Tim White: Campaign Update

"Democrats, we need to get mad."

Tim White calls himself a "Fighter for Oregon's 2nd District." 

Tim White

Tim White has found his niche. Each of the seven candidates running for the Democratic nomination for Congress has settled into his or her brand and can envision a path to victory. Tim White started out the campaign labeling himself as a "fighter." It turned out that he was the only candidate who wanted that label.

White could have backed off. With a wide open niche, he could have settled for projecting dismay rather than direct disagreement, and still had the niche mostly to himself. Early in the campaign he half-tried that. He was divided--literally. I watched him in two forums in the Rogue Valley. In person he  cited data more than the other candidates, but there was no projection of moral indignation. But he was a different man on his website and  blog. He laid into Trump and Walden in writing.

At the time I asked him about the big difference. He said he recognized the split personality and said it was intentional. He said he was comfortable being direct in his writing, but didn't want to look wild or unhinged in person. 

He has his head together now. He is angry with Greg Walden and he tells us why. He knows he sounds angry and he calls attention to it, lest we miss it. He wants the label. He is fighting mad.

He is more than just the "retired Chrysler guy."  Now he is the "retired Chrysler guy who is in Walden's face."

Click Here: 60 Minute Town Hall

Tim White looks and sounds like he was comfortable in his job as a Chrysler executive. His manner is competent and familiar to people who have worked in a business setting. He looks like a data-driven manager, explaining the need for a new course of action to colleagues. He has done his homework. He has binders of compiled data on each issue. He looks like he is ready to stand and give a Power Point analysis, showing stated goals, bullet points of data documenting failure of the current practice to meet those goals, and then proposed changes. 

Walden is the current practice. Here is the data.  Replace him. Straightforward and reasonable.

Now White has added a moral dimension. Walden, in his role as a GOP leader in the House, is wrong.  He lied to us and he is harming the citizens he promised to serve. They stole a Supreme Court seat. They are wasting our money. They are insulting immigrants.

Darned right he is angry.

Tim White is easily the most quotable of the candidates. I have seen very little in TV or print media about him, so White is doing what he can with a bad situation: he is making his own videos. He has produced video segments on specific topics plus three hour-long video Town Halls where he talks about a variety of topics. They are streamed live, then preserved on his Facebook site. 

His talk is punctuated with quotable nuggets: 

*** "The progressive seat on the Supreme Court was stolen from us."

*** "Kids are not chips at a poker table." Trump is "acting like a spoiled child."

*** "160,000 people benefited from the Affordable Care Act. To do this [i.e. cut it] he can't be a nice person. There has to be a meanness to him."

*** "Trump want to privatize the V.A." Veterans "need the specialized services that only the V.A. can provide." We shouldn't try to "screw them to save another dollar." 

*** "I will lay on the tracks if they try to cut Social Security or Medicare."

*** "I am considered the policy wonk. See these binders? I did my homework."

*** "What really makes me angry is seeing Democrats sit idly by. And I'm sorry that the only one I think ever really stands up and shows the backbone all Democrats should be [showing] is Liz Warren. If that makes me the angry candidate, sign me up!"

Click Here: 91 minute video of Bend forum

Five of the six other candidates notice Tim White's style of taking it directly to Walden, and they think it doesn't fit them and that it will backfire on White. The thinking seems to be that voters of the District had voted for Trump and Walden and therefore sharp criticism of them is an indirect insult of the voters' judgement. They want the language of bridge-building and unity. We are all in this together.

Only Michael Byrne defends White's tone, saying "The other candidates lack a little fire in the belly. You should write that 'Mike Byrne doesn't think Tim is angry. Mike Byrne thinks he's on fire'. Tim White and I are the only ones who will tell Greg Walden right to his face that he's a liar. The other's would say 'He's dissembling' or say he's being 'disingenuous'.  Come on! There's a lot at stake here."

All the candidates realize they need to change votes in order to win.  Walden won with 70% of the vote. Some are looking to coax a change, saying they can be trusted because they are personally so much like the voters.  Eric Burnette has his Bernie/union niche; he is one of them. Neahring is the trusted physician. Crary lives in the woods. 

White is going for connection in a different way.  White watches Walden, Trump, and the world and he sees things that make him angry and he appears to be betting there are a lot of other indignant people who are angry, too. That's the connection.

The 2016 election demonstrated that there was public appetite for anger. Trump looked at the respectful language of Barrack Obama and defined it as "weakness."  Bernie Sanders was angry about economic injustice. Donald Trump was angry about everything. People responded to anger. What White does not do is overt reaching out to people as members of the grievance groups--other than Native Americans ("You will have no stronger congressman than Tim White.") and seniors. I heard no special mention of the problems faced by women as women, about sexual harassment, about equal pay, about problems faced by people of color because of their color, nor that of the LGBTQ community, nor the poor as poor. 

I heard nothing about barriers. Tim White is a prosperous, white male retiree (as am I) and what was not said may be noticed by others whose votes he seeks. They may conclude that White doesn't really "get" them because he did not seem to notice their special problems.

Voters angry with Walden might respond to Tim White if they heard him.  He is hoping to use social media  to get out the word. So far, White has not "gone viral". His video presentation on Social Security got 800 hits, he said. One on jobs got 240. He is getting out and talking to people one on one, but the emotion that rewards the angry truth-teller is the enthusiasm that comes from mass movements, and I have not yet seen a big White wave.

But someone will win the primary and Tim White had established his niche and has a shot.  He feels good about his prospects in a general election.

Tim White is itching for a one on one debate. In a corporate setting facts matter and the facts are on White's side, he says. He is prepared to demonstrate, point by point, that Walden is dead wrong, that he hurt people right here in the District, and that he shamelessly lied about it.  

Voters should be mad as hell and want change.

[Author's Note: I welcome comments. I prefer signed ones. I will delete hit-and-run potshot comments on any candidate of either party.  I have spoken individually with each of the candidates, some more than others, Tim White the least.  

I have made financial contributions to three candidates in this race as "thank-you" and apology tokens. I told each of the candidates that the contribution should not be considered an endorsement.  I expect to vote, but have not yet decided for whom.]