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Walden mulls governor bid  

Lawmaker says he is still evaluating whether to run 
 
By LEE JUILLERAT 
H&N Regional Editor
September 4, 2009
H&N photo by Lee Juillerat -  U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, right, R-Ore., talks  with Lakeview resident Mickey Schultz.
 

     LAKEVIEW — Will he or won’t he?

 

     U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said he is still mulling over whether he’ll run as a Republican candidate for Oregon governor.

 

   “We’re trying to figure that all out,” Walden  said following a Wednesday talk at the Lakeview Rotary Club. “I’m still evaluating all that. I’ve got to make a decision on the governor’s race at some point.”

 

   Walden, who’s serving his sixth two-year term in the House of Representatives, has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2010 election.  

 

     State Sen. Jason Atkinson of Central Point said Thursday he would run against Allen Alley in the May 18 Republican primary. Two-time governor John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, announced Wednesday he will seek a third term in 2010.         

 

     Walden was in Lakeview Wednesday and in Klamath Falls Thursday.

 

     “I’m still enjoying all the work I do,” he said. “I’ve got 11 years invested in this system in Washington, D.C., and I’ve got it figured out. That’s a pretty big investment in time and energy, and a big investment by the voters in me.”

 

     Walden, 52, live s in Hood River and will begin the first leg of his 377th roundtrip between Oregon and Washington, D.C. — “That’s a lot of time on airplane seats” — when he returns to the Capitol Tuesday.

 

   His district includes a geographic area that includes most of Oregon, but only about a fifth of its population.

 

   Walden, as he has on swings around his district, expressed deep concern Wednesday with proposals by the Obama administration that he said would massively expand the federal deficit if proposed health care and other legislation is passed by the Democrat controlled Congress.

 

   “I’m deeply concerned about where Obama is headed,” he said. “The speed and scope of this legislation is breathtaking.”

 

   Walden also sounded like a candidate for governor.

 

   “As a lifelong Oregonian, a native Oregonian, I just care a lot about where it (Oregon) is headed,” he said, referring to proposed state measures that would increase taxes and “out of control spending, out of control government.”  

 

   Although his comments were made before he learned of Kitzhaber’s decision to run, Walden alluded to the former Democrat governor, recalling Kitzhaber’s frequently voiced frustrations during his second term.

 

   Change

 

   Walden also believes the hold on the governorship by four different Democrat governors needs to be changed.

 

   “We’ve been down this path for a long time,” he said, referring to governors Neil Goldschmidt, Barbara Roberts , Kitzhaber and current Gov. Ted Kulongoski. The last Republican governor was Victor Atiyeh, who left office in January 1987.

 

   “We’re standing on that foundation they built, and it’s crumbling,” he said.  

 

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