News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Allen Alley came through Sisters on a 400-mile walk across much of Oregon.
Allen Alley is walking for office these days.
Alley is seeking the Republican Party's nomination for governor and to sound out the electorate he's taking a long walk across Eastern and Central Oregon. He was in Sisters on Monday.
One support vehicle and a couple of campaign staffers are accompanying Alley on his trek. He's making five three-mile stages per day, to cover an average of 15 miles per day.
"If we don't have people stopping to talk - which we encourage - we can do (a three-mile stage) in a little less than an hour," Alley said.
He's walked and talked with county commissioners and citizens since he began his journey in Baker City.
"When you're walking, you just get to a level of discussion you never get to in a formal meeting," Alley said.
The impetus for the walking tour of the east side of the state came from Alley's bid for the treasurer's office in the 2008 election. He felt that he never got an in-depth sense of the needs and desires of the communities in the hinterlands.
"You just can't get to these small towns that often in a statewide race," he said.
Alley acknowledged that conventional political wisdom says that spending so much time on areas with small populations of voters is not a good strategy.
"I wanted to do it because I wanted to do it," he said. "I think I'll learn a lot about the state doing it. It's healthy. I'm learning things I'd want my governor to know about the state."
What he's learning isn't surprising given the times.
"It's economy and jobs, over and over again," he said.
Alley, who hails from Michigan originally, is dismayed to see Oregon ranking at the top of the unemployment listings, shedding jobs by the hundreds of thousands. He believes a state with the advantages of rich natural resources, quality ports and access to Asian markets, a good technological base, great natural beauty and an attractive lifestyle should be in much better shape.
"I don't understand why Oregon could be where we are," he said. "If I had to pick a state with assets, this is the state I'd pick."
His diagnosis?
"Everybody says that we're not a business-friendly state," he said. "Part of that is a tone-at-the-top perception."
Alley believes the state needs to invest in education, especially higher education, while creating a tax climate that encourages reinvestment and entrepreneurial endeavor.
As governor, he would "lead the charge" in business attraction and retention.
In that equation, Alley places retention of existing businesses and encouragement of homegrown enterprise over "chasing people around and stuffing money in their pockets to try to get them to come here."
He said the loss of Cessna in Bend is a real blow.
"It fit so well with what we're doing here," he said.
He thinks the governor's office should have done more to attempt to retain Cessna.
Alley said he was impressed with the feeling of downtown Sisters, where visitors were strolling the streets, many carrying shopping bags.
"It feels pretty vibrant," he said.
Alley was to head west on Tuesday. He'll go over the Santiam Pass to Salem, then up the Willamette Valley to Portland, which he expects to hit on September 8.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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