Yet another district attorney’s race has been turned on its head by a massive cash infusion from a political action committee (PAC) with ties to left-wing billionaire George Soros.
Oregon Law & Justice PAC spent $150,000 on direct mail and digital advertisements on behalf of progressive lawyer Max Wall between April 17 and April 23, campaign finance filings show. But it’s unclear whose money the PAC is spending.
Whitney Tymas, a longtime consultant for George Soros, is listed as Oregon Law & Justice’s director in campaign filings.
The listed address for Tymas is the Washington, D.C., office for Perkins Coie, a Democratic law firm that has worked with Tymas and Soros to set up similar PACs in 14 other DA races since 2015.
Wall spoke with Tymas before making his decision to run, KOIN reported April 18. The local news outlet described Wall as a “little known defense attorney” and noted he filed his candidacy papers on the last day possible.
One hundred percent of Oregon Law & Justice’s expenditures went to Democratic consulting and campaign communications firm Berlin Rosen, LTD., campaign finance records show. Berlin Rosen has assisted Soros in other DA races.
Soros isn’t funding the Oregon group, Berlin Rosen spokesman Alex Navarro-McKay told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Oregon Law & Justice’s work is not funded by Mr. Soros,” he said.
The only funding source Oregon Law & Justice has reported so far is a $100,000 contribution from a D.C. political group: the similarly named Law & Justice PAC, which has not revealed its funding source. The D.C. group, which did not return a request for comment, also spent $21,400 on Wall’s behalf, campaign finance records show.
“I am proud to be supported by individuals and groups that support criminal justice reform. The big money to my opponent’s campaign believes in supporting the status quo. That’s one of the key differences between us,” Wall told TheDCNF in an email. He declined to say if he knew who was funding Oregon Law & Justice.
Navarro-McKay wouldn’t identify the donor or donors behind the D.C. group but said it wasn’t Soros.
Law & Justice PAC was launched on March 15, D.C. government records show. A month and two days later, the D.C. group gave the $100,000 donation to Oregon Law & Justice PAC.
Soros is funding third-party organizations that are, in turn, targeting DA races in the 2018 elections.
One such group is the ACLU, which Soros’s Open Society Foundations awarded a $50 million grant in 2014 to fight mass incarceration.
The ACLU is targeting DA races in 10 states this year, including Oregon, McClatchy reported on March 6.
However, the ACLU isn’t funding Oregon Law & Justice PAC, Tymas told TheDCNF in an email. She declined to answer any other questions about her group’s funding.
This article has been updated to include Wall’s statement
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