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Roberta Phillip-Robbins was the first candidate into the hotly-contested campaign for Oregon House District 43 in North and Northeast Portland and has landed many key endorsements in the race.
But she now appears to be ineligible to run for that seat.
Because her salary at Multnomah County is entirely paid with federal grant money, Phillip-Robbins, 39, is prohibited by federal ethics laws from running in a partisan election, such as the House District 43 race.
That federal law, the Hatch Act, was passed in 1939 to limit the political activities of federal employees and is enforced by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.
"State, D.C., or local government employees whose salaries are paid for entirely by federal funds are prohibited from running for partisan office," the guidelines say.
That agency provides explicit guidelines for federal employees and other government employees paid with federal grant money.
Multnomah County records show that Phillip-Robbins receives a $77,920 salary as a Youth & Gang Violence Prevention Specialist at the county Department of Community Justice that is 100 percent funded by a grant from the federal Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Phillip-Robbins' boss, Department of Community Justice director Scott Taylor, confirms that Phillip-Robbins' position is grant funded and in his view she's therefore covered by the Hatch Act.
"I pulled up the Hatch Act requirements on my computer this morning," Taylor says. "There's really not much argument there."
Taylor was previously unaware there might be an issue.
There's no indication that Phillip-Robbins intentionally violated the Hatch Act. She says she was did not know of the law's existence or its relevance to her candidacy until asked about it by WW.
"This is new information to me," Phillip-Robbins says. "I relied in good faith on the legal advice I got before getting into the race."
Before entering the race last fall, Phillip-Robbins checked with County Attorney Jenny Madkour to see if she could run for the Legislature while working for the county.
"There are no legal barriers simultaneously holding your current position with DCJ and Legislative office," Madkour wrote to Phillip-Robbins in a Nov. 13, 2015 email.
Madkour could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Dec. 17, 2015, Phillip-Robbins filed to run for the House seat being vacated by state Rep. Lew Frederick (D-Portland), who is running for the Senate.
Her race against Tawna Sanchez, the acting executive director of the Native American Youth and Family Center, is the most closely contested Portland legislative race. WW endorsed Sanchez in that race.
Greg Chaimov, a lawyer who formerly served as the Legislature's top lawyer and in private practice regularly deals with elections issues, says by law Phillip-Roberts never should have entered the race.
"A county employee whose entire salary is paid, directly or indirectly, by a grant from the United States Department of Justice is ineligible to run for a partisan office," Chaimov says. "The only exception would be if the employee's job didn't have a connection with the activities the grant funds."
That exception does not apply in this case. Phillip-Robbins acknowledges that her work at the county is aimed at reducing juvenile gang violence, the central focus of the funding the county received from the federal Department of Justice.
This isn't the first time the Hatch Act has become an issue in an Oregon legislative race.
In 2008, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel ordered Hanten Day, a Democratic House candidate from Salem, to either resign from his grant-funded position with the state Department of Human Services or drop out of his race. In that case, the House Republicans filed an elections complaint asking elections officials to disqualify Day, but they told the GOP since the Hatch Act is a federal law, state officials lacked jurisdiction.
Day lawyered up, stayed in the race and fought the federal order in legal proceedings that dragged on for four years. He lost his race and left state employment, making his case moot.
WW asked the federal Office of Special Counsel about next steps for Phillip-Robbins' candidacy.
"We cannot comment on individual cases or allegations," OSC spokesman Nick Schwellenbach said in an email. "However, generally speaking, if we confirm during our own investigation that a government employee covered by the Hatch Act's restrictions on candidacy is not in compliance with the law, we generally give them the opportunity to come into compliance, which would be to resign their Hatch Act-covered employment or to stop running as a candidate in a partisan election."
Phillip-Robbins says she's dedicated to her gang violence prevention work at the county but will not drop out of the race.
"I am 100 percent committed to running and serving," she says. "I'm prepared to make this right. Resigning from my job is one of the options on the table, if that what it takes."
Willamette Week