FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erik Dorey, Communications Director | press [at] dpo [dot] org | (503) 239-8624
At a press event this morning, Rep. Earl Blumenauer called out Republican candidate Rob Cornilles’ “politics as usual” strategy of hiding his extreme Tea Party record to try to appeal to moderate Oregonians.
“To be a Tea Party Republican a few weeks or months ago, and all of a sudden attempt to reinvent himself, I think is exactly what's wrong with the political process,” said Blumenauer, noting Cornilles’ well-documented Tea Party affiliation during his failed 2010 congressional bid. “I guess I'm from that old school where it isn't finger-to-the-wind: ‘I couldn't sell it last time, so I'm going to reinvent myself, and either cloak what I believe or morph into something else.’”
Contrary to Cornilles’ newly adopted rhetoric, “his position on Social Security was very much like the privatization we saw offered by President Bush,” said Blumenauer. “His position on Medicare looked very much like my friend [Republican Budget Committee Chairman] Paul Ryan's — although he's backing away from that.”
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