The fix is in. Governor Kitzhaber cut a deal and Right to Work is absolutely, totally off the table. The working people of Oregon and their unions have nothing to worry about … until 2016. Then the whole cluster of Right to Work initiatives will come roaring back like a tsunami. That means Jill Gibson Odell will be back, too.
Jill Gibson Odell was and is the poster presence of Right to Work initiatives during this 2013-2014 election cycle here in Oregon. Her name is prominently tied to the now-withdrawn Right to Work ballot initiative known as IP-9 or the Public Employee Choice Act. Jill has a tidy, but not expansive, footprint on the internet. Braeda Libby is also listed as a petitioner for IP-9 but there is virtually nothing on her.
Jill is a good choice. If I were trying to sell something as unsavory as IP-9, I would pick her for the face on the bus poster. I would expect riders to gaze and bask in her radiant credibility until their stop came up.
Ostensibly, Jill wrote IP-9 and she probably did. The content and the evidence of craft certainly match her credentials. Jill is striking, stylish, impressive actually (PHOTO). She is an articulate, intelligent and effective professional. Details of her biography are either sketchy or can only be inferred from the record. For example, she has three beautiful children. Her home address is in Beaverton. There does not appear to be a husband currently in the picture. She’s, maybe, in her late forties or early fifties. It seems reasonable to surmise that she honed her political philosophy and made some important business contacts for the future when she was legislative director for the Oregon House Republican Caucus. Apparently, after a successful stretch as an attorney with Odonnell Clark and Crew, she started her own firm about two years ago.
Jill said that the thrust of her initiative is about individual freedom and the right to choose. If she believes that, then I am my Aunt Matilda. (Full disclosure: I don’t have an Aunt Matilda.) I am more inclined to believe her when she said, “There’s national money to be had, and there are large donors in the state that definitely want to move forward.” That has more the ring of truth and seems to sum up her participation if you read anything about IP-9 outside the Oregonian.
Pick from your favorite mix of metaphors - Jill is a tool, a handmaiden, a hired gun. On the Oregon Secretary of State website, transactions for the Public Employees Choice Act Committee can be tracked. The first transaction is to Jill Odell, Attorney at law.
Much has been made of a $6000 contribution to the Committee by Loren Parks. But $8000 was contributed to PECA Committee by Stimson Lumber timber baron, Andrew Miller ... which contribution pales in comparison to the $53000 donated by fellow timber barons, the Freres brothers of Freres Lumber. A total of $12000 was paid to the Signature Gathering Company of Oregon by PECA Committee. But the majority of large, regular payments - a total of $49740 - was made to Jill or her firm from February of 2013 to March of 2014.
When Jill made her impassioned manifesto for worker civil rights in the Oregonian on September 9, 2013, she was performing with turbo-charged competence for her client, PECA Committee, and its major contributors, Andrew Miller, The Freres brothers and Loren Parks.
Of course Jill can not be faulted for doing a good job in her professional capacity. Indeed Jill has many admirable qualities and I would like to like her. But I can’t get past the cynicism she shares with her clients. I can’t get past the manipulation when the truth gets in the way. I can’t get by the lies.
You don't have it right. She's not the front person for this. She's a pawn, handled by other very seasoned political operatives in Oregon. She's just lawyer with next to no law experience, who has been manipulated by the incentive of making some money, and was willing to front this initiative. It's purely money......like most all of politics.
ReplyDeleteapparently most of her experience has been in Washington D.C. What does she have against unions?? That's what I don't understand. Unions are the about the only thing any worker has anymore that will stand up to corporations. So apparently she doesn't give a rip about those hard working teachers and county and state public workers who protect her and her children. That's unfortunate.
DeleteWell, you're certainly preaching to the choir here. The most charitable - to her - answer to your question (about her feelings toward unions) is professional integrity. She works for the other side.
DeleteWell, OK. But a hired gun is certainly a pawn. I don't think she was manipulated; I think she signed on enthusiastically for the job. Thanks for the insight about her experience. From what I could find it looked like she has had some success as a lawyer. But thank you especially for leaving a comment.
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