Mike,

Thanks for taking the time to write this thoughtful response. Here is some additional information from an interview that starts to get you some of the things I believe you want. More coming.

I do spend quite a bit of time pointing out areas for improvement because I am advocating for a change. In this case, I think the policies of the last 30 years have failed. Some won’t agree with me, some will. Much of the media now acknowledges the things I point out.

I hope you will follow the campaign as we move forward. I would like to earn your vote.

Allen

Q & A with Allen Alley, candidate for Oregon Governor

Why are you choosing to run for Oregon state governor in 2016?

I’m running for governor because I looked at my grandson and his friends at his fourth birthday and realized that, because they are in Oregon, just about every child in America has a better chance of graduating from high school than they do. We have among the shortest school days, shortest school year, largest class sizes, and we annually spend $400,000 per class room. The result? We have among the very worst graduation rates in the country. Educators in poor performing states used to say, “Thank goodness for Mississippi.” Now they say, “Thank goodness for Oregon.”

We also lead the nation in the percent of Oregonians who must rely on food stamps to feed their families. The Oregon we hold in our hearts should be the Oregon reflected in our performance.

Oregon shouldn’t be known for dropouts and food stamps.

You ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2008 and for Governor in 2010. What has changed in Oregon’s political climate since then that will make you successful in 2016?

The political class has failed us, and it is now completely apparent. Oregonians feel it, and the media recognizes it. Kate Brown inherited the office in scandal and thinks she has a mandate. They are passing the most highly partisan legislation, using every political trick in the book.

Don’t believe me? Listen to the Oregonian:

On Kate Brown’s low carbon fuel standard — “The low-carbon fuel standard is a colossal policy stinker.”

On Kate Brown’s 50 percent-plus minimum wage hike — “Brown’s plan should be called the Teen Employment Destruction Act.”

On Kate Brown’s hyper-partisan leadership — “It’s worth remembering that 62 percent of Oregon voters are something other than Democrats.”

Governor Kate Brown inherited her seat in February 2015 when Governor Kitzhaber resigned just one month into his fourth term. Brown relies heavily on the public employee unions for her support (more than $300,000 for her 2012 secretary of state race). Is she capable of acting independently without their approval? Can you think of an example when she stood up to them or stood against them?

No. I have a message for Kate Brown and the political class: You have increased spending 63 percent in the last decade, that’s $27 billion, and yet nobody can cite even one thing that is any better. You spent $195 million on a phantom bridge over the Columbia River that was never built. You spent $310 million on a website for Cover Oregon that was never built. That is more than $500 million on a bridge to nowhere and a website for no one.

And now, after decades of wasteful spending, they have created a giant fiscal sinkhole that they are going to ask you to fill with the largest tax increase in the history of the state, a new sales tax. Oregonians are not going to fill the sinkhole with a sales tax created by Kate Brown and the political establishment.

Last December, GOP House Minority Leader Mike McLane told the Oregon Business Summit that if we recognize rural Oregon is in crisis, we can solve the challenges together. What’s going on in rural Oregon? Did the recent protestors in the Malheur Refuge have a point? Is urban Oregon too selfish to see the very real needs of rural Oregon today? As governor, how would you heal these divisions?

We need to unleash economic opportunities in rural Oregon. I have met many governors, and they are all curious about how a state with all of our assets leads the nation in food stamps and dropouts. They say things like, “Allen, Oregon is such a wonderful state. You have all of these assets. You have deep water Pacific Rim ports with access to Asian markets. You have timber, farmland, ranch land. Don’t you have the Columbia River to provide transportation, irrigation and plenty of CO2-free, inexpensive hydropower? Isn’t Intel’s largest facility in Oregon? Allen, with all of those assets, how did they screw it up?” How indeed. Sometimes it feels like Kate Brown’s economic vision for Oregon is one giant National Park, spotted with coffee houses and connected by light rail.

We do have an amazing state with stunning assets. Indiana is brown with envy.

In recent years, you developed a friendship with former Indiana Governor and Purdue University President Mitch Daniels. What lessons have you learned from Mitch Daniels about politics and governing?

There are so many wonderful insights from Governor Daniels. Here are a couple: By the end of Governor Daniels’ term, Indiana had the fewest state employees per capita in the country and fewer state employees than in 1976. He accomplished this without mass layoffs. He did something very simple; he hired fewer employees than the number that retired. He provided information technology tools (computers and software) to increase productivity. He instituted pay for performance. Now employees receive annual performance evaluations, and pay raises are tied to performance. Employees not meeting expectations are assisted through work improvement plans. He proved you can increase performance, improve customer service, reduce costs, and, at the same time, improve compensation, benefits and morale of state workers.

