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Candidate's in it for the long haul First, he's getting to know the country By Vicki Guarino of the Mail Tribune Brian Anderson. Remember the name. Today he's just another one of the guys cleaning up construction debris in north Medford. But in two decades, Anderson vows, he'll be back as a candidate for U.S. president. "Obviously, there's a lot of things I need to do before then," the eventual candidate says. He is doing one of them now. Anderson, 27, is in Medford on Day 135 of a 1,000-day zigzag across the country. The Michigan State graduate with a degree in accounting says he is getting to know the nation he one day wants to lead. Day 1, Anderson was in Los Angeles. Day 1,000, sometime in March 2002, Anderson might be in Washington, D.C. The trip and the underlying quest for the presidency grew from Anderson's own writing and musing on leadership, risk taking and decision making. By early 1997, he says, he came to realize that he wanted to be president. But he knew he had to get to know the country before he did anything else. After the trip, Anderson expects to return to school, perhaps to study public policy. He also says he needs to travel abroad and run for local office. He arrived in Medford Friday from Portland, and moves on today for Redding and Sacramento. Taking to heart the dictum that all politics is local, Anderson says he is trying to get a feel for the people and issues that drive communities. By Election 2020, issues no doubt will be different, but Anderson is betting that unchanged will be some underlying principles governing the why and how of events. Along the way, Anderson says, he's building up a network of acquaintances and a bank of memories he can draw on to fuel his campaign. He expects to know the country and the voters better than just about anyone by the time he is ready to ask for votes. Meanwhile, Anderson spends most days working for a nationwide day-labor company. He spends most nights camping: "Only where it's appropriate," he insists. In spare moments, he campaigns. Anderson hands out business cards and a few of a precious supply of bumper stickers. He also solicits media interviews. More important, Anderson says, he listens. In Oregon he has heard about hardships suffered as a timber industry gives way to services and technology. He knows that the issue of growth is sure to start an argument. And he was as baffled as many Oregonians were this week to see the effects of an election law mandating 50 percent turnout for passage of tax measures. If at least half the voters don't participate, a tax measure fails no matter how many people vote for it. "The `no' voters actually hurt themselves by getting out to vote," Anderson says in wonder. "I hadn't run into that before." So politics does come up once in a while, but politics, government and elections really aren't the point of the trip. Sampling the political scene is just part of getting to know the country, says Anderson. With a string of minimum-wage jobs, Anderson's journey obviously is operating on a shoestring. No advance team smooths Anderson's way. No headquarters staff raises money. Likewise, there's no party platform, no political machine, no soft money or political action committees. At the moment, Anderson is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, although he did help out in Gov. George W. Bush's re-election campaign in Texas. For now, there's just Anderson and a red Nissan with 190,000 miles. Clothes, books and files fill all but a small hole around the driver's seat. No matter where Anderson stops, he bolts an anti-theft bar to the steering wheel. "I can't afford to have anybody borrow my car," he says. He's quick to acknowledge that it's going to take something more than 1,000 days on the road to capture the Oval Office. "What I'm doing is building momentum," he says. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA