CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY A VISIT WITH WALLY PRIESTLEY BY KEVIN MULLIGAN he ONLY reason that the Legislature exists, is because there would be rioting in the streets if the police cars had the names of Pacific Power and Light, or Weyerhaeuser, or Georgia-Pacific on the side. So instead, they say City of Portland, or State of Oregon. But 1 make no bones about it, where the power is, and comes from, is in the hands of companies in the economic sphere, and not from the people in the political.” Strong words for a political candidate in 1980. Even stronger when you consider that they are from the senior Democrat in the Oregon State House of Representatives. But Wally Priestley is not a soft-spoken candidate, or Democrat, or politician. Since first being elected to the Oregon Legislature in 1962, Priestley has been a rebel, a watchdog for the peoples’ interests, and a royal pain in the ass to his fellow lawmakers. He has introduced legislation to forbid locks on prison doors, lobbied to increase corporation taxes by 50 per cent, and has been the Chair, Crew Boss, and Dispatcher for the / ‘Truckers’ Potholes Can’t Be Filled from People’s Pocket Books Committee” to defeat the 1980 Gasoline Tax Increases. He has been arrested for trying to organize the United Farm Workers, for opposing the Vietnam War, and for staging a blockade of the U.S. Navy in a rubber raft during Rose Festival week. He is a political activist of the first order. A devoted believer in civil disobedience. And, judging by his electoral success, a politician the public wants . . and certainly needs. Priestley uses his office, and organizes his campaigns, to support and publicize issues, not to stroke and glorify the candidate. In the 1980 General Election he only spent about a week campaigning for his own election, but logged many hours supporting various ballot measures. Two of his Salem staff aides, Peter Bergel and Chuck Johnson, were directly responsible for getting Measure 7, requiring permanent nuclear waste storage sites and voter approval for more nuclear sites, on the ballot. It won. He fights to lower taxes whenever possible, and consistently leads referendum drives to allow voters to decide their own fate. He speaks out about racism, sexism, and welfare rights. His is often a lonely voice for ADC mothers, teenage workers, and migrants. He bets the underdog. “ Here’s the deal,” he said, as we sat in his Northeast Portland home. “ I feel overwhelmed. 1 feel like an ordinary citizen who is for the working people. But I’m described and talked about by the media as being alien to their interests. Because of our society’s structure I don’t have broad connections. I talk to working class people. I say, ‘Look, I’m busting my fanny for you because you are retired, or on welfare, or you’re a woman being abused, or you’re a homosexual being discriminated against on the job .’ ” Issues which Priestley sees as being at the base of society’s problems. Working class issues. Poor people’s issues. People trying to live their lives without other people’s morality interfering. “ The Oregonian talks about issues that the people are interested in. But they never pass. You would think, from reading the Oregonian, that there were all kinds of things down here (in Salem) that are in the people’s interest. But none of them ever pass. They are just introduced.” “ I ’m just appalled at the amount of non-representation that working class people have at the legislature. The labor unions, as an institution, are very threatened by creating too much disharmony with management. They are kind of in bed together. They have a sweetheart deal going. And this puts me in a hell of a spot as a legislator who would like to move ahead of that, to put it in a state of stress (labor-management relations). So they dislike me too .” The Outsider Inside Priestley is a native Portlander, growing up “ downwind from the slaughter houses” in St. Johns. He graduated from Jefferson, did a tour in Korea, and went to college at OSU and Portland State. He has worked as an electronics test engineer, a tug boat dispatcher, and a real estate salesman. But he no longer does any of those jobs. He now lives off of his meager legislative salary ($12,000 every two years) and walks, t a l k s , p e t i t i o n s , c am p a ig n s , organizes, and “ does politics.” As we sat and talked in his Northeast Portland house, one realizes that it is more a political clubhouse than a home. It is better suited for organizing than entertaining. Little, if any, food is ever cooked there, it would "I feel overwhelmed. I feel like an ordinary citizen who is for the working people. But I'm described and talked about in the media as being alien io their interests." seem. There is no kitchen table or refrigerator. The living room is crowded with desks, maps, computer printouts of election returns, books, pamphlets, but very little furniture. Though it was two weeks past Halloween when I visited, a Jack-o-lantern was still on the porch, and the living room was piled high with lawn signs drying out for the next election. “ I was shocked by the election,” (his first, in 1962), Priestley stated. “ I thought, ‘what a wonderful country and society to live in if an ordinary citizen could be elected.’ And I believed that I was going to make a difference in the Legislature, when of course I wasn’t . ” Priestley first ran for political office because he saw himself as an “ ordinary citizen” who was concerned about the problems facing the city and state. He felt that there were contributions which he could make. Solutions he could help find. New ideas he could offer. He soon found out that the Legislature was not looking for an applicant with these qualifications. “ People have got to see that the Legislature is BOUGHT and SOLD. They talk about what is a ‘legal’ contribution. Every session we talk about ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ contributions. And every year I give a speech and say ‘yes, we are against illegal contributions,’ but let’s not kid ourselves, it’s the legal contributions that corrupt the place. That decides who has the votes down there (in Salem). And they always have the place stacked two-thirds for them, and one-third for us.” The “ they” which Wally speaks of are the major corporations, the financial institutions, the media, forces which are, according to Priestley, “ directly opposed to the liberal philosophy.” It is these groups, he says, that control the legislation, select the politicians, and direct the future of society. “ We have had people in the legislature who have been very bright, very good people. But they are driven out by the mediocre. By lesser qualified people. And they are financed by Georgia-Pacific, and PP&L, because they (the corporations) don’t want someone who is terribly competent 30 Photo courtesy of Willamette W'eek
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