Let me stipulate that Republican State Representative Matt Wingard having consensual sex with his Legislative Assistant of legal age was a bad idea. It showed poor judgement. He was in a position of power, she was an underling. She flirted, he responded. He flirted, she responded. Rinse. Repeat.

Stop me if you’ve heard this already, but Wingard is paying for this transgression by agreeing not to run again for his House seat. He’s been stripped of his leadership posts for the duration of his term. He’s been busted down and his business is suffering for all the bad publicity. All this for dating his aide who was of legal age.

But that’s not good enough for some of the folks who oppose Wingard. After acting as a source for the recent allegations against Wingard–which included fanciful tales of Wingard drugging his “victim” (allegations which have been recanted after the Representative threatened a defamation lawsuit.

See posts here and here), Washington County GOP Chair Rachel Lucas is at it again. Through her ally of the airwaves Bill Post, she has continued to plant rumors of more- to-come “crap storm” nameless allegations against Wingard. The rumor mongering has never resulted in any other further allegation against Wingard but the stain has remained. Offers to Post to tell me what he’s got have resulted in,

“I am not hiding anything, just can’t quite say what it is yet until the investigations are done…”

Glad we cleared that up.

And now Lucas and Post have started what is clearly a whispering campaign against a woman running to replace Wingard.

Lindsay Berschauer runs the politically potent Oregon Transformation Project and has in the past dated Wingard.  Berschauer has been key in the newest iteration of the Clackastani Rebellion. She has collected signatures for initiatives door to door and has been working the district even before becoming a candidate herself. But unfortunately, she dated a guy the Lucases don’t like and they’re trying to take her out and poison her name before the key vote among the House District 26 PCP’s on Monday. 


Post is fronting for the Lucases again, this time calling “all the PCP’s” (according to a highly placed person involved) to ask them to vote for his/her candidate and, as an lovely parting gift, smearing Berschauer with gritty tales about her messy divorce.

The Mean Girls

I don’t know anything about this stuff, but apparently every single Precinct Committee Person in House District 26 does. Classy. 


I’ve got no dog in this race. I’ve got friends on both sides–heck I like the Lucases!– but the Mean Girls antics are disgraceful.

If you have a vendetta against Matt Wingard for not signing your Family Council Pledge or how he somehow messed up the political trajectory of a family member, then just say so. This back biting whispering campaign isn’t good politics and isn’t very nice.

And to my commenters or readers who will now surreptitiously get in touch and tell they’ll target me next, I already know. Let the crap storm begin.