Opinion
A4
Thursday, July 29, 2021
OUR VIEW
Oregon Forest
Resources
Institute still
needed
he Legislature created the Oregon Forest
Resources Institute 29 years ago during the
timber wars, which featured battles over
logging, fi erce debates over the role of state and fed-
eral forests in the timber industry and, most remark-
ably, the protection of the northern spotted owl under
the federal Endangered Species Act.
The stakes were huge for Oregon’s economy. Since
2001, the timber industry has lost 15,000 direct jobs
— a drop of almost 18%.
The Legislature’s primary goal was to create an
agency that would provide information and educa-
tional material to the public and schools about the
timber industry and how it operates.
The problem: The legislation creating the OFRI
was vague about how that would be done.
Fast forward to 2021 and a state audit that found
the institute needs more oversight and direction.
The audit, requested by Gov. Kate Brown, fol-
lowed criticism that the OFRI had lobbied the Legis-
lature. Though many state agencies have “legislative
liaisons” that do pretty much the same thing, critics
felt the institute was out of line.
Any confusion can be attributed to the poorly
written state law.
“Portions of OFRI’s statute are broad and vague,
contributing to this ongoing lack of clarity as to
what exactly OFRI is and what rules it is expected to
follow,” according to the audit.
The legislative record referenced in the audit shows
lawmakers themselves were unclear about how the
institute should operate. If legislators didn’t know and
didn’t write a law that was clear, how could OFRI’s
leaders know?
The audit compares the OFRI to the 22 commodity
commissions, which the state Department of Agri-
culture oversees. The trouble with that comparison is
that in 1991, when the OFRI was created by the Leg-
islature, commodity commissions weren’t state agen-
cies. They were taken under the ODA’s wing years
later because of a series of judges’ rulings that found
the state could not require growers to give money to
private commissions.
By transforming the commissions into state agen-
cies the Legislature solved that problem. That allowed
them to promote the crop and fund research — and
lobby the Legislature.
With the benefi t of 20/20 hindsight, the Legisla-
ture probably could do the same with OFRI, except
put it under state Department of Forestry instead of
the ODA.
We would encourage legislators to consider doing
that.
In the meantime, the audit makes four sugges-
tions to the OFRI and one to the Legislature. In its
response, the institute’s director agreed to all of them.
They include writing a single mission statement to
follow and policies to make OFRI staff ers follow what
the state statute appears to say but does not specify.
Again, the statute is the root of the problems.
Earlier this year, some legislators tried to slash
the OFRI’s budget — which comes from the timber
industry in the form of harvest taxes — as some
sort of retribution for past transgressions, real or
imagined.
That would be wrong.
The OFRI can and should play a role in keeping
the public informed about the timber industry,
which continues to be an important part of the state
economy.
T
A twist in the race for governor
DICK
HUGHES
OTHER VIEWS
he craziness known as
Oregon politics took another
twist last week.
An Oregon-bred national jour-
nalist jumped into next year’s race for
governor — maybe.
Nicholas Kristof grew up on
a farm outside Yamhill before
heading off to Harvard, a Rhodes
scholarship and eventually two
Pulitzer Prizes as a New York
Times reporter and columnist.
Journalists seem mesmerized
by Kristof’s potential candidacy,
comparing it with Oregon’s leg-
endary Gov. Tom McCall, who
ascended from the newsroom. Of
course, those were diff erent times,
and Republican McCall, besides
the exposure provided by his jour-
nalism career, had the political
experience of a losing bid for Con-
gress and being elected secretary
of state before running for gov-
ernor in 1966.
For the record, I’ve known
Nick since he was a high school
journalist at the McMinnville
News-Register, where my pro-
fessional career began. I’m not
making an endorsement of him
or any candidate. That is not my
role as a columnist. Since Nick is
a friend, it also would be a confl ict
of interest to speculate on whether
he should run, whether he could
win and whether he would be a
good governor. I’ll leave that to
others.
Mark Hester, a former Portland
journalist turned communications
consultant, wrote an insightful
piece about Kristof on The Oregon
Way blog.
