Scott Bruun: State Senator Betsy Johnson’s Possible Run for Governor

Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Scott Bruun, GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

At least it feels that way sometimes for a conservative as he crosses the Hawthorne Bridge on his way to work. The good news though, at least for those of us who spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about such things, is that there are no final victories in politics, no final defeats. 

Good news, that is, if you’ve been on the defeat end of things for a while.

A spot of good news, or at least good rumor, is that State Senator Betsy Johnson is considering a run for governor. Betsy Johnson is a Democrat from Scappoose. Until last year when California billionaire Tom Steyer purchased the Oregon Senate, Johnson would easily have been considered the second-most powerful politician in Salem.

The challenge for a Democrat like Johnson, and Oregon, is that she in no way looks like the current crop of elected Oregon Democrats. That’s why a longstanding Democrat majority in the Oregon Senate was still too small for Democrat leaders to ram through every left-wing cause-du-jour. Betsy Johnson was her caucus’ voice and vote of reason. She still is. But Steyer’s money in the 2014 election assured that Johnson’s power would stand diminished.

That’s Oregon’s loss. A loss bought and payed for by a mega-rich environmental dilettante from San Francisco.

There was a time when elected Oregon Democrats were stalwart voices for working people. Voices for the people, and the industries that employed those people. Industries like timber, farming, manufacturing, shipping and construction. A time when elected Oregon Democrats put people ahead of leftist ideology. For lack of a better term, we’ll call those Democrats “jobs Democrats.”

Those Democrats were able to combine support for Oregon industry while also generally supporting pro-labor, New Deal and even some Great Society policies. It was never pretty or perfect, but it worked.

Today’s elected Democrats, on the other hand, are “cultural Democrats.” Instead of focusing on jobs, economics or macro-societal issues, today’s elected Democrats focus on cultural issues. Issues around lifestyle, personal rights, identity politics and special causes. Causes like “clean fuels,” gun background checks for grandma, and anything anti-corporate, even though corporations still employ thousands of Oregonians.

Betsy Johnson is emphatically not a cultural Democrat. That’s not to say she’s old fashioned. Just rare. In fact she and her “type” are more relevant now than they’ve ever been – or at least more needed.

Johnson has much in common with another prominent Northwest Democrat: Dixie Lee Ray, former governor of Washington. Ray was highly intelligent, outspoken, independent and charismatic – just like Johnson. Ray, also like Johnson, was pure Democrat. She worked hard for the people of her state and found ways to effectively combine support for private industry with the traditional liberal proclivity for bigger government.

Ray was a scientist and professor at University of Washington before becoming governor. She loved people but did not easily suffer fools. In her time, the place Ray found the most fools was within fad environmental movements. This is not to say that Governor Ray was anti-environment, in fact quite the contrary. She was a strong conservationist, and used scientific-method to measure the real costs and benefits of environmental policies.

Governor Ray said that “environmentalism has taken on the trappings of religion for many people.” One suspects that Senator Johnson, after Salem’s genuflect to Tom Steyer, may believe the same.

Like Dixie Lee Ray, Johnson has little patience for fools. Yet her common sense approach to real-world issues has made her a pariah in her own party. Johnson is out of step with the hard-left zeitgeist of Oregon’s Democrat leaders.

She didn’t leave her party. Her party left her.

Yet unlike some in Salem, Johnson doesn’t seem content to merely sit with an honorific title and cast losing votes. Johnson knows that Oregon’s ship of state has drifted dangerously off course. She may now believe that her best opportunity to affect change is from the governor’s office.

Barring some seismic shift, the odds of her winning the Democrat nomination for governor are long. And despite her pro-worker, pro-jobs bent, Johnson is not a Republican (even though she might very well win a GOP nomination). Instead, rumor has it that Johnson is considering running as a Independent.

Assuming she could raise enough money, Johnson would elevate the level of debate. Her wit, intelligence and demonstrable political skill means she would never have to rely on cheap populism, as others do, to gain support.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of a Johnson candidacy would be to provide a home for disaffected voters from both parties. A candidate to inspire working Oregonians to re-engage in the political process. After all, one need only look at the current legislature and the decades-long disaster of single-party rule in Oregon to realize how sorely those Oregonians have been missed.

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.