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Alley vows upgrades in Ore. |
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Friday, 14 May 2010 21:40 |
Candidate touts private experience
By Keri Brenner
The Dalles Chroncicle
Former businessman Allen Alley brought his campaign for Oregon governor to The Dalles Wednesday, just a week before the May 18 primary elections.
Alley, 55, and former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley are the top two contenders for the Republican nomination to succeed Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Dudley visited The Dalles in February, but Alley is the only gubernatorial candidate to come to Wasco County during the recent weeks of the campaign season.
Alley, board chairman of Pixelworks, a computer chip maker for video displays, told about 35 people at Spooky’s Pizza that his first goal, if elected to the top state office, would be to boost the business climate in Oregon.
“If you took any one of our assets and gave it to another state, they would be transformed,” Alley said. “That doesn’t happen here — but it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Alley said he would find ways to capitalize on Oregon’s natural assets such as deep-water ports, timber, plentiful electric power and high tech expertise.
He also vowed to reduce business taxes and cut state payroll spending through job attrition and buyouts.
“In the last four years, state spending has gone up 49 percent,” he said. “Is there anyone here who feels that anything is 49 percent better?”
State Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, who organized the “lunchtime conversation” with Alley, said he endorsed Alley early on because “Allen doesn’t have staff and policy people telling him to ‘Say this, because this is what people want to hear,’” Huffman said. “What he says is from him, not from policy people.”
The Dalles City Councilor Brian Ahier said he was endorsing Alley because of Alley’s experience in the private sector. Alley was co-founder and chief executive officer of Pixelworks from 1997 to 2006 and vice president of Wilsonville-based InFocus Systems from 1992 to 1997. He also worked as an engineer for Boeing and Ford Motor Co. in the 1970s and 1980s.
“One of the biggest problems in Oregon is the economy and unemployment,” Ahier said. “We need a type of person like Allen Alley with experience in the private sector to create jobs.”
Ahier said he would support Dudley if Dudley wins the GOP nomination, but in the primary elections, he considers Alley the best candidate.
“He has proven he can work across party lines,” said Ahier of Alley. Alley was deputy chief of staff to Kulongoski from January 2007 to February 2008. He was also the Republican nominee for state treasurer in 2008, but lost by 6 percentage points.
Tim Polehn, who works with parents Marvin and Donella Polehn at the family’s cherry orchards in The Dalles, said he resonates with Alley’s appreciation of natural assets.
“I think he sees how Oregon can capitalize on the resources we have, like the Columbia River and timber,” Tim Polehn said. “He sees the advantages of the state and would hopefully help the state compete in the world more efficiently.”
Cindy Brown of Sherman County, former co-owner of Hughes Feed and Grain in The Dalles, said she likes Alley’s focus on running the state like a business and zero-based budgeting.
“He’s all about cutting the fluff,” Brown said. “To me, that’s really refreshing.”
Should Alley win the GOP nod on May 18, he would face the victor of the Democratic nomination contest in November. Top two contenders in that race are former Gov. John Kitzhaber and former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury.
Alley, who had 250,000 campaign newsletters printed and inserted in newspapers across the state, said turnout is expected to be low for the primary elections – possibly as low as 40 percent. Because of that, he said, “every vote counts.”
He said he is taking his message to rural voters in particular, focusing on print and radio ads in many smaller towns – as opposed to the heavy TV advertising being done by Dudley in the Portland metro area.
“Portland metro TV is not cost-effective,” he said. “Seventy percent of metro voters are either Democrats or Independents.”
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