BEND -- Ben Westlund's campaign manager,
Stacey Dycus, stares into a locked, glass-walled room guarded by a sign that
warns "Authorized staff only!"
Inside, you won't find any big checks or even secret new TV ads promoting
the independent candidate for governor. Instead, there are just petition
sheets, containing thousands of voter signatures.
"They are worth more than you know," Dycus says. "They can't be replicated."
Indeed, Westlund's entire campaign now hangs on those petitions. While
Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Republican Ron Saxton are gearing up
their fall campaigns, Westlund, a state senator and former Republican, has
to focus on navigating a complicated signature-gathering process to qualify
for the November ballot.
Dycus said Monday that Westlund's campaign has gathered some 36,000
signatures, about twice the 18,368 he needs to get on the ballot. She's
confident he will be successful. But nobody knows how many of those
signatures are valid, and Westlund still could be as much as six weeks away
from formally qualifying for the ballot.
In the meantime, Westlund and his campaign aides are making a virtue of his
status as a candidate in ballot limbo.
"Is it better if the day after I declared I could have plunked down enough
signatures to qualify? Sure," said Westlund, who announced his candidacy on
Feb. 14. "But there's a benefit, too. We're going out every day to have
conversations with Oregonians one-on-one."
Westlund has opened up campaign offices in five cities and has paid
canvassers collecting signatures around the state. Volunteers also have
downloaded hundreds of petition sheets from his Web site. Unlike many
independent and minor party candidates, Westlund is trying to mount a
serious challenge by running as a centrist who can appeal to voters in the
broad political middle.
Dan Lavey, a Republican political consultant, said Westlund probably has
benefited by building up a campaign staff that is out gathering grass-roots
support in the name of signatures.
Poll standings
But Lavey said Westlund also has a lot of catching up to do if he's going to
have a credible chance of beating Kulongoski and Saxton, both of whom are
running far ahead of Westlund in the polls.
"He's going to have to do something really unusual and compelling to capture
people's attention," Lavey said.
Both the Saxton and Kulongoski campaigns tend to minimize Westlund's
influence so far.
"My sense is he has not built up any real traction," said Jim Ross,
Kulongoski campaign manager, noting that Westlund largely has been
unsuccessful in peeling away unions or other liberal groups from endorsing
the governor.
Saxton's campaign manager, Felix Schein, said he doesn't think Westlund has
done much to appeal to Republican voters. Instead, he noted, Westlund has
talked up his support for such things as a sales tax, universal health care
and gay rights.
"At this point Westlund isn't having a perceivable impact on our campaign or
on the race," Schein said.
Outsiders talking
Dycus said both political parties have an interest in raising doubts about
whether Westlund will make the ballot. But it has clearly been a topic of
conversation in political circles as lobbyists, consultants and other
insiders ponder whether Westlund will run afoul of the cumbersome rules for
independent candidacies.
Under a law approved by the 2005 Legislature, Westlund and other independent
candidates can only collect signatures from voters who did not participate
in the Republican or Democratic primaries in May.
As a result, some 333,000 Democrats and 318,000 Republicans -- totaling
about one-third of the state's 2 million registered voters -- are of no help
to Westlund canvassers.
The Westlund campaign plans to begin turning in signatures this week to
county elections offices, which will have the job of checking the number of
valid signers. In the hopes of picking up media coverage, Westlund himself
will turn in signatures in Deschutes, Washington and Lane counties.
The process
After the signatures are validated, the campaign will turn them in to the
secretary of state by Aug. 29. The secretary of state has until Sept. 7 to
certify whether Westlund makes the ballot.
Dycus said canvassers would continue to collect signatures for at least a
couple of weeks while she monitors how many of the signatures are valid. It
appears that the earliest Westlund could qualify for the ballot is the
latter half of August.
To keep his name before the public, Westlund has been running television
advertisements, although in a relatively modest volume. As of June 5, he had
reported raising $430,000 in cash and nearly $190,000 in pledges.
While that is a strong showing for an independent, he'll have to do much
better to match Saxton and Kulongoski, who are aiming for
multimillion-dollar campaigns.
Westlund figured he'll need to raise $2.5 million to run a credible
campaign, and he left open the possibility he would dip into family money.
Both he and his wife, Libby, come from wealthy families, and Westlund ran a
successful business for several years selling bull semen.
"We will be competitive in this race," vowed Westlund when asked whether
family money would go into his candidacy. He refused to provide any
specifics, however.
Jeff Mapes: 503-221-8209; jeffmapes@news.oregonian.com