Oregon private equity executive John von Schlegell recently filed a barrage of ballot measures designed to imprint his pro-sprawl, anti-tax agenda permanently into the Oregon constitution. His eleven ballot measures run the gamut from taxes to growth boundaries, from education to permitting, from campaign finance to criminal justice.

This action represents an attack on representative democracy in Oregon unrivaled since the days of the Bill Sizemore ballot measure wars.

Ballot measure activity had calmed down considerably over the last decade. Why is big money once again flexing its muscles?

It wasn’t long ago the ultra-wealthy kept a relatively low profile, limiting their overtly partisan political activity while concentrating on making themselves ever richer.

All that changed with Donald Trump’s 2024 election.

In one short year, we’ve witnessed wealthy conservatives unapologetically inject themselves into the political arena and begin using their massive resources and influence to advance right wing causes in ways that were once unthinkable.

 Jeff Bezos used to be the likeably goofy but brilliant entrepreneur who brought us Amazon. Now we know him as the guy who killed the Washington Post as a credible news organization to curry favor with Trump.

Last year, Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, and his family bought Paramount, the parent company of CBS. They promptly installed a right-wing influencer as head of CBS news. She has already spiked a 60 Minutes segment that was ready to air. The Ellisons now are set to acquire CNN as they prepare to takeover Warner. Pete Hegseth can’t wait.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, felt it necessary to expound his wacko views in no less than five different talks that people actually paid to hear, on everything from the antichrist and Armageddon, to politics, economics, history, and more, all presented with the tone that he has it all figured out and deigns to share it with us proletariat.

Marc Andreessen, venture capital billionaire, even put his manic ravings in writing, The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. Bloomberg reported multiple news outlets savaged the piece, calling it everything from a “hallucination of a manifesto” to “unhinged”.

California billionaires are getting together to form a huge fund that would operate as an endowment and allow them to influence the state’s politics for years to come in ways never seen before.

John von Schlegell has a lot in common with these people: massive resources, a new willingness to wield them to achieve his purposes, and a level of self-absorption that allows him to think he knows what is best for Oregon. Why waste time talking to his lawmakers when he already has the solutions, his eleven commandments (one more than God gave us, of course)?

Here are some of von Schlegell’s offerings.

Petition 60 would establish a 10-year sunset on all state taxes and fees. Nobody hates taxes more than the ultra-wealthy even though they pay a lower tax rate than the rest of us due to tax schemes available only to them. In von Schlegell’s case, as a principal in a private equity company, he likely takes advantage of the “carried interest” tax break that allows a large part of his income to get tax-favored treatment as capital gains. But this clearly has not muted his hatred of taxes, and the perpetual state of chaos and uncertainty this petition would create is apparently of no concern to him.

Petition 66 would abolish Oregon’s estate tax. Always the go-to for the ultra-rich because they are never more enraged than when they must pay a tax that most of us don’t pay.

Petition 61 would add all urban reserves into cities’ urban growth boundaries. Overnight, larger metro areas would see land within their urban growth boundaries increase by thousands of acres, blowing up decades of growth planning and setting off a huge sprawl in these areas.

Petitions 62 and 65 would apply federal campaign contribution limits to state and local races and ban corporations and unions from donating to candidates. These measures take an ax to the campaign finance compromise that was finally reached among special interests and passed by the legislature in 2024.

The broligarchy has come for Oregon. The November election will give Oregonians a chance to decide if they’re OK with that.