Don't Support The Candidate Who Spends The Most Money!
Why I Truly Stand Out As The Candidate With The Best Background For The Job!
I had a pleasant conversation today with a News-Review reporter. The newspaper is publishing a big story on the commissioner's race in the upcoming Sunday edition. In addition to a questionnaire that I previously filled out for the newspaper to use for their story, the reporter today asked me a question that they're asking all of the candidates: What makes you stand out above the rest? Or, what separates you from the other candidates?
Each candidate brings a variety of skills to the table, but I told the reporter there are two attributes, unique to me, that make me the best choice.
1.) I have twenty years experience interacting with other government officials on the local, state, and national level. No other candidate can match that extensive background.
U.S. Senators Bob Packwood, Ron Wyden, Gordon Smith, Jeff Merkeley, Congressmen Peter DeFazio, Greg Walden, Mike Kopetski, Governors Neil Goldschmidt, Barbara Roberts, John Kitzhaber, Ted Kulongoski. I've talked with and interviewed them all.
My purpose is listing all of these names isn't to try and impress people with a who's who list of past government leaders. It's only to illustrate that I have a collective knowledge, gained first hand, of the issues that have impacted Douglas County since the 1980s. I won't bother to write down the names of all the state legislators, county leaders, and city officials whom I've learned from over the years. Suffice it to say, the list would be much longer than the one above.
2.) I am the only candidate who has earned a Master's degree, to the best of my knowledge. I told the News-Review reporter that is important, because it demonstrates that I have the stamina and determination to pursue a challenging goal, and to stay with it until the goal is completed. Going to Graduate school, especially when one commutes each day from Oakland to Eugene, is very time-consuming and many personal sacrifices are made. I am the only candidate for Douglas County Commissioner who has taken the time to advance my education through a Master's program.
During our conversation, there was no mention of the 800-pound gorilla in the room. If you know what the gorilla is, then I didn't reveal anything new to you. If you don't know what the gorilla is, then I didn't reveal anything new (i.e., "spill the beans") to you. However, we did talk about the difficulty in predicting the outcome of this election when there are so many candidates in the race.
Candidate Tim Freeman, who at last report, had raised at least ten times more money than the next closest opponent, is presumed to be one of the candidates who will finish in the top two. But the question was asked, is there a clear frontrunner among the other candidates?
I told the reporter I believed it was a five-way tie between Mick Fummerton, Dale Rogers, Monte Smith, Mark Vincent and myself. I gave that as my answer, because the first four candidates all appear to be putting up a comparable number of campaign signs, at least in the Roseburg and north county areas.
I haven't put up any signs yet, but I do have some name recognition from past elections....I am the only candidate who has previously run for Douglas County Commissioner. So, I told the reporter my past name recognition would help offset the signs of the other candidates. I see the five of us candidates all on basically the same playing field, at least in regards to name recognition in this election.
If all five candidates are on the same level playing field, then which one will finish in the top two with (presumably) Tim Freeman? I don't know. The one unknown variable is how much party affiliation will enter into people's decisions. It's a safe assumption that I will pull some Republican voters away from Freeman. But will it be enough to finish in the top two, if I can't siphon enough Democratic votes away from Vincent and Fummerton?
Because the county commissioner's race is a non-partisan position, I don't believe that many voters will restrict their vote simply to party affiliation. They'll want to know where the candidates stand on the issues. It's conceivable that the runoff in November could have two Republicans (Freeman and myself, Smith, or Neilsen) or a Republican and a Democrat. IF a Republican is indeed a frontrunner, than it's virtually impossible the November election would have a runoff between two Democrats.
I told the News-Review reporter that the November election will be much more aggressive, regardless of who the top two candidates are. That's because a substantially larger amount of money will flow into both of the two campaigns, probably making it a highly-publicized race.
I look forward to being in the November election!
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