Skip to main contentEarlier this week, WW reported that former Oregon Court of Appeals Judge Ellen Rosenblum, who will be sworn in as Oregon's first female attorney general on June 29, enters office facing potential conflicts of interest because of the large campaign contributions she accepted from marijuana interests.
It turns out those conflicts will bubble to the surface immediately.
WW has learned that the Oregon Department of Justice, which Rosenblum will command as of tomorrow, is conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of improper signature gathering by proponents of Initiative Petition 24, a constitutional amendment that would decriminalize marijuana.
On April 23, Secretary of State Kate Brown fined Robert Wolfe, the chief petitioner of that initiative $65,000 for paying signature gatherers by the signature instead of by the hour, as Oregon law requires. That fine was the largest signature gathering penalty ever levied in Oregon.
At the time, Brown's spokesman told WW the matter was not closed.
But now the criminal justice division of DOJ's criminal investigators are involved.
DOJ spokesman Tony Green said Thursday the agency's criminal division is now examining alleged signature gathering violations on the part of that campaign, although Green would not comment on the specifics of the investigation.
WWeek 2015