Dr. Jim Moore’s new biography of former Oregon Governor Vic Atiyeh presents some interesting insights about the state’s last Republican governor (1979-1987).

Atiyeh: Governor Vic Atiyeh and the Transformation of Oregon (Ridenbaugh Press, 535 pages, paperback, $24.95) discusses Atiyeh’s 20 years in the Oregon legislature, his work on getting statewide land-use planning, his environmental record, his relationship with former Governor Tom McCall, the 1982 recession, his relations with Native Americans in the state, and his role with the India-born religious group called Rajneeshees, who came to Oregon and resided in the state from 1981 to 1985. 

Moore is a recently retired professor of politics and government at Pacific University in Forest Grove. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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WS: How do you think that Vic Atiyeh’s job as a rug merchant and businessman helped prepare him for the governorship of the state of Oregon?

JM: Vic very consciously brought a business perspective to the governor’s office. He knew the rules and regulations involved. He also knew state government like no one else from being in the Oregon legislature for 20 years.  He was well-prepared for the governorship when he took over the post. 

WS: Could you describe Vic Atiyeh’s role in getting statewide land-use laws passed by the Oregon legislature?  Do you think he was successful in his efforts to get land-use laws passed?

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JM: Oregon’s land-use laws start coalescing in the 1960s, and being in the legislature for many years, he was there at the very beginning regarding land-use laws. It was during the same time as a national effort to beautify the highways by Lady Bird Johnson (wife of President Lyndon Johnson) at the national level in the 1964-65 era. 

Vic attended the land-use hearings. He was also on the crucial legislative committees from 1965-1971 and was present at the beginning of land-use legislation. Vic was central to the land-use process for the next 20 years at the state and national levels. 

He was not the “idea man” on land-use planning. The person who was the impetus for land-use planning in Oregon was Hector Macpherson, who was a legislator and was the primary author of the 1973 Land Conservation and Development (SB 100) that established the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission and statewide land use planning regulation.

Vic came at land-use planning from a suburban rather than a rural perspective.  Vic was against the Metro regional government, because he believed that it created another layer of government.

WS: Describe Vic Atiyeh’s relationship with Tom McCall.

JM: Fellow Republicans Tom McCall and Vic Atiyeh got along well until about 1963. When McCall became governor, he and Vic began to “butt heads.” McCall was excellent at connecting with people, whereas Vic was more of a “behind the scenes” person.  

Sometimes they were very courteous to one another but at other times they did not get along. Their differences came out into the open when McCall was defeated by fellow Republican Vic Atiyeh in the 1978 gubernatorial primary election. Vic went on to defeat Democratic incumbent Bob Straub in the general election that year. McCall publicly lambasted Vic for defeating him. Vic’s only comment was, “That’s Tom being Tom.”

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WC: By 1979, the Bottle Bill, the Beach Bill, statewide land-use planning and efforts to stop pollution had given Oregon national stature to achieve a balance among nature, human activity and economic progress.  Discuss Vic Atiyeh’s efforts in these areas at the beginning of his governorship?

JM: Vic saw the Bottle Bill, the Beach Bill, statewide land-use planning and efforts to stop pollution as “Tinker Toys” that had been thrown on the floor by the legislature and had to be put together by him. He saw that it was his job to put these enacted laws together to get them to effectively work. Vic believed that he was a “mechanic” and had to get those bills to work. Another item that Vic pioneered in Oregon was one-stop permitting process, which would allow businesses to start operating faster in the state.

WS: Do you believe that securing public access to the Deschutes River was one of the high points during Vic Atiyeh’s time as governor?

JM: Vic was very successful in securing access to the Deschutes River during his administration. He opposed huge wilderness designations in Oregon. The huge wilderness designations instead came from the federal government. Environmentalists did not consider him an environmentalist, because he was a Republican. Republicans stopped being considered environmentalists after Ronald Reagan became president in 1980. Some of Vic’s environmental successes were the following: the Deschutes River, NW Power Planning Council, and the Columbia Gorge.

WS: During the early years of Vic Atiyeh’s administration in the 1980s the United States was strongly affected by high inflation, low economic growth and high unemployment in a state that had extractive industries (e.g. timber and fishing) and layoffs that numbered hundreds of thousands of people. Do you think that Atiyeh was successful in helping Oregon’s economy, resulting in lower inflation allowing it to move to a more economically diverse state?

