What You and Richard Chambers Have in Common #GovernorGoals

We need "regular" Oregonians to help the next governor achieve bold goals.

***From November 5th through 9th, Kevin Frazier, editor of The Oregon Way, will be visiting high schools and colleges up and down the Willamette Valley to encourage students to submit pieces for our upcoming #GovernorsGoals series. This is a brief outline of the remarks he plans to give.

Few Oregonians know the name Richard Chambers. Do you? He’s the seemingly Average Joe behind the Bottle Bill—let’s say the Andrew Yang of the 1970s. Chambers was not afraid to dream up a big idea and relentlessly pursue it.

Some Oregonians aren’t old enough (or nerdy enough) to know that the nickel and dime reward for recycling our bottles was a policy innovation that grabbed headlines when it passed—you could say it was the Universal Basic Income of its time. 

So how did Chambers launch this small incentive that led to big changes both in Oregon and across the US? He did two things: first, he got to know a problem; and, second, he got to know his elected officials. 

You and Chambers share more in common than you may think. The first part is what you're doing right now—learning about the levers and laws that make society function as well as stall. The second part is why I'm here.

Chambers spent his free time hiking. But he was often distracted—he watched bottles pile up and defile his favorite spots. You, like Chambers, are exploring new ideas, new authors, new classes and along the way discovering things that seem out of place. In other words, you’re in a unique and privileged position to expose yourself to shortcomings in the law, in policy, and in our norms. Don’t let those shortcomings go unobserved and uncorrected. Chambers certainly didn’t.

When Chambers finally grew tired enough of the trash along his trails, he phoned his friend, a state legislator, and asked him to help him out. Well, sadly, the likelihood of you knowing your state legislator well enough for them to act on your idea is fairly low. And, absent that personal connection, it’s unlikely that the intern reading through constituent emails is going to bring your thoughts to the top of the inbox. Fortunately, the Oregon Way and KATU have a way to amplify your approach and get it read by folks in the running to lead our state.

During the entire year of 2022, the Oregon Way blog and KATU will be publishing #GovernorGoals from folks just like you on the biggest issues facing Oregon. Each month will focus on a specific topic, like homelessness in January. The focus on specific issues and on offering clear goals for these candidates will drastically increase the odds of the candidates actually evaluating the submitted #GovernorGoals.

Our Governor needs you. Oregon has a shortage of policy professionals. It's not like Boston with Bain in its backyard or NYC where McKinsey folks mingle with government staffers. For better or worse, we're all Oregon’s got. 

Oregon's current and future lawyers, business leaders, and nonprofit champions cannot expect the state to know about the latest innovations, the best policies, and the worst case scenarios. Our policy-makers simply aren't exposed to this information.

We can correct that by sharing our best ideas for reform with the next governor. A crowdsourced inventory of ways to make progress on twelve particularly important issues. The Oregon Way and KATU will take care of the crowdsourcing. We just need you to start thinking up goals for our next governor.

Do you have a goal in mind? Leave a comment or contact us!

• Homelessness (Jan.)

• Affordable Housing (Feb.)

• Racial Justice (Mar.)

• Child Care / Early Education (Apr.)

• Urban / Rural Divide (May)

• Poverty / Income Inequality (Jun.)

• Jobs / Vocational Training (Jul.)

• Climate / Water / Fires (Aug.)

• K-12 Education (Sep.)

• Culture Wars (Oct.)

• Electoral Reform (Nov.)

• PERS (Dec.)

"Hidden Cove" by Kirt Edblom is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0