“I have no interest in running
for governor, but as a semiretired
journalist who grew up on a farm
and has lived in Oregon the past
25 years I do have some thoughts
on traits that voters should expect
from gubernatorial candidates and
whether growing up on a farm
or working as a journalist would
help produce those traits,” Hester
wrote.
Hester went on to list his
opinion on desirable traits in a
governor, adding: “In other words,
success in executive offi ce, espe-
cially elected offi ce, often comes
down to temperament and leader-
T
ship. Where you grow up and your
profession play a role in forming
your temperament and forging
leadership skills but so do a lot of
other things.”
However, the political reality is
that the No. 1 asset for becoming
governor is electability.
In Oregon, that means A) being
a Democrat, unless you’re the
unusual candidate who is suffi -
ciently conservative to win the
Republican gubernatorial primary
yet suffi ciently centrist to appeal
to a broad swath of independents,
Democrats and Republicans at the
general election; and B) have pow-
erful fi nancial and volunteer sup-
port, as is personifi ed by Oregon’s
public employee unions, unless C)
the chaos in Portland, plus bur-
geoning dissatisfaction with the
state’s direction, opens the door
for a savvy, centrist, well-fi nanced
independent candidate.
You’ll note that A and B seem
contradictory. As for C, The Cook
Political Report rates Oregon’s
2022 gubernatorial race as among
the nine nationwide that are solidly
in the Democratic win column.
If anyone had doubts about the
impact of Oregon labor unions,
those should have been dispelled
by last year’s race for secretary of
state.
After former state Rep. Jennifer
Williamson abruptly dropped out,
state Sen. Shemia Fagan jumped
in three months before the Dem-
ocratic primary — and won,
defeating more middle-of-the-road
candidates. Fagan had an advan-
tage that she already was a dar-
ling of Portland progressives, with
her self-described reputation as
a fi ghter and her raised-fi st com-
mitment to progressive causes.
But she won because unions over-
whelmingly backed her with their
fi nancial might and manpower.
Fagan, by the way, has said
she would not run for governor in
2022.
Speculation has centered on
other well-known Democrats:
Attorney General Ellen Rosen-
blum, State Treasurer Tobias Read,
Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle,
Multnomah County Chair Deb-
orah Kafoury, House Speaker Tina
Kotek and union leader Melissa
Unger.
A host of legislators and other
offi ceholders also are quietly eval-
uating whether to stay put, leave
politics or go for the governorship.
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A few lesser-known candidates,
such as Yamhill County Commis-
sioner Casey Kulla, already have
formally declared their candidacy.
As a former state treasurer,
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler
would have been a likely con-
tender. Instead, the city’s turmoil
has him facing a possible recall
election.
For the most part, potential can-
didates have off ered little clarity in
recent days when asked about their
ambitions. The typical answers —
none of which tells us anything
offi cial — are that they’re focused
on their current job or they’re
evaluating their political future,
or they have no comment. Bar-
ring an outright denial of interest,
such answers suggest they’re con-
ducting polling, checking potential
support and determining whether
there’s a viable path to make it
through the Democratic primary
and into the governorship. Candi-
dates also spread unoffi cial word
of their candidacy to lock up sup-
port and deter challengers. Under
the Oregon Constitution, a candi-
date for governor must be a U.S.
citizen, at least age 30 and have
resided in Oregon for the three
years prior to being elected.
Eight Republicans have fi led
campaign committees. They
include Salem oncologist Bud
Pierce, the Republican nominee in
2016.
As for columnist Kristof, he’d
planned to keep his political
interest mum for now. Here’s what
happened, as he described this
week in his newsletter, which is
going on hiatus:
“I had tried to keep this secret,
but since I’ve spent a career
trying to ferret out the secrets of
others, maybe it’s karma that mine
was reported. An Oregon news-
paper, Willamette Week, correctly
reported over the weekend that I’m
considering running for governor
of Oregon, and other news organi-
zations including The Times have
reported on this since. ... In June, I
told my editor that I was thinking
of a political run, and we agreed
that to avoid any perceived confl ict
of interest, I would take a leave
until I made a decision. If I decide
to run, I will depart The Times.
If I decide not to, I’ll return to the
column.”
——
Dick Hughes has covered the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
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