JM: Vic was successful in this area. He did not stop inflation, which was a national problem resulting in “stagflation”-high inflation and high unemployment. This was very bad for Oregon. Interest rates went up, which hurt people who wanted to buy homes. Vic’s many recruiting trips overseas and within the United States encouraged investment in Oregon and moved it from a one-industry timber economy to a more diverse economy with an emphasis on high tech.

Vic was a Republican moderate who saw the social conservatives take over the Republican Party. He was conservative when he came into office, and saw the conservative Republicans take over the party and move it more to the right. Vic became more of a moderate Republican after 1980.

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WS: Do you believe that the Rajneeshees 1981-1985 wanted to take over the state of Oregon? Were they dangerous in your view?  Did they want to take over the state election system?

JM: When the the Rajneeshees originally came to Oregon in 1981, they believed they were in the middle of nowhere and did not realize at the time they would run into trouble with Oregon’s land-use laws.  Vic believed that the Rajneeshees were welcome in the state until they broke the law.

Oregon was the only state in the United States that had statewide land use laws. Each of the 240 cities in Oregon (including their city of Rajneeshpuram) was responsible for having a land-use plan put together.  One of the first lawsuits the Rajneeshees had to contend with was filed by 1000 Friends of Oregon in 1981. The Rajneeshees kept running into people who told them they were breaking the law. 

The Rajneeshees became dangerous as their leadership wove threats of violence within the community with efforts to smuggle illegal drugs and purchase illegal firearms. The federal government was very interested in illegal marriages among the Rajneeshees to gain citizenship for its members.

In addition, the Rajaneeshees paid the bus fare for several thousand homeless persons to travel from different points in the United States to Rajneeshpuram for the purpose of voting out the existing government in Wasco County.  When this did not work for the Rajneeshees, they sent the homeless to Portland, Eugene and The Dalles.  Private donations were secured to give the homeless bus tickets to their point of origin. 

As a result of the experience with the Rajneeshees, Oregon changed its election laws requiring that a person had to live in the state for 20 days before an election. A collaboration between Vic, his chief of staff (Gerry Thompson), with public roles for Norma Paulus (the Secretary of State) and Dave Frohnmayer (Attorney General), along with federal officials forced the group to collapse and ultimately leave Oregon in 1985.

WS: What was the importance of Vic Atiyeh’s relationship with Native American tribes in the state?

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JM:  Vic had a deep personal connection with Native American tribes in Oregon due to his fishing and access to the Deschutes River. His relationship with Native Americans was integral to his governorship. He created the legislative committee on Native American Affairs in Oregon, which is the only one in the United States that came out of the legislature. Each year Vic would have Native American tribes (both recognized and unrecognized) to his house in Salem and have a celebration and meeting. The tribes would invite Vic to their celebrations each year, and he would always attend until his death in 2014.  At his funeral Vic was wrapped in an Indian blanket and blessed by Native Americans to show their respect for him.

WS: Sum up Vic Atiyeh’s governorship.  Will history judge his administration to be a successful one?

JM: Vic Atiyeh moved Oregon from an extractive manufacturing state to a modern high-tech economy combining manufacturing. He created new ideas and practices for the state’s economy. He could be considered as one of the most successful Oregon governors of the 20^th century. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt needed the Great Depression to be successful. Abraham Lincoln needed the Civil War to be successful.  Atiyeh dug Oregon out of a big hole. Vic left office in 1987 and died in 2014.  After he left the governor’s office, he continued having connections with former allies and opponents.  He lived long enough to see the results of what he did, and people came to respect what he did during that time. This viewpoint is like how historians are now reassessing the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1977-1980).

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Dr. Jim Moore’s biography of Vic Atiyeh is an exciting new view of an underestimated 20^th century governor of Oregon. Since his death, Vic Atiyeh has been forgotten by most people in favor of more charismatic governors such as Tom McCall and long-term senators such as Mark Hatfield. They all shared the fact that they were moderate Republicans. 

Moore has done an outstanding job of showing in his book that Vic Atiyeh was a “behind the scenes” governor who was modest and did not draw attention to himself. At the same time, he had a stellar political career and accomplished many things that benefited the state of Oregon and its citizens. It is because of this that we should be extremely grateful for the legacy of Vic Atiyeh, which included land-use planning, environmentalism, and taking Oregon to a high-tech economy.

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