Oregon Public Broadcasting

The National Education Association dropped $1.5 million Tuesday into the campaign coffers of Defend Oregon, the group fighting more than nine measures on the November ballot. The total money spent for and against these measures is now more than $15 million. Ethan Lindsey reports.

Defend Oregon says the $1.5 million from the National Education Association could be spent on any or all of the seven ballot measures opposed by the state’s public labor unions.

When asked if that meant Oregonians will be seeing a lot of ads telling them to ‘vote no on Bill Sizemore’s measures’, a spokesman said simply, ‘yes.’

Scott Moore is with Defend Oregon.

Scott Moore: “There’s people on either end who will vote against anything that Sizemore puts on, and there’s people on the other side who will vote for anything Sizemore puts on. But most people in the middle make up their minds based on a variety of factors, one is ‘what does this measure do,’ but also who was behind this measure, and what was their motivation. And how was it funded?”

Total, the NEA has given over $2.5 million to Defend Oregon. That comes on top of more than $4 million contributed by the Oregon Education Association.

The other side has raised more than $7 million.