What did we buy Emilie Boyles?
Thanks to a tipoff from The O’s City Hall blog, I just spent a few minutes poring through Emilie Boyles’ campaign expenditures to date.
Seems like Ms. Boyles has been on a spending spree of late – she’s gone through half of her 150K. Let’s take a closer look:
- We paid 15K to Vladimir Golovan
- In that old time-honored nepotism tradition, we paid her daughter 16.5K for campaign work
- She must have bought some su-weet computer hardware – she spent just under 3700 bucks at Fry’s, plus another 1600 in office supplies
- For someone who couldn’t talk to the media for a week, she seems to have racked up the telecom charges – 1419 dollars for assorted phone bills, including a 750 dollar reimbursement to herself last week.
- But this is my favorite one – 24.50 for ‘campaign supplies’, paid to an eBay vendor with a PayPal ID of ‘dollites.’ Looks like Emillie bought herself some lace on our dime…
Campaign manager Aaron Minoo also backed up to the gravy train for almost 17K (for those keeping score at home, that’s just over 48 grand for her ‘people”)
I’ve done the setup here – who’s got the punch line?
All I know is it’s hilarious to a non-Oregonian :)
On a more serious note, it’s a difficult tradeoff. You either don’t have public financing of the campaign, in which case one can argue with merit that the rich can win just because they’re richer; on the other hand, with public financing, there’s bound to be abuses from folks such as this.
My question is:
So?
What did you think candidates did with campaign money? They hire people and buy things to run the campaign with.
I think it’s absurd for you to imply–and commenter Hockley to say out loud–that these represent “abuses.” Do you KNOW what her daughter did? (Graduated high school at 16? She sounds smarter than most of the candidates already). Is it unusual to pay your campaign manager? I think not. We know about the suspicion Golovan is under, but it’s not illegal to have someone collect contributions for you (as obviously it’s not for private financing either).
“Sweet” computer hardware? 3700 is about 3 PCs.
If you want to scrutinize candidates’ C&E, that’s great–that’s what they’re for, and that’s how the system works. But you’re just taking potshots here, I’d say–and unsubstantiated ones, at that.
All you have to do is to look at the expenditures done for other city council candidates to date.
Boyles – a candidate who went dark for a week at the first hint of questioning – has racked up some pretty impressive expenditures in comparison in just over a month’s time. She’s blasted through half of the money she was given, with little to show for it.
And she’s doing so with taxpayer dollars – hence the scrutiny/skepticism.
And what’s wrong–or the difference–with that? Maybe she doesn’t have computers or office equipment at her disposal like Ginny or Amanda or Sten.
What do you mean by “little to show for it?” She’s got two people to guide her campaign, she’s paid one person who (at least for now) was the force behind her qualifying in the first place, and now she has an infrastructure for her campaign.
I don’t buy the “protecting taxpayer dollars” gambit, either. You could quickly find things to “scrutinize” that amount to far, far more than this negligible amount of ‘your’ money–less than 15 whole cents, by my reckoning.
If you’ve got an allegation of fraud to make, make it.
I don’t have allegations of fraud – yet. What I have are questions.
* What has her 16 year old daughter done thus far for her campaign that warrants a 12.5K payout for, um, maybe a few months’ worth of work thus far? Unless she’s getting paid in advance for the entire campaign. Which, if it lasts through mid-May, as anticipated – is still a pretty sweet chunk of cash for – what, exactly? What did we/she get for that money?
* Ditto Minoo. Is that money for the length of the entire campaign, or will there be further Minoo bills?
* Telecom charges. $750.00 reimbursement, on top of reimbursements for telephone bills already? What is this for?
* Website development? Did no one tell her that ‘heroes’ isn’t spelled ‘heros’? (Yeah, it’s a cheap shot, but if she’s paying money to advisors (plural), one would think they’d have a dictionary handy.
* Others have already commented over on Jack Bog’s site questioning other expenditures; I’d ask many of the same questions.
* Finally – *what* campaign, exactly? Especially if it’s over in May – a likely possibility, at this rate.
And until Boyles is a little bit more forthcoming, well – my skepticism/cynicism stands. I’m not running for office – *she* is.
*Have you asked her campaign what her daughter does? I bet not.
*Questioning the legitimacy of paying a campaign manager is just silly. Next you’ll say, “what’s with all these ad buys?”
