INCOGNITO: Secretary of State’s Mouthpiece Blogs/Comments on Taxpayer Time? Or is "LUNCH" Usually at 9am?

May 11, 2006

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Anne Martens again. This time she’s spending time at the Shark’s blog here.
Is this part of her job? The Shark posts in part:
Oregon Secretary of State’s Spokeswoman is covertly posting comments here
Check out the comments on yesterday’s post “
“Security and Economics”: Vote-by-mail is a double loser” Towards the bottom is a comment by “Anne”:
First of all, if you visit the Oregon Secretary of State’s office link (http://www.sos.state.or.us/executive/policy-initiatives/vbm/execvbm.htm) then you’ll see further links to independent research on Vote By Mail and additional information from a number of sources. The government is not some big boogeyman trying to get you, the government is you, and exists to provide ideas and information and assistance. … Over 70% of Washington voters have been voting this way for years without issue1.Anne also posted a couple of comments on the
subsequent entry, repeating the figure of “over 70% of Washington voters”.
Anne didn’t identify herself as such, but as it turns out, she is Anne Martens,
spokeswoman to Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and a Democrat blogger and advocate for mail-only voting. She posted her comments here from an Oregon state IP address, but identified herself only by first name and private email address. I called her at the office and she confirmed that she posted the comments. I explained that I thought it would have been ethical under the circumstances for her to identify herself by full name and title, given that she was, you know, touting her employer from an office computer during business hours. She got all defensive and claimed it was on her lunch break [The comments were posted at 8:41AM and 9:57AM]. in between the time I got off the phone with her and finished this entry, she posted yet another comment here, disparaging a critic of mail voting and without fully identifying herself.
Sheesh.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com