In response to the post yesterday about Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley still riding the anti-payday lending horse:

Jeff-

You killed the industry a couple of years ago. Do you have any real issues you can put forward?

Jeff Merkley, Oregon legislator and candidate for U.S., is most famous for leading the charge to drive payday lending out of the state.  He seems most proud of it as evidenced by this flyer sent out by the AFL-CIO in support of his candidacy.  The Payday Pundit calls readers attention to the typos in the flyer and hopes that Merkley is not positioning himself as the “education candidate.” 

Last month, Merkley did the opposite of “strenghening” the economy and actually held an event where he celebrated lost jobs in Oregon.

In a stunt to gain publicity, House Speaker Jeff Merkley toasted the closing of payday loan stores in Oregon.  

As seen in other states where payday lenders have been forced to close their doors, Oregonians will now spend more money bouncing checks, using overdraft protection, and paying bills late. 

Congrats Speaker Merkley.  While you are toasting the closing of legal, regulated, tax-paying Oregon business, hard-working Oregonians are left without a credit option and forced to choose between other, more costly short-term credit options they had previously tried to avoid. 

Speaker Merkley, while you’ve eliminated a credit option, the need is still there.  You’ll have to answer to the consumers whose credit choices you’ve limited and the employees whose jobs you’ve taken away.