Allen Alley: Who does he think he is? Moses?
Kari Chisholm
Allen Alley has decided to spend 40 days and 40 nights walking through the desert.
"I'm going to walk from Baker City to Portland," an excited Alley told The Oregonian today.Step by step, mile by mile, Alley says he will make the 400-mile cross-state trek starting Aug. 3. He expects it will take him about 40 days, walking an average of 15 miles a day.
Allen Alley may consider himself a numbers whiz, but his math is just borked. If you take 40 days to walk 400 miles, you averaged 10 miles a day.
Of course, the walking distance from Baker City to Portland is roughly 325 miles, not 400. He's probably going to walk a slightly longer route for political reasons (maybe through Bend?)
Personally, I think it's a little strange to walk "across the state", but skip the Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon entirely. Maybe he'll do the Medford to Astoria section in the spring.
Would someone please explain to me what the heck this has to do with demonstrating the skills it takes to be Governor?
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Jul 16, '09
What an attack dog you are Kari, jeez.
Grip & grin and kissing babies has everything to do with getting elected. And yes, you need those skills to be governor.
11:21 p.m.
Jul 16, '09
Actually, Moses wandered for 40 years. It was Jesus who spent 40 days staring down temptation in the desert. Will Alley be fasting as well?
I'd have to guess the symbolism of 40 days is intentional and not a case of new math, and will play well with certain GOP basers.
12:01 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
I think Moses went up to Mount Sinai for 40 days. Ah, whatever. They're playing cute dog-whistle games. I still don't see how the tradeoff with 40 days of fundraising pays off as a campaign strategy.
Jul 17, '09
Kari,
Pick a real topic. Or perhaps you're just jealous because you've probably never gotten that much exercise in your life.
You're really criticizing the guy for walking a certain number of miles to meet voters? Really?! He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't...my guess is that if he didn't have a plan to go out and meet voters, he'd be an arrogant ass who doesn't know how to campaign. But since he is trying to get to know some of Oregon and not just rely on the bandwagon voters in his part that rule Multnomah County, he's criticized for no reason at all, except what part of the state he's walking in.
Stupid.
12:25 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
You're really criticizing the guy for walking a certain number of miles to meet voters?
Um, no. But now that you're bringing it up... how many voters is going to meet in those 40 days? Why not do 40 town hall meetings in 40 days? He'd easily meet 100 times as many voters.
Or maybe something like Jeff Merkley's 100 Town Tour.
That's how you meet voters. Not walking the highway between Fossil and Maupin.
12:32 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Dumb publicity stunt...
I have $10 that says he doesn't make it to Portland. Anyone want to bet me?
(By not making it, I mean he'll either give up or end up using another form of transportation part of the way)
Jul 17, '09
Maybe he will do that too. Christ, it's not like he has ONE shot to come up with ONE idea and that's all he gets between now and the election.
Jul 17, '09
History doesn't start where your knowledge ends, Kari... Politicians in US have been doing stuff like this since back in the 1800s. Seems just a small-scale version of Harry Truman's 1948 'whistle-stop campaign'...
Faced with the likely loss of the 1948 presidential elections, Harry S. Truman decided to do what he did best: talk straight. When Truman boarded the train to head west in June 1948, he and his campaign advisors decided to shift from prepared text to extemporaneous stump speeches. The "new Truman" emerged as a feisty, engaged speaker, brimming with ideas on policies and programs important to the common citizen.
Now, I'm not saying Allen Alley is going to be the next Harry Truman - but I suspect his aims with this walking tour aren't dissimilar to above.
Or do only Democrats get to do such things without being criticized?
Jul 17, '09
The now Senior Senator from Washington won her first election by being dubbed the mom in tennis shoes. She walks her district in an attempt to show her incumbant opponent rarely got out to see the people. It could be that is the angle here.
I don't know what the deal is, but think campaigning 18 months ahead of time is a bit much.
6:55 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
I hope he has good shoes.
Seriously tho...if the point is to meet lots of voters and have lots of newspaper/tv spots, this doesn't seem like a smart use of time.
Best of luck to him, tho. I'll bet he gets in shape. That's a hearty walk.
Jul 17, '09
Hmm... This may go very well or this may be a complete waste of his time. I'm interested to see how it turns out.
Either way, it's an earned media factory.
Jul 17, '09
The fantasy of a six-week break from the daily grind is very attractive. Part of me wishes I could walk along with him. Walking or biking gives you a very different perspective on everything, so this could be a transformative trek, for anyone. He'll be lean and tan at the end of it, if he makes it. And there's the rub. Literally.
