Kate Brown Draws Heat after Shilling for Comcast

But Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown is not among the haters.

Monday, the online news outlet The Verge reported that Brown wrote a glowing letter to the Federal Communications Commission in support of Comcast's controversial merger with Time Warner Cable.

"I write this letter to voice my support for Comcast's effort to promote positive social change, decrease the digital divide, and expand access to broadband for low income families," Brown wrote.

That sentence turned out to be one of Brown's few original statements. As The Verge reported, Brown's letter mostly copied a version drafted by one of Comcast's Oregon lobbyists. It was part of a nationwide Comcast campaign to gain FCC approval for its massive deal while appearing to have grassroots support.

Between 2006 and 2012, Comcast gave Brown—a potential Democratic candidate for governor in 2018—$10,000 in campaign contributions.

Tony Green, a spokesman for Brown, said the secretary wanted to vouch for Comcast's "good work" in Oregon. "Merging with Time Warner would allow Comcast to do that work in other parts of the state," he says.

Asked how the merger would help consumers, Green said that was the job of the FCC to determine. That's an important question, however. The FCC is supposed to base its decision on the merger on whether it serves the public interest.

Critics of the proposed deal say it would actually hurt consumers. As The Verge reports:

Brown's getting a drubbing online.

"We should just vote Comcast in as the government and quit with the charade of actually having the voter in the middle," one commenter wrote.

"What I find really surprising is that her version is actually even MORE pro-Comcast than the Comcast supplied version," another wrote.

"I emailed her my disappointment," a third said. "But if she cared about our opinions at all she wouldn't have done this in the first place."