Local man hopes first election win is a big one

If you can’t get elected county commissioner, state representative, or even win a seat on the local school board, why not run for Leader of the Free World?

That’s what Eugene’s Mark Callahan has decided to do.

The perennial local candidate filed last month to run as a Republican for U.S. president in 2012.

“It’s always been a long-term goal,” Callahan said Friday.

But shouldn’t he spruce up his résumé first, maybe win a local election, work his way up to, say, governor or U.S. senator?

“That’s just it,” said Callahan, who has twice been a candidate for state representative in the past two years, ran for the Lane County Board of Commissioners last year, and finished second last month in his attempt to unseat Eugene School Board Chairman Craig Smith. “Anybody can be president as long as you meet the three requirements,” he said of being at least 35, a native-born American and a U.S. resident for at least the past 14 years.

(Callahan is 34, but turns 35 next May).

“And I think I have kind of an advantage,” said Callahan, an unemployed computer technician and member of American’s conservative Tea Party movement. “I haven’t been governor, I haven’t been the CEO of a big company. When you think at their level, I don’t think you can relate to the common man.”

Callahan isn’t Eugene’s only 2012 presidential candidate, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. The alphabetical listing of candidates on the commission’s website contains 163 names thus far, including some you might know, such as current Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, etc. But the very last name on the list is William David Zollinger of Eugene’s River Road area. There’s no listing for a William Zollinger in the phone book, but there is a William Zollinger on Facebook who says he’s a 1988 North Eugene High School graduate. A message from The Register-Guard to Zollinger’s Facebook account had not been returned as of Friday afternoon.

A third Oregon candidate listed is Bob Forthan of Portland, whose campaign committee is listed as the Committee to Build Dome Homes.

Although there are many legitimate candidates on the FEC list, others tend to raise eyebrows.

How about HRM Caesar St. Augustine de Buonaparte Emperor of the United States of Turtle Island, a member of the Absolute Dictator Party? Or President Emperor Caesar?

Then there’s Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, a Republican candidate out of Temple Terrace, Fla., and a couple of candidates whose names alone — George Williams Washington and Rutherford Bert Hayes — sound presidential enough.

But Callahan, a 1995 Sheldon High graduate and 2000 Oregon State University graduate, says he is serious about this run to unseat Obama, even though he finished a distant second to Smith in the Eugene School Board race.

“It’s a bigger voter pool,” Callahan said of the presidential election.

Callahan actually filed with the FEC to run for president on May 10, a week before the school board election.

A letter he posted last month on his website, www.markcallahan.net, begins, “Hello and Welcome My Fellow Americans …”

He also filmed himself for a YouTube video, in front of a U.S. flag he bought at Wal-Mart, in which he recites the letter.

“My name is Mark Callahan,” he says in the video. “I am a father, I am an average American, and I love my country. I am also formally and officially declaring my candidacy for President of the United States, 2012.”

Callahan goes on to explain that his desire to run for political office came during a “moment of clarity” on Nov. 8, 2002, when the first of his two daughters, Heather, was born.

“At that specific moment in time, I promised to myself, and my daughter, that I would make the world, and our great nation, a better place for her to grow up in,” Callahan says in the video.

“My fellow Americans, I stand here today, ready to fulfill that promise, not only to my daughters, but to ‘We the People’ of our great country, as your next President of ‘Our’ United States of America.”

Callahan says he has done plenty of research, including e-mailing all 50 secretaries of state and contacting every state’s Republican party. He is also trying to land a spot in a July 10 Las Vegas debate sponsored by the Daily Caller, a Washington, D.C. political website, and Americans for Tax Reform.

“I have to do whatever it takes to make the world better,” Callahan said. “It may sound cheesy or corny, but it’s honestly what’s in my heart. I can’t just sit on my couch anymore.”