Footwear on skin tissue. The damage done to one's feet from such an undertaking should not be underestimated. If he's been training for the trek for the past six months and has the calluses, he'll be fine. But, if like most of us, he has been busy-busy-busy from dawn to dusk with hardly a moment to walk the dog or go running for an hour, he is in big trouble.
If this happens, if he really does make this trek, he'll have some time for introspection. He might just decide that firing Oregon workers so he can hire five times as many Chinese was a bad idea after all. The results speak for themselves. He might -- who knows -- become a democrat.
Jul 17, '09
More to the point, he's going to be doing almost all of that walking in a thinly populated part of the state that already votes solidly Republican. So he'll shore up the 59th and part of the 52nd legislative districts (1/30th of the state) while we solidify the GOP-to-Dem trend in the Willamette Valley.
It's a deal.
Maybe he's just deperate to get anyone to pay attention to him. He'd be better off attempting to eat a five gallon drum of canned peaches or something on youtube.
8:40 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Sure it's a publicity stunt. So what. I think it's a great experience and there is plenty of prior political precedent. The most famous is Senator Lawton Chiles.
From Wikipedia:
"In 1970, Chiles decided to run for a seat in the United States Senate. At the time, despite his 12 years in the state legislature, he was largely unknown outside his Lakeland-based district. To generate some media coverage across the state, Chiles embarked upon a 1,003-mile, 91-day walk across Florida from Pensacola to Key West. The walk earned him the recognition he sought, as well as the nickname that would follow him throughout his political career – "Walkin' Lawton". In his journal Chiles wrote that sometimes he walked alone, while other times he met ordinary Floridians along the way. In later years, Chiles would recall the walk allowed him to see Florida's natural beauty, as well as the state's problems, with fresh eyes. After the walk, Chiles was elected easily."
We should criticize Republican policy when it is wrong, not honest tactics that display hard work and connection with the voters.
Frankly, I am kind of jealous. I would love to be able to do something like this.
8:50 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Walkin' Lawtown walked through multiple metro areas, including Pensacola, Orlando, and Miami. (Not sure if he criss-crossed the state and hit Tampa and Tallahassee.)
Lamar Alexander did this in Tennessee - a long and narrow state where traversing it hits every major metro area.
Allen Alley will be hitting the booming metropoli of Baker City, Fossil, and Maupin. Given the mileage count, I suspect he may divert to hit Bend, Lebanon, and Silverton.
But skipping key swing towns like Medford and Salem? I don't get it.
9:06 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Kari,
It is a more than a year before the general election. There will be plenty of time to spend in the populous areas. First Allen has to win the Republican primary which is more dependent on Eastern/Central Oregon votes than the general. This "stunt" will help a city boy like Allen connect with rural voters.
Jul 17, '09
Kari, again...do you have inside information that we don't that this is his ONLY walk? Maybe you should join the campaign team since you have the only good ideas for meeting voters...
There are a number of voters in those small areas too that are most likely never talked too because they're, as you mocked, a "booming metropoli" (which isn't a word, by the way) and in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe Allen Alley, unlike most of the politicians in this state, have determined that voters outside the valley have a voice too, they have different issues that need to be addressed, and that they matter just as much as the big-city-folk on this side of the mountain. Wow, Allen is such an ass!
Still waiting for you to give us--your readers--an actual reason we should look down on the guy or criticize him for it...
9:52 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Based on the O's report, I have to agree with Kari--this seems like a totally pointless stunt. Walking across the state isn't an end, it's a means. Absent some reason for it, he sounds like the guy who hooked up his lawn chair to helium balloons.
Alley managed to run a half-credible campaign based on his resume. The reason he never got any traction is because he didn't make a credible case for what his administration would do. Now he's running for Governor and we still haven't seen anything approaching a message. I could understand a slow, 40-day hike across the state if he was planning on spending time in each town and spreading his message. But without the end, who cares about the means?
9:53 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Sorry, I shouldn't have said "what his administration would do" but rather, "what he'd do as treasurer."
Jul 17, '09
Kari,
Apparently you think yourself as Jesus...siting in judgement over someone else.
I think what's funny is that if a democrat came up with this idea you'd all be pontificating at what a wonderfully crafted plan it was.
10:28 a.m.
Jul 17, '09
Apparently you think yourself as Jesus...siting in judgement over someone else.
No, I don't think of myself as Jesus. But the whole point of a blog is to have opinions.
I think what's funny is that if a democrat came up with this idea you'd all be pontificating at what a wonderfully crafted plan it was.
You have no idea how wonderfully hilarious this comment is. In fact, I've had plenty of conversations with Democratic candidates who've proposed similar ideas - and I've routinely argued against 'em.