*I suspect the telecomm bill is for telecommunications expenses. You know, phone calls and internet? Again, questioning this illustrates why I think you’re just on a witch hunt.
You sure are working hard to guard your 15 cents, I’ll give you that.
Let me ask you this – you’re awfully passionate about coming to Ms. Boyles’s defense.
Do you have some skin in the game here you ought to be revealing yourself before you start giving *me* homework assignments here?
None whatsoever, I promise you that. I have no stake, financial or personal, in any of the candidates up for Council. I’ve interviewed Amanda Fritz at length, and I like her, and I personally endorse her over Saltzman, but that’s as far as it goes.
And I’m not coming to Boyles’ defense, as much as I am reacting to the fact that you are nearly charging and convicting her without even a little bit of investigation–and impugning the VOE ordinance in the process.
As I said before, scrutiny is a very good thing for the process. But I suggest what you’re doing here isn’t scrutinizing; it’s more “scanning and slamming.” Minoo’s phone number is publicly available; all it takes is a phone call.
And in any case, shouldn’t we be gratified to know that the Auditor is doing official scrutinizing, the right way, on behalf of all of us? It’s his job to look, he’s looking, let’s see what he finds. If he discovers her daughter was making flyers at Kinko’s for her 12 grand, THEN let’s talk about it disparagingly, eh?
Interesting….. I have glossed over this issue, and then today was I amazed to discover how the daughter is campagning. She joins yahoo groups and posts. Interestingly enough she doesnt check to see if there is anything relevent that would make people to want to read her post. And at the end of her post she lists that if you forward her post …”Copyright 2006 All Rights Reserved. To obtain permission to purchase or reprint this email, please email Kimberly Boyles at kimberlysboyles@yahoo.com. Implied consent to forward this email is given in instances where the email is forwarded to an attorney at law who is licensed in the State of Oregon in consideration of representing Emilie and Kimberly Boyles and is done with the understanding that the consideration of representation is being requested and the content herein is considered confidential as a
potential client.” So what is this supposed to mean, and what attorney would say this, or where does a 16 year old find this? copy and paste?
based on the reporting that has developed on what Kimberly Boyles was doing for her money, it at least looks legitimate from the standpoint that she was indeed doing “internet marketing.” On the other hand, she can’t get paid for what she did before her mom got public financing, and by Boyles’ own admission it appears that’s what happened. And of course, just because it may have been credible computer work, doesn’t make it RATIONAL computer work. I’d say this wasn’t crass patronage as much as it was monumentally stupid and ineffective use of campaign funds.
I wanted to hear more, and now I have. I think Boyles is cooked. I’m glad the Auditor is on top of it; the system is working.
Um – spamming isn’t legitimate internet marketing. And it’s certainly not credible computer work – unless you’re referring to the fact that she had to use a computer in order to do the work itself.
Emilie could have gotten a much better deal (and broader coverage) if she’d hired an offshore spam team to do the work for her…
Hi Emilie,
For those that haven’t figured, Torridjoe is emilie no one on this planet is as wrapped around the axel on this as she.
You’re sad girl, very sad. I actually feel sorry for you I read your resume I have high scool summer hires that accomplish more in 2 months than you have in a whole career!!
Uh, no. Even Betsy will tell you I’m not Emilie.
hello! http://www.dirare.com/Sweden/ online directory. MY yellowpages, SMART Yellow Pages, About DIRare. From online directory .
In reviewing Emilie Boyles campaign expenditures “Bryce” is listed for a $500 expenditure for website services. Then what services did her daughter, Kim Boyles, 16 years old perform for $12,500? By now, we all are aware of the cost to build and market websites and her website is bare bones – at best. This was a premeditated scam!
Now we know that Emilie Boyles built and marketed web sites in her past employments. So…who do you think built the Emilie Boyles’ website? Emilie is a self admitted grassroots marketer. So…who do you think is marketing Emilie Boyles? Not Kim Boyles. Let’s leave this minor out of this mess and stop using her for Emilie’s financial scapegoat.
Has anyone see the Boyles campaign office on Powell? It’s disgraceful and a waste of our money. What will become of that space now? My blood boils when I drive by that area.
From an angry taxpayer who is tired of paying for waste and fraud.