We’ll see if Allen Alley can be the first Oregon Republican since 1982 to crack the code for figuring out how to get elected
governor in this state. But in his campaign kickoff event Thursday night in Northeast Portland, you could certainly see that he’s definitely trying to rewire the usual GOP candidacy. Alley, a businessman who helped found Aloha-based Pixelworks, also talked about the experience he gained working as a deputy chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski. And he repeatedly talked about Democrats, independents and Republicans coming behind his candidacy. At the same time, Alley – speaking from the bed of a three-wheeled electric truck – did spend a lot of time portraying himself as an engineer and businessman/entrepreneur who understands what makes an economy work. He gave a shout-out to the timber industry, an important part of the Republican base while also making it clear he wanted to protect “environmental diversity.” Allen, while talking about his ability to work with the former union officials who head Kulongoski’s staff, also went so far as to imply that some of the decision-makers in the governor’s orbit were rather clueless about how businesses are able to pay taxes (more about that in a bit). Rep. Scott Bruun, R-West Linn, one of the several GOP moderates I spotted in the crowd, called Alley an “Oregon moderate in the best tradition…Oregonians are not going to be threatened by Allen Alley.” The last Republican nominee for governor, Ron Saxton, also started out with a moderate reputation, but Bruun said Saxton had the bad fortune to run in 2006, a tough year for Republicans. He said 2010 should be better. Alley himself said the “traditional thing” for Republicans is to hold a kickoff by going to “some home in Dunthorpe to sit around with your biggest donors and we decided to do something different.” As it happened, Saxton had done a campaign kickoff in a Dunthorpe home hosted by Diana Goldschmidt, the wife of former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt. (In fairness to Saxton, he had also visited several schools around the state the same day).
Alley got some of the biggest applause lines of his speech when he told a story about sitting in the governor’s office with “15 to 20 people” talking about the state budget and how the revenue forecast was holding up.