Big Bad Wolfe: An activist launches a campaign to oust Secretary of State Kate Brown

Willamette Week    October 31, 2012
by Nigel Jaquis

A light drizzle fell on Bob Wolfe as he stood outside a citadel of the Portland establishment like the lupine nemesis in the story of the Three Little Pigs.

Wolfe was rattling the doors of the Portland City Club’s luncheon debate Oct. 26 at the Governor Hotel between Secretary of State Kate Brown and her Republican challenger, Dr. Knute Buehler. Wolfe is also on the ballot as the Progressive Party’s candidate. But no matter how loud he knocked, the City Club would not let him in.

City Club officials denied Wolfe access because (as they said in an Oct. 17 email to him) he isn’t a “viable candidate.”

Wolfe won’t win, but his only goal is defeating Brown, whom he accuses of suppressing Oregon voters by routinely invalidating tens of thousands of petition signatures.

He barreled into the secretary of state’s race late, on Aug. 28, after Brown’s office said a measure to legalize marijuana, for which he was chief petitioner, didn’t qualify for the November ballot. He now wants to draw votes away from Brown using the potency of Oregon’s marijuana legalization supporters.

In the May primary, Wolfe helped raise $200,000 in national marijuana money for now-Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (who’s married to WW publisher Richard Meeker). He spent another $50,000 on radio ads bashing her opponent, Dwight Holton, who as U.S. attorney for Oregon targeted medical marijuana clinics.

“We killed Holton’s candidacy,” Wolfe says. “Now we’re hoping to motivate people to vote no on Kate Brown.”    Read more ...