More recently, Governor Daniels has taken over as president of Purdue University, which is the alma mater of my wife Debbie, son AJ, daughter Paige, daughter-in-law Kelly, and myself. Governor Daniels has continued to provide better service at a lower cost. He took over at Purdue and made a pledge to hold tuition flat. This was a notion that seemed impossible and caused great consternation among the administration. Now, four years later, tuition is still held at the 2012–13 level, room and board costs have gone down, and the 2016 graduates will leave a Purdue that costs less than when they arrived. It will hold true for 2017 as well. I don’t think there is another university that can equal this performance. Governor Daniels proved that it can be done at the state level in Indiana and at Purdue, and I know it can be done in Oregon as well.

In 1990, timber was Oregon’s largest industry, providing 12 percent of the state’s GDP, and tech was relatively small. Today, high tech manufacturing accounts for more than 20 percent of the state’s GDP, while timber is now just two percent. Despite the economic power of Oregon’s Silicon Forest, no political leaders have risen to prominence from your industry, the tech industry. Why?

There is good news here and bad news. I think the reason there have not been Silicon Forest political leaders is because technology is largely unregulated, so government isn’t very intrusive, and that is the way it should be. It isn’t like the government charges a tax on how much memory is in your computer or a fee on certain types of software you use. The government doesn’t regulate how much power you can use in your server farm. The government doesn’t require a license to be a software developer. Yet, in agriculture or timber, there are restrictions on just about every aspect of production. The government has restrictions on what fertilizers can be used, how they are applied, water usage, what to do with waste, replanting, etc. Just about every aspect of agriculture or timber is intertwined with government regulations. Therefore, there is a direct economic reason for people to get involved with the government.

For a technology person to get involved, it is much more altruistic. My industry and my companies will gain little if I am elected. But my global experience of growing and building companies in the most competitive markets will be extremely valuable in the governor’s office. I am driven to make Oregon a better state for all Oregonians, not for a narrow business sector or for the political class of insiders and lobbyists.

What are the three or four top measures you would implement as the state’s chief executive during your first 100 days in office? How would you modernize Oregon’s archaic state government?

We need to completely overhaul how the agencies and departments are managed and how the boards and commissions provide oversight. Current boards are largely “coffee and doughnut” boards. Folks come in, get a coffee and a doughnut, listen for a few hours, pass agenda items that have been prepared by staff and go home. I know. I have sat on these boards, and when someone gives me a maple bar, I can be distracted for hours.

We need to run these boards like true oversight boards with fiduciary responsibility for the agency. Organizational structures drive behaviors. We need to replace the head of every agency and department. We need to replace every member of every board. This will mean getting more than 1,000 new people involved in managing and directing these critical agencies, departments and their services. We then need to put in place operating ground rules that outline how we are going to manage and oversee the agencies and departments. I expect that when an agency head goes to the legislature for budget approval, the chairperson of the oversight board will be with them, and they will go with a board-approved operating budget that rolls up to support an overall governor’s recommended budget. It isn’t rocket science; every major well run organization does exactly the same thing. But it hasn’t been done in Oregon government in the last 30 years.

We need to use technology and the power of social media and the Internet to help solve complex government budget problems. We will post the entire state budget online with historical trends and all the line item detail. This will allow folks to go online and see where their money is spent. People with curiosity, time and expertise can analyze the budget and ask questions. We actually did this in a limited way in 2010 and proved that it can work. We had someone come online and point out that the Oregon Department of Transportation annual budget was about twice the size of Colorado’s. The next step is to dig in, verify the numbers, and then start analysis to determine why. People want to help; we need to give them the tools and the forum to do it.

Every bill that is passed should have a sunset. Over the last 10 years, our legislature has pass about 5,000 bills. If you had asked Oregonians in 2006, “What do you think we need to make Oregon a better place?” I doubt anyone would have said 5,000 more laws. A simple solution would be to put a sunset on every law passed. I don’t really care how long it is, just as long as there is one. Then good laws would come up for review and they would easily be re-passed, maybe even with an extended sunset. The questionable laws would not be passed or possibly only extended for a short period of time. Again, organizational structures drive the right behaviors.

A Republican governor hasn’t been elected in Oregon since 1982 and in Washington State since 1984. Polling routinely shows that the Republican Party label is a negative for statewide candidates? How will you get around this and break the GOP generational losing streak. How much harder will this be during the 2016 presidential election cycle, when Democrat turnout is usually heavier than during midterm elections?

As I talked about before, the political class has failed us, and many people and the media are finally recognizing that failure. We are seeing an energized electorate in 2016. People all over the country and here in Oregon feel the system is rigged for the politically connected and their friends. The only winners are the insiders. I think this energy and anger make it a perfect time to run as someone who will change the status quo. I believe the people who vote in 2016 are people who want change. I don’t really care how people are registered; we need people to come out and vote who are fed up with the insiders spending and their friends winning while the rest of us get stuck with the bill. I am not doing this because it is the next step of my political career. I am running for governor because I know someone with my background and experience can make a difference. We need sweeping change and we need it now.