Loren Parks puts $375,000 into Senate Republican races September 30, 2010
Posted by FairSentencing in : Current News , trackbackThe rumors are true. Loren Parks, the Nevada businessman who owns a medical device company in Oregon, has put a big chunk of money – $375,000 to be exact – into the Oregon Senate Republican caucus political fund.
The Senate Republicans waited until the last moment to report the contribution, which turned up on the secretary of state’s financial database Thursday morning.
Parks is Oregon’s most prolific individual political contributor, having given about $13 million since he first appeared on the political scene in 1994. For many years, he was a big contributor to Kevin Mannix, the former legislator and gubernatorial candidate. Parks helped bankroll Mannix’s 1994 initiative, Measure 11, which boosted violent crime sentences.
However, Parks reportedly had a falling out with Mannix and has yanked funding from him, according to a story by The Oregonian’s Les Zaitz last month.
It’s been rumored for months that Parks would jump into the Senate Republican races in a big way. Before the primary, he gave $31,000 to the Leadership Fund, the Senate Republican political action committee. In turn, it appeared the Leadership Fund used that money to help Mary Kremer defeat Steve Griffith in the primary for the seat held by Senate Majority Leader Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin.
What’s not clear is how the Senate Republican leadership intends to spend the money. Since Parks made the donation on Sept. 1, there haven’t been any unusually large expenditures mde by the Leadership Fund, which reports having a cash balance of a little over $320,000.
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