Happiness of the long-distance campaigner

Long walks puts candidate Allen Alley in touch with people's views

By Cliff Newell

The West Linn Tidings, Nov 19, 2009

Alley

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Allen Alley would walk 400 miles to be governor of Oregon.

In fact, he has already done it.

This past summer the Lake Oswego resident trekked from Portland to the eastern border of the state, and he proclaimed it highly enjoyable.

“It’s an honor and privilege to run for high office,” said Alley, who declared his candidacy in April. “I don’t see that running for office is hard. Being a rancher in Oregon is hard. Running a business is hard. But I don’t see it being hard running for office.”

Alley’s feet might have a few blisters, but otherwise he is as fit as a fiddle and optimistic about his chances of earning the Republican nomination for the Oregon gubernatorial race next May. You meet a wide variety of people when you walk 400 miles.

“I met a guy who wears a 45 on his hip, I met the transgender mayor of Silverton, and everyone in between,” Alley said.

The direction of Alley’s walk was sound political strategy.

“A consultant told me I should have walked north to south, because that’s where the people are,” Alley said. “But the people in Prairie City appreciated that I walked to Prairie City. I think walking worked better than shaking my finger in front of a TV camera and yelling, ‘You’re really important!’

“When people started walking with me at first they were polite, then they were angry. But we kept on walking. I said, ‘Let’s talk about solutions.’”

Alley believes Oregon needs some solutions, since it has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

“The unemployment rates are so high,” Alley said. “People are asking, ‘What will I do?’ ‘What will my children do?’ They aren’t asking for a handout from the state. They want an environment where they can do something about it themselves.”

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