This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I had time on my hands this morning, so I reviewed a number of my past blogs.

Soon, I came across one that described a lobbying achievement for me a number of years ago – gaining State of Oregon money to pay the state’s share of costs to deepen the Columbia River channel. 

I doing this, I represented the Port of Portland and the State of Washington and the federal government also bore equal shares of the cost.

The result represents a solid contribution to the economic health of the region – and I take pride in the role I and my colleagues played in the achievement. 

So, today, I post my earlier blog as I remember that is possible for good things to happen in state government in Oregon.

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COMBINATION OF ART AND SCIENCE WORKS TO PASS COLUMBIA RIVER CHANNEL DEEPENING BILL

All in favor of the bill say “oink, oink.”

That strange request was the culmination of the first step, in 2003, toward approval of a major piece of legislation to pay State of Oregon costs to deepen the Columbia River channel.

In many ways, it was a day like any other in the six-month legislative session.  The weather outside was cold, so it was good to be inside watching what could be called “democracy in action.”

At about 10 a.m., 60 members of the House Representatives convened in their chamber to consider a roster of about 50 bills as they continued to drive toward “sine die,” the end of the legislative session.

But, for the channel deepening project, it was a special day. 

At the time the bill was due for consideration on the House floor, the legislator at the rostrum was Representative Bill Markham, a Republican from the small town of Riddle in Southern Oregon.  He was not known as a “policy guy.”   Rather, he was a person with a glib tongue who could tell a tale with the best of them, often with a dry twist of humor thrown in.

As the bill came up for consideration, I, as the lobbyist for the primary advocate, the Port of Portland, had done what any good lobbyist would do, which is count votes.  I had gotten up to 32, enough for passage, but not enough to offset what could have been erosion on the floor.

When an unpopular legislator from Eugene – Representative Cynthia Wooten — got up to oppose the bill, I smiled from my post outside the chamber, where all lobbyists gather.  I knew that, as she spoke, votes would come my way simply because she did not have the good grace to sit down and shut up – and that was true on nearly every bill on any day’s calendar.  She loved to hear herself talk to the chagrin of many of her colleagues.

I wish I would have written her speech as she railed against the idea of deepening the Columbia River channel.

The result:  The bill passed with 40 “yes” votes.

Before the vote, to guffaws from legislators on the floor, as well as the audience gathered in the third-floor gallery, Markham deadpanned:  All of those in favor of the bill, say “oink-oink!”

It was a not-so veiled reference to the fact that the bill, in addition to providing money to start the channel deepening process, included funds for three local, unrelated projects in Southern Oregon – the epitome of pork-barrel politics, thus Markham’s “oink-oink” reference.

Markham himself laughed, then watched the total edge up to 40, thus setting the stage for the bill to move over to the Senate.

The pork barrel projects benefited three legislators in key positions to influence the fate of the channel deepening bill, House Bill 2048.  They were Representative John Watt, R-Medford, the chair of the Economic Development Subcommittee of the Joint Ways and Means Committee; Representative Bob Repine, R-Grants Pass, the House co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee; and Senator Steve Harper, R-Klamath Falls, a key member of the Joint Ways and Means Committee.

Representative Watt got funds to build a softball park in Medford.  Representative Repine got funds for a pet project in Klamath Falls.  Senator Harper got an extension of the airport runway in Klamath Falls.

All solid projects.  And all pork.

For the Port of Portland, no problem.  The votes were there to begin funding the channel deepening project.

Now, on to the Senate.

There, I only had to lobby one legislator, Senator Gene Timms, a Republican from Burns who served as Senate co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee.  With his support, it was a done deal.  No need to count votes. No would dare oppose the Ways and Means chair.

Plus, the bill was solid in its own right.

The result was that, in the wee hours of a Sunday morning, the bill passed the Senate floor and went on to the governor.  In truth, I was not there to see the result; it was too late for me.  I was home asleep.

But, very early on that Sunday morning, I went down to the Capitol and managed to get a look into the back door of the Senate Chamber, which, unusually, was open.  Sen. Timms’ desk was at the far back of the chamber.

I was able to see papers on the top of his desk and, making sure no one was watching, I climbed over the ropes barring access to the chamber and picked up the paper on his desk.  It confirmed what I hoped, which was that the bill passed.  It included his Senate floor “carrying speech,” which was typically short and to the point.

The last stop was the governor’s desk and there was almost no question but that Governor Ted Kulongoski would sign the bill.  Several days later, he did, armed with a letter from the Port of Portland asking for approval.

The bill was now law and specific planning could start to deepen the channel, with all of the positive economic development prospects for a port on which the entire state depends – and even the region beyond Portland, including the State of Washington.  Deepening the channel from 40 to 43 feet would allow deeper draft ships to traverse the 90 miles inland off the Pacific Ocean to upriver ports, including St. Helens, Longview, Kalama, Vancouver and Portland.

A June 2015 study of the project confirmed that it was bearing fruit, five years after the work had been completed.  It had produced approximately $1.08 billion in public and private investment. And another $5.15 billion was being planned in facilities and expansions along the West’s mightiest river.

The study outlined how completion of a 43-foot-deep shipping channel on the Columbia “opened a floodgate of investments at terminals and ports along the river” and gave shipping and commodity firms “certainty that ports, terminals and vessels can manage the mix of commodities and tonnage that today’s global economy requires.”

“Many terminal operators indicated that, without the deepening, they would not have invested in upgrading their facilities,” the study said. “With growing demand from China and other countries along the Pacific Rim, this would have been a significant lost opportunity for terminal operators.”