that this “illegal” act you say, resulted in you losing your elections?

Question: are you suggesting that the qualified person that was appointed, did something nefarious that resulted in your losses?

Question: Is this the common practice now to sue and not concede and blame folks for your losses, instead of taking it and being an adult and looking at maybe people iust do not like you for this elected position?

 

Lewis (Author)

Paul West #1, No.

#2, not necessarily.

#3,It is the current available process for a iudge to decide if illegal action were taken in the election process.

The Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division allows a window of opportunity to challenge the results of an election or raise issues of fraud and corruption. Lewis and Rich passed that deadline leaving them with no other venue to air their grievances than the courts. Apparently, despite acknowledging the losses were not due to any misdeed on the part of Murphy, they have no qualm about hurling vile accusations against people simply trying to do their jobs and representing themselves as victims in order to raise money to line their own pockets.

*Commissioner Bob Main is known to attend CRL regular meetings and is not named in the lawsuit even though he voted to appoint Murphy to the position of interim clerk.