Governor Atkinson

I just came back from a meeting with fellow bloggers and gubernatorial candidate Senator Jason Atkinson.

It was a very positive experience and further justified my support of this candidate. Senator Atkinson is down to earth, intelligent and really wants to take Oregon in the right direction.

In my first "Why I support Atkinson" post back in August I listed various reasons to get behind his candidacy, most of which were the special interest group ratings. Just a quick rehash:

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon: 0%

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon: 0%

Taxpayer Association of Oregon: 100%

Oregon Christian Coalition: 100%

The same thing can't be said about Senator Atkinson's opponents.

One of the issues that I'm most passionate about is illegal immigration (Really? We couldn't tell...) and Senator Atkinson was the first to come out and say "no voting, no drivers license, no social services" for illegal aliens. He reiterated this position today.

This is in contradistinction to candidate Mannix whose campaign staffer isn't quite sure what an illegal alien is apparently and I still hold a personal grudge against Mannix for this incident.

While Atkinson is a true gentleman and will not refer to his opponents by name when discussing their differences I am a lone operator and I operate under a different set of rules, namely my own.

So now, the loyal reader are wondering; "What can I do to help this candidate?"

The bare minimum is: you can vote for him! Since you were alreadly planning to do that maybe you would like to see what you can do to make sure that other people vote for him.

Talk to your neighbors, talk to your co-workers, talk to your church, your Cub Scout leaders, the guys that you watch the Superbowl with. (Kulongoski has the "bowling" demographic locked up but since I am going bowling with the scouts on Monday I will try to make a dent in his influence there...)

Second, campaigns run on money. Saxton, you know, the guy who supports abortion, is raising lot's of it. Mannix just takes from the Republican coffers to pay off his personal debt. Senator Atkinson is raising money through grassroots efforts and he plans to be a steward of his campaign money like he has been with tax dollars in the Senate. So rest assured that your donation of $25 or $50 will be stretched to the max. Donations can be sent here and don't forget, it's a new tax year and you can take advantage of Oregon's political tax credit.

Third, the Atkinson Blogger Network will be organizing coordinated posts to get this candidate some national attention. This will probably involve us putting out an email address of someone and asking you to send an email voicing your support for Atkinson and requesting that the subject of our post interview/talk about our candidate. Please take the two minutes to send those emails and please visit the other blogs on the network. They are a good group of people.


The eternal question: Am I short or is Senator Atkinson tall?