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Pac/West Lobby Group is expanding its Communications team with the hire of George Plaven, a veteran in Oregon journalism who has covered some of the state’s most important natural resource and agriculture issues over the past decade.

For the past six years George has reported for the Capital Press, writing about agriculture, energy production, forestry, local government, and legislative policy across the Pacific Northwest. His writing and reporting has been recognized over his career with multiple first place awards in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest.

“George has earned the trust and respect of readers and subjects alike through careful reporting and an creative approach to storytelling. His ability to explain how the details fit into the big picture and back it up with data will serve our clients well,” said Ryan Tribbett, president of Pac/West Lobby Group. “He has a strong understanding of both rural and urban audiences and the kinds of messages that resonate.”

George has a bachelor’s of science in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Before joining the Capital Press in 2017, he worked for the East Oregonian and the Montana Standard. He was an Oregon State University Food & Agriculture Media Fellow in 2022.

“I’ve spent my career interviewing and writing about interesting, innovative people and their work to improve their communities and industries,” said George. “I’m looking forward to helping Pac/West’s wide range of clients develop and share their stories with new audiences.”

George grew up in the Denver area and has carried a love for the outdoors with him his whole life. He enjoys hiking, fishing, and exploring the outdoors with his wife and dog. He also remains a dedicated fan of Denver sports.

The team at Pac/West Lobby Group has decades of experience advocating for diverse groups before the legislature, state agencies, and the relevant boards and commissions. We cover industries including health care, organized labor, agriculture, transportation, local governments, and more.

(First published in the Salem Business Journal)

When it comes to musical chairs, political candidates are masters of the game. Only one can claim the prize, the others are left scratching their heads. Oregon Congressional District 5 has attracted four notable entrants including a Republican incumbent and three Democrats jockeying for position in a race with national implications for party control in the next Congress.

Freshman Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer holds the pole position by virtue of the power of incumbency and the massive war chest she has accumulated. Democrats already have their diastolic blood pressure readings off the scale, hyperventilating for the rematch. They will paint her as another member of the MAGA Republican circus, gleefully grabbing the tail of the elephant in front of her, strolling along with pack leaders wherever they wish to trod. She will counter that her 90% party voting record is no different than that of the leftist lemmings who vote 90% for whatever their leadership instructs them.

Chavez-DeRemer will have a voting record to defend, which is fair game, and encompasses decisions on abortion, election integrity and federal benefits for the poor. These votes will surely find their way to the mailboxes and airways of voters across the district in the general election in November.

On the flip side, she has by all accounts been studious on constituent service and even worked with some labor unions on legislative issues that will find them reticent to abandon her down the stretch run. She has also introduced legislation in Congress to halt tolling existing freeway lanes in Oregon, a current ODOT plan that disproportionally impacts drivers (and voters) in her district. The tolling plan has broad, bipartisan opposition among voters and while Chavez-DeRemer’s legislation is unlikely to pass, she is constructing a line of differentiation between herself and a future Democrat opponent on an issue that has galvanized her constituents.

Those fisticuffs will come in 2024, but for now, the focus is on the three-way race in the Democratic primary.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner is back again. Yup. Third time was not a charm for McLeod-Skinner, narrowly losing to Chavez-DeRemer in the last general election. It was her third consecutive loss, twice for Congress and once for Secretary of State. She is a hard worker with plenty of grit. She also has a strong following in her home base of Deschutes County which represents a major component of the fifth congressional district.

Democratic voters in that part of the district may like her, but they have to wonder what makes her a stronger candidate than the other two contenders, who both have a history of actually winning in the heart of the district, Clackamas County. If her candidacy is viewed as a reincarnation of Harold Stassen, then that support may begin to erode.

Metro President Lynn Petersen is another aspirant and has a history of winning in Clackamas County both as a county commissioner and at Metro. Name recognition may boost her in the primary, but her fundraising efforts will be closely watched in a battle against the fundraising prowess of both Democratic opponents. She already is trailing the field in this category, and without a significant uptick soon, future contributions may become more difficult to pry from donor pockets.

Although more a regional than a federal issue, tolling her would-be constituents’ freeways may put her in a political bind when working to curry favor with angry voters. Metro has been the major force behind ODOT’s congestion relief plan to toll every mile travelled on I-205 through Clackamas County. It will be interesting to see how she walks the political tightrope with her leadership of Metro’s efforts on one end and disgruntled voters on the other.

Rep. Janelle Bynum is the third entrant in this congressional competition and already is digging on the spurs as the race enters the backstretch. She tops both McLeod-Skinner and Peterson in the dash for cash and is building a formidable army of influential supporters; most notably, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek.

