As previously noted, the entire rationale for Oregon GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley's campaign seems to be that he is tall. After all, this is a guy who never previously demonstrated any interest in politics, and only bothered to vote in seven of the last thirteen elections. And his campaign runs on mindless GOP boilerplate: cutting taxes, cutting government, cutting trees, and cutting land use laws. He's so politically clueless that he tries to attack Democratic nominee John Kitzhaber for things Kitzhaber didn't even do.
But Dudley is tall, and even though he had no discernible athletic skills, that alone allowed him to stick in pro basketball for a while as a career backup center. His main claim to NBA fame is as record holder for most free throws missed in a row. But he was very consistently tall, and he was a pro basketball player, and that provided him with a good deal of money and a bit of name recognition, and in the world of GOP politics, that's enough to launch a political career. Interest in or understanding of politics or policy is considered optional.
For some quarter century, the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association has held a debate between Oregon's gubernatorial candidates. They did again on Friday, except that it wasn't a debate because Dudley decided not to show. When you have no idea what you're talking about, it's probably best not to risk embarrassing yourself in front of people that do. On that level, Dudley may have been smart. As the Eugene Register-Guard editorialized:
Kitzhaber, a veteran of two terms as governor and 14 years in the Legislature, would have an advantage in any debate format. Kitzhaber knows state government from stem to stern — he could answer a question about highways by reciting statistics on vehicle registrations and the cost of asphalt, ending with suggestions for how to set the choke on a road grader. Kitzhaber would swamp Dudley with detail, expose gaps in his knowledge and catch him in contradictions.
Dudley’s best course in a race against Kitzhaber is to steer clear of such tar pits, and instead deliver a generic message of change. That’s what Dudley has done in his first two television advertisements. They say that it’s time to “turn the page on the politics of the past” and elect “a different kind of leader, a different kind of Republican.” The ads highlight Dudley’s work for the National Basketball Association players’ union and his foundation for children with diabetes. There’s nothing about Dudley’s positions on key issues.
Dudley has already learned a lesson about how easy it is to step into a trap. As Oregon school districts prepared to cut their budgets in response to the latest state revenue shortfall, Dudley urged that they avoid cutting physical education. That’s a defensible stand, but it invites the question of what should be cut instead. There is no right answer, and Dudley left the impression that he valued P.E. above reading or math. He’s kept quiet about the details of spending cuts, in education and elsewhere, ever since.
Even the generally conservative editorial board of The Oregonian was disappointed, pointing out that in such difficult times more debates are needed, not less. Because voters need to know for what the candidates stand. Besides P.E., that is. The East Oregonian, in conservative Pendleton, hardly could contain its disdain:
Our message to Mr. Dudley: Get in the game, take your best shot and show us you're the most valuable player.
Sports jargon and political manuevering aside, ducking this debate is simply disrespectful. Our voters and taxpayers deserve better.
Get with it, Mr. Dudley.
But Dudley apparently wants to follow in the footsteps of such inexperienced Republican luminaries as Bush and Schwarzenegger. Hide the inexperience and ignorance, and hope that name recognition is enough. And we know how that works out.