Scott Bruun: Salem and Olympia – A Tale of Two Cities

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Scott Bruun, GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

On one side of the Columbia River, legislative humility. On the other, hubris. Up north, split-control of executive and legislative bodies. Down south, single-party control of all government.

In Olympia, bipartisan legislative success. In Salem, partisan failure.

The Washington legislature will soon adjourn after having delivered a bipartisan, multi-billion dollar transportation package. The process to deliver the package in Washington had all the pomp, intrigue and occasional unseemliness that one would expect. Making sausage is never pretty. Yet Washington’s sausage-making will result in a huge economic and quality of life win for Washington citizens.

Washington was able to move a complex process forward with a Republican senate, Democrat governor and Democrat state house. In other words, Washington found success in split government. They could do this because both sides knew, or at least learned, that hyper-partisan or purely-political maneuvering was recipe for failure.

The Oregon legislature adjourned this week. Unlike Washington, Oregon does not have split government and has not for some time. It’s been Democrats as governor since 1987. The last time Republicans controlled the Oregon House was 2005, while it’s been since 2001 in the Oregon Senate.

In Oregon, Democrats rule the roost. So you would think that they would be able to move important pieces of legislation, like a much-needed transportation package.

But no.

Instead, the Oregon legislature focused its energy on narrow partisan interests until it was too late to do anything else. Sure, the legislature gave us all-day kindergarten, but left grades 1-12 and colleges in the lurch. They also gave us paid sick-leave, but did nothing to help grow and strengthen businesses from which to take paid leave from. And yes, they gave us new gun rules and expanded background checks. More gun regulations, yet absolutely nothing done to address – or even discuss - the social and societal pathologies that lead to gun crimes.

We even got a motor-voter law. No longer must our citizenry be bothered with the horribly-painful process of registering to vote. Nope. Thanks to Salem, all Oregonians will be registered automatically.

Yet one wonders how grateful those new Oregon voters will be as they spend more time stuck in traffic gridlock and congestion. As their roads, bridges and highways continue to crumble. As they spend more time in the car, less time with family.

There was a time when state government in Oregon focused on big projects and issues important to all Oregonians. A time when leaders from both parties in Salem provided robust public safety, built colleges, facilitated world-class timber, shipping, agricultural and tech industries.

And built roads.

There was an opportunity to build roads this year. Both Democrats and Republicans agreed that transportation was essential. Transportation provided every opportunity for bipartisan compromise and a deliverable “win” for Oregon citizens. A chance to build bridges, both real and metaphoric.

Yet legislative leadership instead chose to make partisan ideology a priority. Democrat leaders chose to ram through a demonstrably poor “clean fuels” law. A law which few support or think will work. Few, that is, except California hedge-fund billionaire and environmental-dilettante Tom Steyer.

Steyer matters because it was his millions in campaign cash that bought dissent-proof Democrat majorities in Oregon. And it was the unyielding hubris of those majorities that ultimately buried prospects for a transportation plan. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

Strangely, the most productive legislative session Oregon has seen in recent years was in 2011. That year the Oregon House was tied, and Democrats had only a small majority in the Oregon Senate. It was as close to split government as we have seen in recent times, and in that regard looked much like Washington looked this year. In such a setting, partisan and ideologically-divisive agendas get pushed aside. Progress is made.

Summer is a time for road trips. Many Oregonians will pack their cars and drive north to take in a Mariners game or enjoy Washington’s San Juan Islands. The drive north will not be without issues. Washington, like most states, has suffered from the federal government’s lack of transportation investment. Yet motoring Oregonians might still consider how folks in Washington came together with a plan to improve roads and bridges, enhance freeway safety and ease traffic congestion.

When those Oregonians return home, they will experience bottle-necked bridges, traffic congestion, deteriorating roads and potholed streets. They will know that, unlike our neighbor to the north, Oregon has no plan to address these issues. Oregonians might then consider how decades of single-party rule in Salem means that the most basic responsibilities of state government have been sacrificed, time and again, to narrow ideology.

On those bumpy drives home, maybe enough Oregonians will then finally say to themselves, “I’ve had enough.”

Scott Bruun is a fifth-generation Oregonian and recovering politician. He lives with his family in the 'burbs', yet dutifully commutes to Portland every day where he earns his living in public affairs with Hubbell Communications.