Pathway to Victory: Tim White

Tim White to Greg Walden:  

"Go become a lobbyist, which is what you have been, in all but name for a very long time."

The video look: earnest, sincere, fearless.

The campaign is entering a new phase. Pick me. It isn't just that I am right on the issues.

I am the one who can win.

Up through now the Democratic campaign for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 2nd District has been brand building and finding supporters.  By now the candidates have defined a sufficient niche that they hope they can be described, at least by the political activists. Those activist supporters would then be the ones to widen each candidate's circle and network of supporters.

Here is the branding, boiled down to fewer than seven adjectives:

Jennifer Neahring, the female doctor from Bend, who is pleasant and knows a lot about health care.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner, the forceful woman who seems really rooted with outdoor issues like water and agriculture, and who has gotten around the District.

Eric Burnette, the Bernie union-supporter guy from Hood River.

Raz Mason, the chaplain counselor school-teacher woman.

Michael Byrne, the stonemason neighborly worker guy.

Jim Crary, the retired lawyer guy who wants to change campaign finance, who ran before.

Tim White, the retired Chrysler guy who takes the fight right to Walden.

Taking it to Walden.

Tim White exemplifies the entrance into the new phase of the campaign, the one in which each candidate makes the case that he or she is the electable one in the general election. 

White is upfront making his case for electability,  via videos that are lightly produced: a fixed camera and White talking straight to the camera. Here is White's website: http://timwhiteoregoncd2.com    Click on "Media" in the menu along the upper right to see this and other videos at his website. 

My links on each video bring you directly to Youtube, where they are housed, an alternate path to the videos.

Click Here for video: General Election Strategy.

Tim White acknowledges that campaigns have been largely about securing the support of the activist left. "Some have turned this into 'who is the most liberal?'", he says. I suspect he realizes that he has not won that race, so he is turning that into a virtue. 

Candidates are drawn to the left in the early months of the campaign because the Bernie-left is where most of the energy is among Democrats, measured by who shows up at forums and gatherings. There are multiple Facebook groups for self-identified progressives, people talking of "Revolution" and "Resistance, and groups with Bernie Sanders' face in their cover photo. I am aware of no Facebook groups for self-identified "moderate, centrist Democrats who hope to win conservative Districts." Indeed, the progressive groups exile and remove members who express centrist heresy.

White said in his "Strategy to beat Greg Walden" video that "We live in a very conservative District where Democrats only comprise 30% of the vote. If the goal is to win a general election the strategy of 'who loves Bernie the most'" will fail. Instead, he said, his focus is "How can we win the general election." 

Click for video. 135,000 seniors in the District

White's approach is to talk about the kitchen table issues of family economics: improving your livelihood, jobs, affordable health care, opposition to pharmaceutical and telecom profiteering. A video warns that Walden will go along with the GOP effort to cut Social Security and Medicare. White would oppose that every step of the way.

White talks money, not identity or culture. It is not a conservative message, and it does not contradict Bernie, but there is, in fact, a particular focus by addressing money and not the culture war. He calls himself "a finance guy" and his insight and belief is that Walden loses the votes of people discontented over economic threats. Money issues cross party lines and culture lines of Republican-Democrat, urban-rural, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference. 

White's electability link to the acknowledged conservatives of the District is to speak to the fact that all people want jobs when they are young, and social security checks and Medicare when they retire.  

Message: Walden sold you out.

White's biography and manner suit this approach. He looks and talks like a retired businessman. No cowboy boots, no talk of leaning on a fence post, no claims that he is a union man or physician or craftsman. 

Demographically he is just like Walden: a mature white guy who owns suits and who operates successfully in a professional world. A lot of Democrats may be tired of prosperous white guy privilege, but in fact every photo of Congress or the Trump White House staff shows that people who look like Walden and White are the default choice of voters. Since 2nd District voters proved they were comfortable personally with Walden they would presumably like White, too, on identity issues.

The difference is policy. White says Walden wants to endanger your pocketbook by doing what the GOP and donors want: cutting taxes for the rich and making it up by cutting Social Security for citizens. White, in contrast, would defend Social Security.  Walden does what his donors want. White, in contrast, would do what the people of the District want.  And White, the fighter,  has the temperament to say it without pussy-footing around.  

That is how White hopes to win the primary and general election.