Alley releases new campaign ad calling Westlund 'career politician'

State treasurer candidate Allen Alley (R-Lake Oswego) released an ad Monday that touts his business record and implies that his campaign rival, state Sen. Ben Westlund (D-Tumalo), does not have the experience to navigate Oregon through the country’s current economic crisis.

Alley talked about his work for Pixelworks, the company he founded and about the billions of dollars in sales and hundreds of jobs he created through the Oregon-based tech company. The ad also shows an award Alley won from Portland Business Journal in 2002 for Technology Executive of the Year.

Alley has been campaigning on his business experience, saying that sort of training is ideal for the state treasurer position. He has also cautioned voters that the legislative experience Westlund has is not ideal for the executive position.

“My opponent, a career politician sees no need for change,” Alley says in the ad. “This is no time for on-the-job training.”

Westlund’s campaign was quick accuse Alley of misrepresenting both himself and Westlund in the ad. They issued a fact-checking video in response. Regarding the growth of Pixelworks, the Westlund campaign shows a chart of the tech company’s steadily declining stock, and that most of the jobs he created were outsourced to China.

And, as scrutiny on Golden Parachute for executives has taken center stage in the Wall Street crisis, the Westlund campaign pointed to Alley’s own severance package he received in 2006 when he stepped down as CEO of Pixelworks in 2006. Alley got $125,000 a year plus health benefits after his resignation.

The Westlund campaign also completed Westlund’s sentence which Alley quoted in the ad. Alley had pointed to a newspaper article in which Westlund said he didn’t see a reason for change, but, as the Westlund camp pointed out, that was not the entire statement. Westlund had said that while everything was under-performing, Oregon still had one of the best-performing portfolios in the nation, and he did not want to change that.