Jul 17, '09
Any information on how "solo" this trek will be? Is he actually going alone, or with support personnel and a sag wagon? If he's truly going solo, I like it, although it has nothing to do with governing ability.
Jul 17, '09
http://www.lawtonchiles.org/walkin1.html is a biographical site.
Alley has yet to show the substance of Chiles. Perhaps if Alley worked some ordinary jobs along the way (hospitality business of some sort, ranch chores, construction, cashier, summer camp, stc) or encountered any county fairs, he might talk to some people who don't see things from his point of view and actually learn something.
I met him during the Treas. race and mentioned my family thinks highly of Ben. "WELL! If you want a POLITICIAN for State Treasurer instead of a businessman..." was his response.
Later on cable I saw a State Treasurer debate. Westlund ended up correcting Alley on a statement of fact.
Add to that the fact that it has been quite awhile since anyone was elected State Tasurer and Alley's statement sounds more arrogant than anything else.
If that long a walk teaches a) some humility, b) ordinary folks even in Republican areas don't all see the world the same way Alley does (in the general election if not the primary there will be people who insist on serious, responsive answers and courtesy toward those asking questions, not the condescending attitude of his remark about Westlund,
and the publicity of the walk is good --with no gaffes--it will have been worth it. And yes, a walk in summer (by someone with the good sense to have excellent walking shoes, some sort of backup in case of emergency, plenty of water and sunscreen) would indeed get him in good shape. I wonder how many miles a day for how many weeks he has been walking to get ready for this.
Jul 17, '09
I can't wait until some smurf does this and is hailed by all as "getting in touch with real people"
Jul 17, '09
I think Dylan Amo made an interesting point from the Republican point of view over on Oregon Catalyst: Conceding that it's certainly an unorthodox campaign move, he muses whether that's necessarily a bad thing considering that the established GOP statewide strategies have not yielded a victory in some time.
And I think that without suggesting that this particular move is necessarily a success... perhaps we Democrats should take note that there the GOP is indeed showing signs of experimentation (which leads to innovation) in campaign strategy.
But rather than serving as a commendation for Mr. Alley, perhaps we should let it be a reminder that we Democrats should keep our own campaigns nimble and innovative -- because we're not always going to be running against endless Kevin Mannixes and Ron Saxtons.
Just a thought.
4:15 p.m.
Jul 17, '09
every politician walks the district. you don't win unless you get out & walk walk walk. this sort of thing is kind of dopey. if the point is to meet people & get to know what's going on, then just a 40-day walk does not really address that. if he were to bike around the state, that would get him place-to-place quicker, give him a chance to meet a lot more people, hold more talks.
this will just get him out of the way and out of the public's view for over a month. hm, maybe not such a bad idea...
Jul 17, '09
Alley supports cap and trade. He needs to take this walk to pick up Democratic voters. Republicans don't have much use for him.
Jul 17, '09
"Alley supports cap and trade. He needs to take this walk to pick up Democratic voters. Republicans don't have much use for him."
Hmm... given that Democrats in Oregon severely outnumber Republicans, I would say that Mr. Collins here is either:
Either way, I like his thinking! If only we could convince ALL Republicans to adopt that mindset, campaigning would be a lot easier for Democrats!
8:33 p.m.
Jul 17, '09
I'm not bothered that its a publicity stunt. It is a beautiful part of the state and he's going to have an epic time. I hope he uses it at least in part to encourage people to pursue active lifestyles, stop in and meet people, and maybe even encourage people to get active in the political process. He'll have an opportunity to learn about a sparsely populated, yet important, part of the state - one that is rich with history and unique needs.
Personally, I love walking and find that you see, hear and feel things that you miss otherwise. As for the publicity, he's doing this at a time of year when he would otherwise be largely ignored.
If Kitz gets into the race, it might be the last publicity he gets...
Jul 19, '09
This guy is stupid. Please Run, Pete, Run. BTW: Clem is an empty drawer filled with is in-laws money
Jul 19, '09
As someone who has known Brian Clem since long before he was a legislator, I have to stick up for my old friend. He actually stands up for what he believes in and was involved in local civic life before running for office.
I wonder if empty drawer lives anywhere near Salem or has ever even met Rep. Clem.
Jul 19, '09
Sounds like he thinks what worked for Lawton Chiles in FL would help here. Can't blame him for trying a new stunt given the GOP mess in OR.
Jul 19, '09
Those are big shoes trying to be like Lawton Chiles. But if Alley learns a lot on the walk, esp. about those unlike himself in places he hasn't lived, it might be good for all concerned. "What the people in ___ told me" rather than glib wisecracks could only help the process!