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 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.

When Tina Kotek took over as Oregon governor recently, I noted with interest one of her early comments.

She said she wanted her Administration to function a lot like that of the late Governor Vic Atiyeh, the last Republican governor in Oregon who left office in 1985.

Kotek didn’t know Atiyeh, but, obviously, she had heard about the qualities of his Administration.

I knew Atiyeh well.  I worked for him for several years, finding him to be a very credible governor, one interested in doing a good job for ALL Oregonians without worrying about who got credit for solid results.  He became a friend.

Frankly, we need more governors like Atiyeh, so, if Kotek lives up the brand she said she cherishes, good.

My friend Dick Hughes, former editorial page editor for the Salem Statesman-Journal and now a columnist in his own right, wrote a few days ago under this headline:  “Kotek governorship could be in the spirit of Atiyeh.”

Here is how Hughes started his column which is called “Capital Chatter:”

“In her inaugural address a month ago, Kotek quoted Atiyeh’s 1979 inaugural speech and said she took inspiration from him:  ‘He too was a former legislator with deep knowledge of our state budget.  And we are both ‘firsts’ – he, the first elected governor of Arab descent in the United States – and me, the first openly lesbian governor in the United States, along with the new governor of Massachusetts.

“’I will endeavor to listen and lead with the same authenticity, compassion, and skill that Governor Atiyeh brought to this job.’”

In that spirit, Kotek started what she called her “One Oregon Listening Tour” in Yamhill County a few of weeks ago.  On that visit, and ones to follow, she said she wants “to hear directly from people who are doing the hard work every day to serve their community — especially on issues of shared concern across our state.”

Kotek has promised to visit all 36 counties during her first year in office. However, she might be hard-pressed eventually to match Atiyeh’s travels around Oregon – 250,000 miles during his eight years as governor.

Back to columnist Hughes:

“This month also is an appropriate time to talk about Atiyeh, who died in 2014, because February 20 would be his 100th birthday.  I turned to Pacific University professor Jim Moore, who is writing a biography about Atiyeh, to augment my own recollections and stories as a young reporter covering the statehouse.

Moore noted that Kotek and Atiyeh had been longtime legislative leaders and, thus, understood the triangular relationship among the House, the Senate, and Governor’s Office.

From Moore:

“When Atiyeh became governor, I would argue, it took him about two years to figure out how to be governor rather than a super-legislator.  Some people who worked with him think that he never was able to be a true governor, that he was always a super-legislator. 

“I think he overcame it, but Kotek is in the same situation.”  

“Second,” Moore added, “any governor has to recognize that a governor’s voice comes across as a bullhorn compared with a legislators.  So, you’ve got to be careful how you phrase things.”

And, from my standpoint, this about Atiyeh, with some of the recollections coming from time as his press secretary:

• He held “media availabilities” almost every week that he was in town.  Some observers called them “press conferences,” but the point was that Atiyeh met with reporters and editors, believing they had a solid role to play in good governance.
• Beyond that, he liked to walk downstairs to the press room at the Capitol (it no longer exists in these days of social media) just to talk informally – but on the record – with reporters.
• He often ate lunch with the public in the Capitol café, enjoying the process of meeting others who happened to be there.
• His door was open to almost anyone.  [And, to this day, I recall a comment from one my business partners, Pat McCormick.  Coming from his Democrat roots, he was quick to laud Atiyeh as the most open of governors he had met at the Capitol over many years.]
• He knew the heads of state agencies and held weekly Cabinet Meetings with those heads.  [Along with the Department of Human Resources director for whom I worked, I went to Cabinet Meetings and was able to watch Atiyeh in action.  Once, when he was briefed on a suit against state prisons for enabling what was labeled “cruel and unusual punishment,” he responded with one word – “preposterous.”  The acting attorney general was there and almost jumped out of his seat, fearful that Atiyeh would use the word in front of a judge at some point down the road.]
• He appointed people to his staff, agency leadership, and the courts based on competence, not party affiliation.  [Turns out I was one of those.  I came to his Administration from a position in Washington, D.C. where I worked for a Democrat.  Atiyeh didn’t care.  He and his staff only asked if I could do the job in Oregon.]

And, this in conclusion repeating a point I made above:  Atiyeh was big on saying that it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit.

At many points, he didn’t get credit he deserved, but he would say, “so what.”

I hope Governor Kotek is able to capitalize on her stated goal, which is to “listen and lead with the same authenticity, compassion, and skill that Governor Atiyeh brought to this job.”