By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle
A national Republican group will start running ads attacking first-term Democratic Rep. Val Hoyle on Eugene TV stations on Wednesday, the latest signal that the GOP faithful view Hoyle as an easy target in their efforts to keep control of the U.S. House.
The National Republican Congressional Committee spent $200,000 to reserve the ads in Eugene, after staying off the airwaves in the 4th Congressional District in 2022, when Hoyle handily defeated Republican Alek Skarlatos. This time around, Republicans are more optimistic about their chances of defeating Hoyle with a new candidate, Air Force veteran Monique DeSpain, and a rash of headlines related to Hoyle’s relationship with La Mota, a cannabis company under federal investigation.
“Corrupt career politician Val Hoyle sold out Oregonians to her donors, attracting the attention of a federal criminal investigation,” NRCC Spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement. “Southwest Oregon voters are sick of Hoyle’s corruption and cover-ups and ready to deploy veteran Monique DeSpain to restore transparency and accountability in Congress.”
The 4th District includes the Democratic strongholds of Eugene and Corvallis, as well as rural areas in the southern Willamette Valley and along the coast, including all of Lincoln County. Nonaffiliated voters make up about 35% of the district; Democrats, 32% and Republicans, 25%.
The 30-second ad, first shared with the Capital Chronicle, consists solely of clips from local TV news coverage of La Mota. In it, reporters from KDRV and KEZI note that Hoyle received more than $20,000 in campaign donations from La Mota’s owners and that federal investigators subpoenaed documents relating to a grant La Mota’s owners received from the Bureau of Labor and Industries during Hoyle’s tenure as labor commissioner. Hoyle has not been charged or publicly accused of wrongdoing by law enforcement.
Hoyle returned campaign donations La Mota’s cofounders made to her state political action committee when she decided to run for Congress in 2022 and didn’t receive donations during her congressional race. For months, she has been under scrutiny for her involvement with the labor bureau’s decision to give a nonprofit established by La Mota’s cofounder a $554,000 grant for an apprenticeship program. In January, federal prosecutors subpoenaed the bureau for records related to that program, which Hoyle’s critics describe as a federal investigation into Hoyle herself.
Hoyle disputes that characterization, calling it a “bald-faced lie” in a recent interview with Eugene-based KVAL. In that same interview, she described her relationship with La Mota cofounder Rosa Cazares as the same kind she had with business owners throughout the state.
That interview prompted DeSpain to send a letter to Oregon’s U.S. Attorney on Tuesday, asking the federal prosecutor to investigate all of Hoyle’s statements and actions.
“Val Hoyle explained in her recent TV interview that the way she communicated with and assisted La Mota was the same as how she dealt with all other employers in Oregon,” DeSpain said. “I am urging the US DOJ to review Hoyle’s statements and the BOLI communications they’ve subpoenaed for evidence of illicit pay-to-play activity with other employers, similar to Hoyle’s activity currently being investigated.”
- Oregon Capital Chronicle is a nonprofit Salem-based news service that focuses its reporting on Oregon state government, politics and policy.
Being an Independent all I can say is there needs to be a change in government. Inflation, crime, illegal immigration eating up our tax dollars, destructive protesting, camps with garbage everywhere, drug addicts everywhere, the list goes on and on. If the same people remain in our government, the problems will get even worse. A change is needed for the tax paying American citizens.
You’ve got your facts wrong. Inflation is down below 3% now. Crime is lower during the Biden Administration then during the Trump administration. This is a fact. You can look it up. And immigration is down since Biden made some changes a few months ago. Protest is protected by the Constitution and the First Amendment, though I don’t like some of the recent protests either. Homelessness and drug addiction are complex problems and trying to blame them on any one government is absurd.