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Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler today called on his chief opponent in the Portland mayor's race, Multnomah County Commissioner Jules Bailey, to disclose clients from the business consulting firm he ran while also serving as a state legislator.
Wheeler's demands follow a January report in the Portland Tribune that revealed a potential conflict of interest for Bailey.
On Monday, The Oregonian echoed the Tribune's report about Bailey and their own earlier reporting about his refusal to disclose clients, raising fresh questions about whether Bailey benefited financially from his role as a legislator—and teeing up Wheeler for his comments Tuesday.
"It's in his interest and it's in all our interest for him to come clean and give a complete accounting, a complete list, of who's paid him in recent years and what he was paid to do," Wheeler told reporters Tuesday.
State law doesn't require Bailey or other lawmakers to disclose private clients when the income is funneled through a personal business. That includes clients in the energy sector, even while Bailey chaired the House energy committee.
Wheeler's comments opened up questions about his own potential for financial benefit from his role as Oregon's treasurer. The treasurer helps oversee Oregon's $90 billion investment portfolio. As treasurer, Wheeler is required to disclose information about his own investments to the Oregon Department of Justice, to make sure he's not benefiting from decisions at the treasury.
"As state treasurer, I'm under a tremendous amount of scrutiny for obvious reasons," Wheeler told reporters.
Wheeler, however, has declined to share those reports with WW.
Willamette Week
