NEWS STORY
JAILS OF OUR
LIVES
Can a spurned Democratic governor bounce back to find a home
for his prison in a Republican suburb?
BY PATTY WENTZ
pwentz@wweek.com
Tired of summer TV reruns? Why not tune into the made-for-TV political theater taking place in our own back yard?
The Wilsonville prison drama began two years ago when Gov. John Kitzhaber picked the site of the former Dammasch State Hospital to house a women's prison. It was part of a $1 billion prison-expansion plan spurred by passage of Oregon's get-tough-on-crime Measure 11 in 1994.
Wilsonville residents and officials fought the governor and the Department
of Corrections over the site and recently won support for an alternate site
in their city, on Day Road.
Kitzhaber, however, didn't have the authority to switch to the site, so two weeks ago he called state legislators on their promise to hold a special summer session to wave the necessary legislative wand. It should have been a done deal, but instead Senate Republicans balked, turning it into a steamy summer drama perfect for television.
No one yet knows the ending of this sordid tale, but the characters look so promising we couldn't resist doing some early casting, basing them on some old familiar faces.
JOHN KITZHABER
ROLE: The reasonable patriarch
INSPIRATION: Jim Anderson, Father Knows Best
Kitzhaber's willingness
to look at the Day Road site, even after years of work settling on the Dammasch
site, was an impressive display of Robert Youngian diplomacy that showed he
is swayed more by facts than by politics.
JOHN KITZHABER
ROLE: The evil twin
INSPIRATION: Adam Chandler, All My Children
When this character
chooses to get tough, it isn't on criminals, it's on the Republican voters
who supported Measure 11--and Wilsonville is full of them. To teach them a
lesson, this heartless manipulator is plunking a prison in their neighborhood,
possibly putting their children at risk, all to make a political point.
RANDY MILLER
ROLE: The weaselly monkey wrencher
INSPIRATION: Eddie Haskell, Leave It to Beaver
It was classic
Haskell: Promise one thing, then do another. State Sen. Randy Miller pulled
the rug out from under the governor by rallying enough fellow Republicans
to scuttle the special session. Then he took up and went on vacation, leaving
the governor shaking his fist. It's probably a good thing he did, though.
There are reports that if Miller had been in his district the next day, he
would have had to defend himself against a mob scene that spontaneously gathered
in the neighborhood near Dammasch.
CHARLOTTE LEHAN
ROLE: Scrappy, small-town mayor
INSPIRATION: Sheriff Andy Taylor, The Andy Griffith Show
Sure, Lehan doesn't wear a badge, but the mayor
of Wilsonville has tirelessly fought Kitzhaber and the Department of Corrections
on the Dammasch site. Her chances looked grim, but she saved the day last
January when she pulled the Day Road site out of a hat just hours before the
state was to approve funding for the Dammasch prison. For a while, at least,
it looked as if Dammasch was spared.
WESLEY RHODES|
ROLE: Rich white guy
INSPIRATION: J.R. Ewing, Dallas
He doesn't live in South Fork
and he wasn't wearing a Stetson when we met him, but Wesley Rhodes does appear
to have some influence. Rhodes lives in the upscale Tualatin neighborhood
less than a mile from the proposed Day Road site. He says he is financing
the anti-prison group, Citizens for Accountability in Prison. When he figured
out what Kitzhaber and the city of Wilsonville were up to last April, Rhodes
says, he phoned U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith to call in a political chit (Rhodes
contributed $2,000 to Smith in 1996). That afternoon, Rhodes says, he got
a call from Senate Majority Leader Gene Derfler and put the ball in motion
to stop the special session. Adding a twist to the subplot is Derfler's claim
that he can't recall speaking to Rhodes about this issue but is sure Smith
never asked him to intervene.
BILL SIZEMORE
ROLE: Bumbling sidekick
INSPIRATION: Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show
Sizemore tried
to play the role of hero to unhappy residents and score some political points
in the process. He has promised that if he is elected governor, he will keep
the prison out of Wilsonville. At a Citizens for Accountability in Prison
meeting Monday night, Sizemore said he doesn't buy Kitzhaber's line that the
prison should be built in the metro area, where most crime occurs. He then
proceeded to verbally shoot himself in the foot, delivering a line that could
come back to haunt him. Kitzhaber, he said, should "put [the prison] in Northeast
Portland, and the criminals could just walk to prison."
At this point, no one knows what is going to happen. Will the Republicans agree to hold a special session? Will Miller ever return from his European vacation? Can the governor really plow ahead and site the prison at Dammasch? Or will a lawsuit pending against the Dammasch site hold up the process until the legislative session starts in January?
Stay tuned.
originally published July 29, 1998