The Write-in Choice for Congress

Sporting skin in a kids pool, and a beer while surfing in Bali is not how a candidate for Congress usually introduces themselves. But, when you've worked so many gig jobs, in so many warehouses and auto sales lots, and talked to so many people while covering sports for four decades, you get the feeling that the world can handle your personality, and that's the key to my campaign.

Plenty of the players in Congress have law degrees, are experienced executives with small or large businesses, and are doctors, but that's not me. My true strength is in story-telling: as a journalist, a writer, a driver, photographer, videographer, historian, husband, father and family member.

There isn't enough story-telling inside the House of Representatives - people looking to put ideas together and into a story form so that other people will listen and hear what they're saying. That's how I see Washington, D.C. from afar.

One of my key goals will be expanding the understanding of the First Amendment.

The First Amendment - freedom of speech/story telling.

What I think gets lost in regards to the First Amendment is the ability to hear the stories being told by someone who does not share your values entirely. Basically, people who are registered Republicans talk, but don't listen to Democrats just as people who are registered Democrats talk, but don't listen to Republicans. This is a huge factor in our nation becoming so divided.

Portland, Oregon, Adventureland

I'm an Oregonian, having grown up at the foot of Rocky Butte during the days when 'The Oregon Trail' computer game was released for us sixth graders at Jason Lee Elementary.

The Mac came along just in time for my days at Benson High, where I studied hydraulics, worked magic with sheet metal, and learned the art of newspaper editing and sports broadcasting. I got to drive Princesses in the Rose Parade, develop a love for jogging, and as a senior I worked at The Oregonian answering phones in the Sports Department on game nights.

I also was Oregon's High School Journalist of the Year in 1986, and built a '23 Model-T roadster with my dad, which helped pay for college. Fairly busy times.

At the University of Oregon, I studied Journalism, started the student publication Oregon Voice with several friends and learned youth basketball coaching. Among the many UO games I attended as a student was a basketball victory over No. 3 Arizona my senior year. I was in the front row at Mac Court until the game ended, at which point I was on the court.

After my freshman year, I had the best job anyone could have: Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland. The key point of the eight-minute script I learned was when the hippo charged the boat and the skipper grabbed the gun. I learned very quickly the gun needed to be pointed skyward, not directly at the hippo. "The point is to scare the hippo away not kill it." That's a pretty good challenge for society these days.

 Working part-time in the sports department at The Register-Guard led to a full-time job at The News-Review in Roseburg for three years. I worked the color man role for radio broadcasts of Roseburg High girls basketball games, coached middle school girls basketball (and got paid for it) and covered the Dr. Stewart's American Legion baseball program - arguably the finest Legion program in America. 

Before one baseball game, I actually sang the national anthem.

North Portland, sports media and family

The late '90s were filled with plenty of game coverage of the Mt. Hood Conference for The Oregonian as a freelance writer. With a day job as well all that freelancing, I found a way into a house in North Portland's Arbor Lodge neighborhood - one of the least crime impacted parts of the metro area still (very lucky to have stumbled into that area).

Owning a house led to finding my lovely wife Teresa (we just passed 25 years of marriage), and then kids Sydney and Reese, who are both grads of Benson Tech as well. Those kids and house upkeep has kept us parents busy for the bulk of the 21st Century so far. Even with our kids being full-on Gen Z, and worried very much about the future of the world, they're still responsive to family gatherings for dinner, Winterhawks games and family games such as Exploding Kittens and The Jungle Cruise (yes, it's a game, too).

My career focus has been on finding a way to make oregonsports.com into an effective business beyond just reporting news, something that has been a consistent challenge - and is still a challenge. That has led to plenty of gig jobs such as Uber and Lyft, Door Dash and GrubHub, as well as employment at all three Amazon fulfillment centers in North Portland for the holiday rush.

My interest in community sports media and graphic design as well as history has led me to frequent involvement with Jefferson High School's sports program, namely the football team, as well as the Portland Community College basketball program. And, there's the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, where I've frequently been involved in events such as being the red carpet photographer for the annual induction banquet.

Seeing so much of the community from covering events and delivering both people and food, has given me plenty of opportunities to see where our society is, and then dream of where it might go, something very needed right now due to Gen Z's loss of belief in the path our government is creating. 

My interest in running for office has come from the energy I get from my family, and from the belief I can make a difference in building a better future by connecting the vision I have for that future with government's ability to get things done - something it's not doing a good job of now.

Being a write-in candidate is actually very inspiring in that it's gotten me to challenge the views of what a progressive candidate should really be addressing such as how do Democrats win the votes of Republicans during an election and vice versa. Is it possible to promote compromise during the election process and not just wait for some bi-partisan mumbo jumbo in Congress?

As much as I need your vote, I'm continuing to believe the public needs my efforts to challenge where we are and might be with our democracy through this campaign.

America's democracy is not just in danger from the campaign of Donald Trump, but it's in danger from the lack of commitment to leadership from the two-party system that's helped divide our nation along party lines, and away from the belief that communities can work together even when everyone does not agree on specific issues.

I see one solution to a more positive future as our ability to Make America Amazing Again by doing great things.

One of the greatest things we can do in the next two months is vote me into office, something that won't just be great, but historic. In doing that we're going to need the amazing action of citizens using the write-in line that's always been there to actually write in a name other than Donald Duck.

Campaigning is turning into quite an amazing experience, not only with making a message clearer every day for voters to hear, but with managing that message through the eyes of a journalist so the storyline gets out to as many people as possible.

I believe in the reality of one candidate winning a significant portion of the votes from both major parties, something that just does not happen in today's political world, at least not without that person already being in office.

And, write-in? Well, I'm a big fan of history, so this is my shot at making history along with all the people who'll make their votes count historically and not just check a box.