First the bad news: Chris Dudley, basketball star-cum-politician who couldn't even be bothered to live in Oregon while he played for the Trailblazers (but also couldn't be bothered to stay away enough to meet the requirements for not paying taxes, the whole reason a bought a residence in Camas), is leading former Governor John Kitzhaber, M.D., in fundraising, almost at a clip of 2-to-1. This, obviously, will not do.
So what's the good news? Kitzhaber continues to kick ass, as expected, on policy and, you know, competence.
John Kitzhaber knows his stuff. He's got serious ideas for creating jobs immediately, rethinking how we fund public services, and knows what he believes on a series of issues - large and small.
Chris Dudley is easily baffled when he's asked to move off his talking points. A simple question from Jeff Mapes - that asked him to name one place in Oregon where the wrong kind of development was happening - and he went all deer-in-the-headlights. Same on beer and wine tax.
Of course Kitzhaber knows his stuff - he was a kick-ass governor the first time around and actually had policy goals and visions for Oregon. We have his efforts in the Oregon Senate to thank for the Oregon Health Plan, which at the time was little short of revolutionary in terms of health care delievery and access. But that's not even all he did:
Once in office, Kitzhaber undertook several major policy initiatives. He oversaw the expansion of the Oregon Health Plan, which eventually reduced the rate of uninsured Oregon children from 21% to 8%. Kitzhaber also broke new ground with the Oregon Option, a cooperative approach with the federal government that attempted to increase accountability and reduce bureaucracy related to the delivery of a number of government services. As one result, the state reduced the number of welfare caseloads more than 50 percent, saved more than $200 million in the state budget, and helped nearly 20,000 Oregonians find work. Kitzhaber also introduced the Oregon Children's Plan, which was designed to identify and assist at-risk children and their families. The plan sought to focus resources on front-end prevention and treatment instead of after-the-fact intervention.
Kitzhaber developed several policy initiatives related to natural resources during his two terms as governor. For example, his Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds attempted to restore dwindling runs of endangered native salmon species to Oregon's rivers and streams. The Oregon Plan was a collaborative effort that encouraged federal, state and local government agencies to work with private landowners to restore watershed health and recover endangered salmon runs. In a related effort, he also took a high profile and controversial stand in favor of breaching several Northwest dams to help restore salmon populations.
Managing growth, particularly in the Willamette Valley, drew Kitzhaber's attention as well. A staunch supporter of Oregon's comprehensive land use system, he fought against attempts to weaken its protection of farmland and enforcement of urban growth boundaries. Kitzhaber also created the Governor's Growth Task Force and the Willamette Valley Livability Forum to help gather accurate information and outline integrated approaches for developing sustainable communities. His related Community Solutions program attempted to focus the efforts of numerous state agencies, other governments, and interested groups in collaborative problem solving and coordination to manage various community development projects across Oregon.
Kitzhaber also advocated for stable education funding, implementation of the Education Act for the 21st Century, and increased investment in Oregon's colleges and universities. However, solutions to the chronic lack of stable funding for public education continued to elude Kitzhaber as he left office in 2003.
Dudley says we need people with experience other than government, but he never does manage to explain what about basketball lends itself to governance. I guess being tall makes for good photo ops, but I don't see how it imparts executive experience. And what has Dudley been doing since he retired from the Trailblazers?
Dudley’s post-NBA career took two paths: the continuation of his charitable foundation, which primarily runs a summer camp for kids who—like Dudley—are diabetic, and a new job as a financial adviser.
Dudley, who, according to databasebasketball.com, earned at least $38 million in his 16-year NBA career, does not take a salary from his foundation.
The second role, which at least deals with economic growth on a smaller scale, began in the fall of 2006, when Dudley passed the certified financial planner’s exam. He hired on as a vice president in the newly formed wealth management arm of M Financial, a Portland-based provider of insurance policies for corporate executives.
Dudley left M Financial after two years. In October 2008, he joined Gerald Graves, an M Financial alum, in a three-person Lake Oswego shop called Filigree Advisors.
Graves, according to Filigree’s website, has worked in financial services for 24 years. In federal filings, the firm reported that it manages just over $55 million for 25 clients in Oregon and California. That’s a healthy average balance—more than $2 million per client—for a start-up firm.
Since retiring as Governor, Kitzhaber has remained involved in a variety of policy initiatives and causes, holding executive and advisory roles for lots of good stuff:
After leaving the governor’s office, Kitzhaber took on two new roles. Both drew on his medical training and policy experience.
He became president of the Estes Park Institute, a Colorado nonprofit that arranges national training conferences for doctors and hospital administrators.
... Kitzhaber also worked locally after 2003 as chairman of healthcare policy for the Foundation for Medical Excellence, which draws funding from a variety of local healthcare organizations. There, Kitzhaber designed and implemented training and educational programs for doctors and healthcare professionals.
...Foundation president Ed Keenan says Kitzhaber also lectured widely to groups such as the national Institute for Healthcare Improvement on healthcare reform and approaches to cost containment.
Most notably, he founded the Archimedes Movement.
Our health care system was built around policies and programs put in place during the last century. While these may have made sense at the time they were adopted, the economic, demographic and natural environment in which they operate has changed dramatically over the years. These polices and programs have not evolved, and continue to reflect the realities of the past, rather than the challenges of the future.
Furthermore, the outdated structure of our health care system is protected within the political process by powerful economic interest deeply invested in the status quo. Maintaining these outdated structures increasingly depends on the unsustainable consumption of financial resources that rightly belong to future generations.
Building A Grassroots Movement - We're discussing the limitations of the current health care debate and how we change the focus of the debate to include the true causes of the health care crisis, the need to have a shared vision of where we are trying to get to and build grassroots demand for change that cannot be ignored.
Sustained dedication to the needs of society versus tax shelters and investments for people who have everything they want. How is this race even close!?!!? Well, I'd wager that has to do with Filigree's client list and that money advantage Dudley holds, but what the hell do I and my Cheetos-stained fingers know?