We didn’t intend this issue to have an election season theme. But politics has a way of seeping into the cracks and fissures.
One of our feature articles this month, “Revenge Forestry,” profiles a controversial timber sale in the state-owned Elliott Forest. We decided to pursue the story because it raises questions about an allegedly “new era” of collaboration between timber companies and environmental groups.
What I didn’t realize when I assigned the piece (in August) is that Kathy Jones, co-owner of the Seneca Timber Company and a key player in the Elliott Forest story, would go on to fund a series of high profile anti-Kitzhaber billboards for Representative Dennis Richardson’s gubernatorial campaign.
In August we also began working on this month’s immigration reform and economy feature. But in September, President Obama announced he would delay executive action on immigration reform until after the November election — because he was concerned the issue might jeopardize the Democrats’ tenuous hold on the Senate.
In sum: We didn’t intend this issue to have an election season theme. But politics has a way of seeping into the cracks and fissures.
To be sure, a couple of the articles in this issue do have an explicit political hook. Our industry spotlight on farmers and GMOs, for example, was pegged to Ballot Measure 92: the measure would require labeling of certain foods that contained genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
But in other parts of the magazine, the partisan connection is more subtle. Consider our cover story profiling Tamara Lundgren, CEO of Schnitzer Steel, one of the country’s largest metals manufacturing and recycling companies.
Lundgren this year became chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the conservative industry association that lobbies on policy issues including infrastructure, environment and immigration. She also serves on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which helps shape monetary policy.
I’m writing this column a few days after Gov. Kitzhaber announced that Cylvia Hayes, facing an ethics inquiry for conducting work in the governor’s office, would quit her job if he gets reelected. It’s another example of how in 2014, the relationship between business and politics is as close as it’s ever been — for better or for worse, depending on the nature of the relationship.
We didn’t intend this issue to have an election subtext. But on second thought: Unraveling the ties between the public and private sectors, be they messy, fraught or straightforward, will always be part of the Oregon Business theme.
—Linda
