Bill Sizemore
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Bill Sizemore (born June 2, 1951 in Aberdeen, Washington) is a political activist in Clackamas, Oregon. He graduated from Montesano High School. Sizemore earned a Bachelor's degree in Theology from Portland Bible College in 1976. After graduating, Sizemore taught bible history and ran a series of unsuccessful businesses. [1]
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[edit] Ballot Initiatives
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In 1993, Sizemore joined Oregon Taxpayers United and became the Executive Director of the organization. He is noted as the author and driving force behind a number of ballot initiatives in Oregon. One of the first measures Sizemore was involved in was a referendum which stopped Oregon's 3.4 billion light rail expansion.
Sizemore's most notable success was passing Ballot Measure 47 in 1996. The measure rolled back property taxes to the 1995. Measure 47 also required a double majority, which makes it difficult to raise property taxes. The Oregon Legislature cleaned up some of the provisions in Measure 47 in 1997[2] and referred back to the voters as Ballot Measure 50, which also was passed.[3]
Sizemore's ballot measures most affected the schools, programs for children, the aged and the poor in Oregon. Sizemore also tried repeatedly to pass ballot measures to prevent unions from using union dues for political purposes. Despite many attempts at getting various measures approved by the voters, he did not succeed in doing so. The unions usually spent large amounts of money fighting the measures and were able to defeat most of them. Sizemore's own financing came largely from Loren Parks.
[edit] 1998 Gubernatorial Election
Sizemore ran for Governor as a Republican in 1998. He won his party's primary easily, defeating three other candidates with little or no name recognition. During the general election, rumors circulated about Sizemore's alleged shady business practices, both in his personal life, as well as in the operation of his political action committee and non-profit educational foundation. Sizemore lost the November general election to Democrat Incumbent Governor John Kitzhaber in a landslide.[4] Sizemore claims he never expected to win the election, but ran simply because no one else would. Sizemore raised very little campaign money and reportedly told contributors that the race was not winnable, so why waste a lot of money.
[edit] Racketeering case
In July 2000, the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against two of Sizemore's organizations, Oregon Taxpayer's United and the OTU Education Foundation. During the trial Becky Miller, Sizemore's top aide, under protection of state and federal immunity deals, testified in detail about the unethical and illegal practices of Oregon Taxpayers United. These included a money laundering scandal involving both Sizemore and Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform. [5][6]
After three weeks of testimony and a million dollars in union legal fees, the jury found Sizemore's organizations to be guilty of racketeering - "an extensive pattern of forgery and fraud", and the organizations were fined approximately $2.5 million. Sizemore refused to pay the fines and attempted to avoid the liability by changing the name of his organizations to Oregon Taxpayers Association and carrying on with business as usual. Without a trial, Sizemore was found personally liable for his organization's civil racketeering liability, and a judge shut down his 501(c)(3) education foundation. Nearly a $1,000,000 more was added to the fine as a result of Sizemore's resistance to earlier court orders/decisions. Sizemore appealed the verdict and won. [1]
Sizemore continues to be a featured writer on a number of Web sites, such as
