Field Report: A State Senator Alan DeBoer's Morning

The Governor was in town.  Speaking and getting media attention.

Watching.  Paying attention.

State Senator Alan DeBoer was there, too.     Listening.  Learning.   

He spent a long morning learning about High School Career and Technical Education.   Is there a political market for a quiet, conscientious, mellow, cordial Republican?

I was there up close for 90 minutes of the events Thursday morning. Big speech for the Governor, proclamations, meet-and-greet. That all started at 9:30 a.m. Nice photo opportunities.  

Kate Brown has raised her game.  Her speech had sparkle and enthusiasm.  She articulated the unifying progressive mission of prosperity, security, and opportunity.  

Mail Tribune.  All about Kate Brown.

America can be great for all of us, she said.   There is room for everyone to pursue happiness. Governments are here to enable all of us to have a shot at prosperity and happiness, and it can happen in one generation if we get training, work hard, and play by the rules.  You can do this, she told the students.

It was a non-political event, but she got her political reward.  The Mail Tribune had two photos on page one.  There was a 500 word story.  

State Senator Alan DeBoer also handled it well.  Responsibly.   He was largely uncredited.  

Kate Brown mentioned him three times, but DeBoer's name wasn't mentioned in the Tribune story.  He was there, working, but on the sidelines of attention.  

DeBoer was doing the hard, silent, often uncredited work of being a conscientious legislator.  We are all better off if legislators listen and learn before they create laws, and have facts and nuance rather than lobbyist talking points to guide them.  It seems fair to mention it and credit him, and I do.

His day started early, at 7:30 a.m.

Both Brown and DeBoer attended a long meeting of educators, employers, and state officials. Then, after the big speech, they toured facilities.  It lasted until nearly noon. 

DeBoer has not yet announced whether he will run for re-election. His time and work on Thursday suggest he is committed to the job. He may run from a sense of duty.  

Democrats will find DeBoer an unconventional--and formidable--Republican candidate.   I sat beside him during the speech and the questions that followed.  He applauded Kate Brown like a Democrat--or perhaps like a very polite, conscientious, not particularly partisan Republican.  He applauded her answer saying the Siskiyou National Monument contained valuable diversity of species and needed full protection.  He applauded her answer regarding the contribution of DACA designees to the American culture and economy.

Between Meetings.

Did he intend to applaud?  Well, he was "on the record" in the sense that he was in straight camera shot of multiple TV cameras, and it would have been an opportunity to make distinctions and objections, had he felt the need.  He applauded.

The current national brand of Republicans desire conflict to define political turf and positioning.  Land Monuments reduce land for potential mining, so oppose them. Children brought here illegally are here illegally, and what part of "illegal" is unclear?; deport them.  

DeBoer handles this differently. He doesn't appear to define himself in opposition to progressive Democrats, nor to taxes, nor to public services. He seems to want to be part of a legislature that governs reasonably.   He wants to keep Democrats from getting a 3/5 majority in the Senate, a rule that puts some constraints on the majority party.

If he runs, DeBoer may confound the Democratic wave predicted for 2018.  He breaks the GOP mold. DeBoer is no Trump. He may not energize Democrats to oppose him.  On the other hand, he has been around for years.  Surely, not everyone had a great experience at his car dealerships.  He lost a re-election bid for Ashland mayor.

He may not run for re-election.  I think he dislikes being misunderstood and criticized bitterly.  People in his district, and throughout the state, will question his votes, his motives, his judgement.  Some are already publishing articles in his hometown newspaper saying he sold out to his campaign donors, that he is a toady for his GOP caucus, that he flip flops.  

I suspect he wants to be understood as a man doing his best and working hard at it.  His friends will think that of him, and voice it.   People who disagree with him on issues will assume his intentions are bad and his motives impure, and will say so repeatedly.  No one likes that.  He may have a "Plan B."  Jessica Gomez appears to be gearing up for something.  She is a businesswoman in technology.  Fresh blood.  

He won't get much credit for spending 5 hours learning about technical education. Being a legislator is thankless.  But he will have hell to pay from people who disagree with his vote on Measure 101 and a million other things, some real, some imagined, some invented. What a drag.