A campaigning against the real estate industry's precious Measure 79—the unnecessary ballot item that wants to ban a property transfer tax that's already, hey!, banned—has released the results of internal polls taken this summer and fall showing love for the measure despite millions in spending.

The results come from labor-affiliated Defend Oregon. According to spokesman Scott Moore, the measure trailed 54 percent to 31 percent in a poll completed October 22. A poll from August showed a 57 percent to 22 percent spread—before, Moore notes, "the $3.8 million spent by the Yes on 79," largely by national and Oregon real estate lobbyists, between the two polls (which admittedly don't come with crosstabs, etc.).

"The numbers will likely improve for the Yes on 79 campaign between now and November 6, considering that they continue to blanket the airwaves with misleading ads," Moore said in a statement. "The question, though, is whether their continued spending can make up for a 23-point gap."

We're among a slew of newspapers across the state urging a no vote on Measure 79.

Meanwhile, in today's Oregonian, Israel Bayer of Street Roots and County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury have written a devastating, must-read dismantling of the "fundamentally dishonest" campaign.

For us, the most insulting piece of this campaign is that those in favor of Measure 79 are using low-income families as a human shield for their own benefit when this measure would do nothing to address the real problems the families in our communities are facing.

We'd invite the Realtors to work with us to help address the lack of affordable housing in Oregon the right way. We're pretty sure that the $4.6 million Realtors have spent on this measure could have gone a long way toward making homeownership more affordable for families throughout Oregon.