Hoyle keeps former La Mota employee contribution

U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR) has not returned a $1,000 campaign contribution from the cofounder of a cannabis nonprofit to which Hoyle directed an illegal $554,000 apprenticeship grant last year.

Laura Vega, former La Mota employee, Congresswoman Val Hoyle donor, and recipient of an unlawful cannabis apprenticeship grant issued at the insistence of Hoyle. (Photo Courtesy High Times).

Today’s format guide:

You, maybe

Me

Hey, Jeff, what’s going on with Val Hoyle? You know, the first-term Democratic Congresswoman from Oregon’s 4th Congressional District?

Oh, that Val Hoyle? She’s super excited about a new tentative contract between the United Auto Workers union and General Motors.

Huh. That’s kind of weird. Does GM build cars in Oregon?

No.

Do people buy GM cars in Oregon?

Yes.

Will the contract affect what Oregonians pay for GM cars in the future?

Yes, it will make them more expensive. Starting wages for GM factory workers will go up by 70% under the contract.

Seems like it’s good for some folks in Michigan, and bad for everyone who buys cars in Oregon. Weird. Anyway, that’s not really what I was interested in.

Oh, you mean Sam Bankman-Fried? He’s been testifying in a New York courtroom, on trial for federal fraud charges. A PAC funded significantly by SBF and his now-bankrupt company, FTX, spent over $500,000 to help Hoyle win her primary race in 2022. SBF’s then-colleague and admitted campaign finance fraudster gave her $2,900 in the general election. She forked that $2,900 over to federal marshals a couple months ago, because it was probably a fraudulent contribution.

No, not that, but your devotion to the SBF storyline is admirable. I mean La Mota. Didn’t she take quite a bit of money from them?

Yes, she did, and when everyone found out that La Mota literally paid for the services of Oregon’s Secretary of State Shemia Fagan while she was conducting an audit of state cannabis regulations, Hoyle said she’d returned all contributions from La Mota’s owners.

Hey, by the way, did you know that La Mota means The Weed in Spanish? I just looked that up.

Focus, Jeff. Did she return the money?

Well, no. She gave $5,800, the same amount contributed to her congressional campaign by La Mota founders Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell, to a Portland nonprofit for women and gender non-conforming tradespeople. Her spokesperson told me Hoyle tried to return the contribution to Cazares and Mitchell but the check was returned.

What is gender non-conforming?

I don’t know. I thought we were focusing.

You’re right, sorry. Wasn’t there something with Hoyle and La Mota and a state grant to a nonprofit?

Yes. While Hoyle was running for Congress last year, but still serving as the Commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, she cajoled a committee that issued state apprenticeship grants to give $554,000 to a newly formed nonprofit called ENDVR, which was formed by Cazares and former La Mota employee Laura Vega, so ENDVR could pay Vega $97,000 and create a cannabis apprenticeship program.

The singer?

No, that’s Suzanne Vega. Anyway, Laura gave Hoyle’s congressional campaign $1,000 back in April 2022, before Hoyle finally convinced the committee to issue the grant to ENDVR. According to Hoyle’s recently filed Federal Election Commission report, she’s kept that contribution.

Why? A thousand bucks isn’t that big of a deal in a congressional campaign.

Good question. I don’t know. She was dealing with the burden of ignoring BOLI’s requests for her BOLI-related text messages so it could respond to public records requests, including about the ENDVR grant, and then refusing to hand her cell phone over to the agency. Maybe that kept her busy. Also the UAW strike.

Does Oregon at least have a highly trained cannabis work force now?

If it does, it’s not because of the ENDVR grant. Turns out the grant, which used federal funds, was illegal under federal law. You can’t use federal funds to set up a cannabis apprenticeship program because cannabis is illegal under federal law. The new BOLI commissioner terminated the grant once La Mota became politically toxic. Willamette Week reported that ENDVR had already spent $97,000 by the time BOLI killed the grant.

Isn’t that the same amount ENDVR was going to pay Vega?

Yep. By the way, in its grant application, ENDVR listed its address as a storage unit in Portland.

Seems legit. Does any of this matter?

I think so. Oregon’s 4th Congressional District leans Democrat, and has been represented by a Dem forever, but Hoyle’s various scandals probably make it a competitive seat for Republicans in 2024.

Gee, thanks for the update, Jeff. Maybe next time you could get right to the point.

Whatever. Maybe sometime you’ll become a paid subscriber.