Democratic leaders are generally reluctant to take sides in a primary food fight, so Kotek’s endorsement should have significant sway with primary voters. And she is not alone. Both Congresswomen Andrea Salinas and Suzanne Bonamici have also weighed in for Bynum as have House Speaker Dan Rayfield, House Majority Leader Julie Fahey and more than half the Democratic members of the Oregon House of Representatives. And, just for good measure, throw in State Treasurer Tobias Read. Bynum’s chief challenge, unlike her opponents, is that she is not well known to district voters and will need to double down on direct voter and community contact to mitigate that disadvantage.

Bynum was a key driver behind the Oregon Legislature’s passage of the CHIPS Act, that is designed to boost the state’s computer chip manufacturing industry. She is also a small business owner, operating a number of McDonalds franchises in the East-Metro area. In this race she could offer voters the full meal deal. Not only has she demonstrated the ability to raise campaign cash and assemble an impressive cadre of Democratic influencers, but she can also lay claim to something else her competitors can’t touch: Twice in elections for the Oregon House she defeated a Republican named Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

As legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said: “winning isn’t everything — it’s the only thing.”

Hope. If life could be described in those four letters, the life of Joanne Verger would match like a fingerprint.

The former Oregon State Senator, Representative, Mayor, Strawberry Queen, and standup performer lived a life of hope based on faith, love, grace, and resolve and was generous in sharing it with all she met. Joanne left us today at age 93, leaving Oregon a little emptier yet a whole lot richer.

Joanne grew up in Amite City, Louisiana, a city small in population and large in Louisiana culture. The town was once home to the South’s largest cotton gin producers and remains home to the state’s largest oyster processing center. Schools were segregated in those days, which “never made much sense to me,” Joanne recently reflected.

Growing up, Joanne was often the ‘Belle of the Ball.’ Complete with southern charm and wit, she would dazzle and delight. Many Oregonians would be surprised to know that Louisiana is also renowned for its strawberry industry. Being crowned a ‘Louisiana Strawberry Queen’ was about as good as it gets for a young woman in Amite, Louisiana. Joanne ascended to the throne one summer, assuming surely this would be the highlight of her life. Strawberry queen? Who could possibly ask for anything more?

But there was much more for Joanne. She met her Mr. tall, dark, and handsome in Lawton Verger, and a new adventure began.

Lawton had heard of a car dealership that was for sale on the coast somewhere in Oregon and decided he and his new bride would carve out a life of their own out West. Verger bought the store, and within a few years, the Vergers were owners of the biggest and best-known automobile dealership in Coos Bay.

While Lawton peddled cars, Joanne immersed herself in community events and causes. Her interest in civic issues and her Louisiana wit were just the combo needed to create a platform for engaging in political discourse. She proved her powers of persuasion by advancing new ideas while keeping even dissenters laughing. She developed a standup routine and would take the stage in churches, civic auditoriums, local libraries, and wherever folks would ask her to perform. And ask often they did. In churches, her performance would always be rooted in some biblical episode, which she would then morph into everyday life in Coos Bay. The city’s own Will Rogers with a sprinkling of southern charm.

It was inevitable that one day friends would ask her to seek the job as mayor of Coos Bay. Joanne Verger thought the idea impractical. Coos Bay is knit together from generations of local families and she and Lawton, refugees from the deep South, didn’t have the pedigree to compete at the ballot box.

But, then again, “I thought, why not give it a whirl? The worst thing that could happen is I would be back where I am right now, and that’s a pretty good place,” Verger told me.

Getting endorsements from councilors and former mayors would prove difficult as there was great reluctance to tinker with the long-standing political structure. Verger devised a plan. She invited every political player in the community to join her on the steps of City Hall, where she would share “some important news.” And came they did.

What they didn’t know is that Lawton had arranged for a reporter and photographer from the local newspaper to be there as well, and with specific instructions. There are benefits from being the paper’s top advertiser. Joanne asked everyone to gather around, and then she broke the news she was running for mayor. Cameras clicked; light bulbs flashed. There was Joanne Verger on the steps of City Hall surrounded by the ‘who’s-who’ of Coos Bay, applauding her entry into the mayor’s race. She did not need their endorsements. The picture on the front page was all the endorsement she needed in the eyes of everyone who opened the newspaper the next morning. She was sworn in as mayor, the city’s first female leader, in 1992.

Joanne Verger would go on to serve in the Oregon State Senate, where her grace and charm were only eclipsed by her passion to be a voice for rural communities. When she deemed something important, she had a way of grabbing an opponent’s hand and leading them to her side of the argument. Her focus was on jobs, schools, and community vitality. Soft-spoken but firm, Joanne Verger legislated from the heart and executed with tenacity.

Strong in her faith and love for others, her focus was always on family first, and she saw her community as an extension of that family. Joanne never forgot her roots and the journey that brought her and Lawton to embrace and be embraced by all around her.

“Blessed,” she told me, was how she summarized her life. She once wrote a memoir of her time growing up in rural Louisiana. She titled it ‘Dancing with the Daffodils.’ She said it was a reminder that springtime is a time for renewal and hope. Hope was what brought her to Oregon. Hope is what she has left us as our guide for the renewal of the Oregon she loved.