Oregon Public Broadcasting

The rift is growing between Oregon's largest business group and majority Democrats in the state Legislature. Associated Oregon Industries is already backing a campaign to repeal two budget-balancing tax hikes.

Now the influential group has a scathing scorecard of Democratic leaders. Chris Lehman reports.

When AOI graded lawmakers on how they voted, guess which party came out on top? If you guessed Republicans, you're right. In fact, it wasn't even close, says AOI's J.L. Wilson

J.L. Wilson: “I mean, to be blunt we've never seen such low results probably in our history.”

The problem for AOI is that Democrats hold wide majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Wilson says the group is especially upset with votes on a pair of tax increases that are now headed to the ballot.

House Majority Leader, Democrat Mary Nolan, defends her party. She says AOI's legislative scorecard of yeas and nays is skewed.

Rep. Mary Nolan: “Not one, not one of the votes is about education.”

AOI hasn't put any money toward next year's legislative races yet. But the group has poured more than $120,000 into the effort to overturn the two tax measures.