Economy Key Issue in Oregon Race : Governor Candidates Stressing Jobs Over Environment

Although neither candidate mentions his name, the ghost of Tom McCall hangs over the governor’s race in Oregon, where priorities have shifted from environmental concerns to the need for economic recovery.

Fifteen years ago, under the governorship of the late McCall, the Legislature banned virtually all billboards, forbade the sale of pull-top cans and non-returnable bottles, passed some of the country’s toughest anti-pollution laws, devoted 1% of all highway revenues to the creation of hiking and biking trails and cut the budget for out-of-state advertising.

“Visit us again and again, but for heavens sake, don’t stay,” McCall said.

‘Woodsy Weirdos’

Justified or not, Oregonians had such an anti-business reputation in those days that the president of American Can Co. dismissed them as “a bunch of woodsy weirdos.”

Now, both candidates--Republican Norma Paulus and Democrat Neil E. Goldschmidt--agree on what Oregon needs to do: create more jobs, attract more tourists, help existing businesses expand and lure new industries.

“You can tell Californians that poverty has made us humble,” Paulus told a Los Angeles reporter. “Tell them we are like brazen hussies standing on the border, yelling, ‘Come on over. And, if you’ve got a rich cousin, bring him, too. Of course, he doesn’t have to be rich.”

Message of Doom

Goldschmidt’s message is one of pending doom: Oregon, he says, is poorer than it has been for 55 years; 60,000 people have had to leave the state to find work; 429,000 people lined up for emergency food last year; individual earnings have fallen $3,000 behind those of Californians.

Neither Paulus nor Goldschmidt, campaigning for the seat of the retiring two-term Republican governor, Victor G. Atiyeh, is suggesting that environmental laws should be relaxed. But, with unemployment running about 2% above the national average and the state’s timber and agricultural industries hurting, priorities clearly have shifted. The governorship apparently will be won by whoever is perceived to be best capable of jump-starting the economy without threatening the rural life style.

“I think the feeling persists (in Oregon) that we love Oregon the way it is, that the more people we get up here, the less attractive it is,” said Don C. Frisbee, chairman of PacifiCorp, the nation’s largest diversified utility. “With careful planning, we should be able to maintain Oregon’s livability at the same time we broaden the economic base, although the need to broaden the base is now coming into conflict with our whole sense of individualism and privacy. In many ways, this election is a focal point of that conflict.”

Unflappable Leader

In better economic times, Paulus, 53, would be a strong favorite in a state that has had a Republican governor for 42 of the last 48 years. As a former state legislator and two-term secretary of state, she is respected as a low-key, unflappable leader who got things done within the Salem Establishment and was never afraid of a good fight.

“I know where the bones are buried,” she says. In the campaign, she has emphasized her rural background, describing her opponent as a fast-talking city-slicker, and has delivered a message of hope that the corner has been turned and Oregon is on the move again.

Goldschmidt, energetic and white-haired at 46, is a former mayor of Portland, business executive with Nike and secretary of transportation in the Jimmy Carter Administration. He tells voters that his experience in business and in Washington and his record in revitalizing the city of Portland make him the best candidate to initiate the “Oregon Comeback.” He promises to clean out the Salem Establishment and portrays the election as a choice between the status quo and change.

Polls show the candidates in a dead heat, partly because neither has been able to convince the electorate that there is a significant difference between them on the issues. Both are moderate, outspoken and widely regarded to be the best choice of their respective parties.

“Someone asked me the other day who McCall would have liked in this race,” said Ron Schmidt, a public relations executive who was McCall’s press secretary, “and I think, like so many other Oregonians today, he’d be undecided. Both candidates would meet his criteria. They’re both interesting personalities, both moderates, both have flair, a sense of humor and are concerned about the environment. In the end, the election may be decided by whoever makes the next big mistake.”

Each Has Erred

Each has already made a costly gaffe. Goldschmidt had to issue an apology after offending rural Oregonians last summer when he questioned the wisdom of holding a debate with Paulus in Bend--or “the middle of nowhere,” as he called it. And Paulus rattled voters in the squeaky clean political atmosphere of Oregon by telling a Portland journalist this month that “I have a mole” in the Goldschmidt campaign.

Although the state is heavily Democratic in voter registration, cross-over voting is common and personalities are traditionally considered to be as important as issues.

“I think, when you come right down to it, people are going to vote for the candidate they feel they can trust,” said Paulus’ campaign manager, Diane Landers. Added Goldschmidt’s press secretary, Virginia Burdick: “I think the final decision is going to focus on how much Oregonians want change.”