Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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.

Oregon’s political leaders, all Democrats, are thinking about how protect their state from incursions by Donald Trump and his minions now setting up offices in Washington, D.C.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), one of the best journalism outfits in Oregon, produced a story this week that appeared under this headline:  OREGON’S TOP DEMOCRATS BEGIN THINKING THROUGH A TRUMP RESPONSE

Here is how the story started:

“Governor Tina Kotek convened a closed-door meeting Monday to discuss potential threats from the incoming presidential administration.

“A month after an election that will give President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans broad influence over federal policy, Oregon’s top Democrats are starting to talk seriously about how to respond.

“On Monday, Kotek met with the rest of Oregon’s statewide officials – Attorney General-elect Dan Rayfield, Secretary of State-elect Tobias Read, Treasurer-elect Elizabeth Steiner, and Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson, all Democrats – to begin sketching out potential threats to what Kotek called ‘Oregon values’ under a second Trump administration.

“House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, and Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, also attended.”

Threats to Oregon from Trump fall into several categories:

• kickstarting mass deportations
• enacting tariffs that could pose challenges to the state’s economy
• pulling back federal payments to help states transition to clean energy
• ending vote by mail
• withholding money from cities and states that, like Oregon, have sanctuary laws preventing local officials from working with immigration enforcement agents.

It is not clear yet what Oregon leaders will do, but, if you are as worried about Trump as I am, it is good that leaders are talking to develop a set of strategies.

One action Kotek has taken so far is to propose hiring “an Oregon values officer” as part of her 2025-27 budget recommendations.  Of course, it is not clear what such an individual would or could do, but it was a signal from Kotek that she was serious.

Kotek also suggested boosting funding to the Oregon Justice Department by $1 million a year to pay for possible challenges to the Trump administration.

More from OPB:

“Democrats around the country have responded in a variety of ways.  One group of blue-state governors, like California’s Gavin Newsom, have vowed to forcefully push back on overreach by Trump.

“Other Democrats have taken a softer approach in the days immediately after the election. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer – whose state Trump won – said after the election she would “figure out how to work with the Trump administration.”

“In Oregon, where Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidential vote by nearly 15 per cent, Kotek and other top officials have so far been restrained in their public comments, even as they continue talking in private.

“Rayfield, the incoming attorney general, will be central to any resistance Oregon offers to federal policies.”

So, in Oregon, it is not just such a saying as this “we’ll work hard to find a way to work with the new presidential administration.”

No, it is this:  “We’ll defend Oregon values all the way down the road.”