Ben Westlund will make a great governor. Which is why we should elect him State Treasurer.
Oh, Westlund will do a great job as treasurer, too. He knows the numbers. He likes the numbers. The fact that he is not a CPA is not a handicap. The job is a policy position, after all.
What does this have to do with Westlund as governor? In many ways Westlund is far more qualified for that role than any other, and more qualified than anyone else in state politics. He has been a state representative. He has been a state senator. And now, if we elect him, he will have been state treasurer.
To that training we add the man himself: Westlund has vision. He has heart. He had cancer and rather than retreat, he lived life even more fully: that life he chose to lead was one of public service, not sitting on an island somewhere playing golf.
While he can tell you more than you want to know about anything in government, he can also crystalize in 30 seconds the essence of complicated policy. He also has the knowledge of the game inside of the capitol building that can get things done that seem beyond reach.
Which will, when Kulongoski stops warming the chair in the governor’s office in two years, make Ben Westlund the most highly trained and qualified candidate for governor we have had in the state in a long, long time.
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Sure we should elect him as State Treasurer 'cause he "likes the numbers." The fact that he doesn't have any formal financial education doesn't really matter. After all it's just a "policy postion."
He also used to like being a Republican...until he liked being an Independent...until he liked being a Democrat. He's just like the weather in his part of the state, if you don't like it wait five minutes. To say the guy is all over the board would be a gross understatement. He'll do whatever he thinks is necessary to get elected. That's his "vision." That's just the kind of conviction that Oregonian's need in the Governor's office.
And you're right. Like Ron Wyden, and many other politicians, he is a pro at the 30 second sound bite.
As for cancer, that doesn't qualify him for crap. I don't even know why you put that one in there. Hell, I know that I would try to live life more fully if I had the big C. Just about anyone would.
So go ahead hotrod, vote for him.
Westlund is very qualified for the State Treasurer's post by his long experience in state government, including Chair of Ways and Means. He knows more about the finances of the state than nearly anyone.
Your gross overstatement that Westlund is all over the board misstates his policy positions. It is true Westlund was a Republican, but an "old fashioned Oregon Republican," like Hatfield, McCall and Packwood, fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
Westlund was never one of the right wing, reactionary, fear mongering "get government into everybody's bedroom" Republicans that have highjacked the Republcian Party in this nation and done the country such great damage.
The Democratic Party is a better fit for Westlund. He ran for governor as an independent becasue the two major parties already had candidates. He thought he could do a better job. He was right, but power politics do not favor independents, and he dropped out so as not to get a man elected he disagreed with more than Kulongoski.
Westlund has taken on some very controversial issues, and my guess is he has been successful at some that you don't agree with, which is why you don't like him.
As to the 30 seconds, that is as long as you can probably pay attention. Westlund, as was said, can go into more detail than most people wnt to hear about any policy issue.
The point about "the big C" as you call it, was that for Westlund, "living life more fully" meant dedicating himself to effective public service. The man has a passion for Oregon.
I'm and "old fashioned Oregon Republican" and have been my whole life. Hell, I've even voted for Democrats when I thought their opponents were too whacky(read, right). Ben Westlund most certainly isn't cut from the same cloth as Tom McCall or Mark Hatfield. I'll give you Packwood, and add Babs Roberts, but no way the other two. Christ, he's being endorsed by Kulongoski and Tina Kotek for crying out loud. That ought to tell you something.
As for the Democratic party being a good fit for Ben, I don't think he's figured out where he belongs, so how are you or anyone else supposed to know.
And 30 seconds is about as long as I, or just about anyone else I know, can stand to listen to the man.
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