Saturday, January 28, 2006

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?

14 comments:

MAX Redline said...

Well done, Daniel!

This was a very cool, relaxed, and upbeat setting. There was no doubt in my mind that Senator Atkinson is a realist, and that's consummately refreshing.

Is he likely to gain endorsement from the Big O? No. Does it bother him? Not at all.

In far too many cases, voters hold their noses and select the candidate they dislike the least. Senator Atkinson made it clear that he intends to change that by giving voters a candidate to clearly vote for.

He's managing his money with an eye toward making every cent count, and I have no doubt that he'll bring that value to the state when elected as governor. He doesn't need the million dollar warchests that Mannix and Saxton are amassing. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have that kind of cash, but $20 here and there can be stretched to cover a lot of bases, and Atkinson understands that.

Saxton's already using his money on negative ads. Atkinson isn't going to go that route, and he doesn't need special-interest infusions. All he needs are minds of thinking people, hearts of caring people, and the votes that those people will cast.

Daniel said...

Well said Jay, you should make a post out of that.

Anonymous said...

The question of height begs yet another question, as compared to what?

Robin said...

Great post.

you covered the meeting well and it was great to finally get to meet you and some of the other wonderful bloggers.

Anonymous said...

WOW...Great points on the next CEO of the state.

No one,and I mean no one was more apathetic about any potential elected offical then me.

Wish the hell I had space to name names, and incidents, and promises made(and broken) to me and others on this issue that I'm as passionate about as Daniel is his.

What is damn true about both of us is our message that both deals are at critical mass and someone is going to get hurt like we never,ever seen.

The meeting I attended totally conviced me that JASON ATKINSON is the real deal.

I stated my reasons, my research of the issue, the facts as I know them to be, he asked good questions, said no on somethings he could not do, and assured me even if he wasn't elected that as a father,and a state senator that my kids and your kids would be a bunch safer then the elected officals that flat lied to me about what they could or would not do.

I have friends in law enforcement, corrections ,and advocates in Salem that tell me he could be the one.

The BLUE counties may have to take a backseat this time, and it's pastime they did. Jack Peek

Jim in KFalls said...

Daniel,
Your comment regarding Mr. Mannix is right on - you should get ahold of Lars, he may have the sound bite of Kevin's comments yesterday from his local show, Kevin pretty much dodged the illegal alien question that Lars presented him with.

Oh and for the record - it appears that the both of you are tall (at least in comparison to the guy behind both of you)

Daniel said...

I'm so glad to see you on board Jack!

RINO WATCH said...

Daniel,
Another good Saturday for you & now for us. Thank You!

RW's on board...

RE: Height....You ARE very tall in my book!

Robin said...

height... let me say that I have to "look up" to both of them

Anonymous said...

Jimbob!

I see that you have added the Atkinson Bloggers to your sidebar. Welcome aboard! Could you please e-mail me:

atkinson dot bloggers at gmail dot com

I'll need your contact information so that I can officially introduce you to the gang.

And if any of you other readers know how to reach Jimbob, please let him know, in case he doesn't check back and read this comment.

Anonymous said...

> it appears that the both of you are tall (at least in comparison to the guy behind both of you)


That may be so, but I bet the guy in the background has bigger feet...

Anonymous said...

you are short; very short physically, but shorter mentally.
And, by the way, you are very ugly!

Anonymous said...

Classic tactic of the left: you can't win an argument with facts or logic, so you derail it with baseless personal attacks.

Anonymous said...

Daniel tan asqueroso es tu aspecto como tus ideas y comentarios