A few years back, when I was still a State Senator, I attended a workshop, which was put on by the Council of State Governments regional arm, CSG-West, an organization I also chaired for a year.
This particular workshop was focused on how legislators can build credibility –through improved accountability– with their constituents. At the outset of the workshop, the keynote speaker asked who in this room of legislators could do 20 push-ups. Thinking nothing of it and being the eager beaver that I am, I quickly raised my hand as did a few others.
The speaker then spent the next 15 minutes talking about some key functions of building and maintaining accountability with constituents, delivering on campaign promises and engaging groups back inside the district.
With that lesson delivered, the speaker conducted a little real-world experiment, recalling the claim I and a few others had made regarding these 20 push-ups. She invited me and one other legislator, a gentleman from New Mexico, up to do the 20 push-ups we had promised her we could do. This was a moment of truth.
The good news for Oregon; I did them pretty easily. The bad news for New Mexico; their legislator couldn’t do his.
This drove the message home for me: If you’re going to commit to something during the campaign, you need to make absolutely sure that you can deliver on them once you’ve been elected.
When I was running for this office, I made three major promises to the voters of this state:
- That I was going to restore integrity to the initiative process
- That I was going to undertake a comprehensive civic engagement program
- That I was going to focus our work in the Audits division on performance auditing
When I took office, I remembered that day when I was called up to do 20 push-ups. Taking a high profile position in State government, I knew that I was going to be held to my word on the campaign trail, so I started right in, working on fulfilling those promises.
Continue reading ‘Oregon Secretary of State Brown – 20 Push-ups’
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