Retiring Sen. Mae Yih has held onto one thing the president of her college said decades ago, driving the way she has done business during her 26-year legislative career.
The president of Barnard’s College, a women’s college of Columbia University, repeatedly told students to be involved in decision-making processes for the betterment of their communities.
“I think it kind of stuck in my mind,” Sen. Yih, whose district included Sweet Home until last year, said. It drove her into politics and it drove they way she handled her constituents.
After college, when her two boys were growing up, Sen. Yih said, their schools would ask her to help out, taking a trip to the zoo or baking cookies, for example.
“I say no, I’m too busy,” Sen. Yih said. “Then I think about what the president said.”
With that thought in mind, she went to work in her children’s schools. She became involved in the PTA and Scouts. She was asked to run for a position on the Clover Ridge School Board, and she served two five-year terms on that board, from 1969 to 1979.
That led to her election to the Albany Union High School Board, where she started serving in 1975. She held her post there for four years and attracted the attention of the Democrats.
“I was very controversial without knowing it,” Sen. Yih said. When curriculum came up for approval, she said she needed a month to review it. The superintendent at the time said it needed to be approved within the next two weeks. The board decided that since Sen. Yih would need more than that to approve it that night.
Sen. Yih wrote a letter to the editor asking for support for a motion to require committee review of curriculum changes. The next meeting, some 100 members of the public showed up, but Sen. Yih’s motion died for lack of a second.
She took on problems with the competency testing of the times and other issues.
“I, somehow, was always in the newspaper,” Sen. Yih said, but she was just voting her conscience.
The Democrats tapped her to run for representative in 1976.
“I said I don’t know anything about politics,” Sen. Yih said. “I asked why you want me to run. They said, well, you’re a woman and a Democrat.”
She took office in 1977 after defeating 14-year incumbent Bill Gwinn.
Sen. Yih’s independent streak didn’t stop when it came to representing her party in the legislature.
A conservative Democrat, Sen. Yih has sided with Republicans in otherwise partisan votes.
“I happen to be very conservative,” Sen. Yih said. “The Democrats, at the time, didn’t know I was a conservative or they probably wouldn’t have recruited me.”
Sen. Yih was elected to the Senate in 1982, taking office in 1983.
During that time, continuing through today, she has captured the minds of voters in Linn County, easily winning re-election. Constituents know her for her responsiveness to their concerns.
“I just feel people’s concerns are very important,” Sen. Yih said. “I always answer my phone and I always answer my mail right away.
Her achievements on behalf of her constituents are varied. Sometimes she and her constituent didn’t win. Sometimes they did, but she always gave it a shot.
She took on Oregon Department of Transportation several times, helping Speedee Mart regain on-street parking it lost in the 1999 Highway 20 repaving project. In the same project, she joined 1200 block Main Street business owners in their fight to retain on-street parking.
She has worked with Jan Wellhouser over fishing regulations and ODOT plans to replace a culvert at Trout Creek. The Trout Creek project ended with a compromise that will close Highway 20 for two weeks in April.
She helped make Weddle Bridge the first restored under a bill to preserve Oregon covered bridges.
When she was asked to find funding to help film a documentary about the recreation of the first transcontinental race in 1905, she asked why she should be interested.
“They said it’s good for Sweet Home,” Sen. Yih said. “It will promote Sweet Home and tourism. I said, in that case, okay, I’ll help.”
She helped return $7 million to Linn County residents who were overtaxed under Measure 50, a property reduction measure. A companion measure, Measure 77, was turned down statewide so the error was never fully corrected.
Sen. Yih went to bat for Sweet Home with the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training when Sweet Home was trying to convince DPSST unsuccessfully to site the new police academy there.
“I thought we had a chance for a couple of weeks,” Sen. Yih said.
Her record is a mix of wins and losses in struggles with state agencies on behalf of her constituents.
“I try to stay in touch with people,” Sen. Yih said. “If somebody had a concern, I tried to address it immediately. If agencies were not doing their job, I tried set up meetings with constituents.”
Many times, putting constituents and agencies at the same table helped, Sen. Yih said. Communication solves problems by helping agencies understand their constituents and their needs and helping constituents understand government processes.
Serving on the Ways and Means Committee provided Sen.Yih some clout to deal with state agencies.
“It’s hard to fight bureaucracies sometimes,” Sen. Yih said. “ODOT has always had troubles. They have too much bureaucracy, too many meetings going on every day and not enough work. I hope they are getting better. I don’t see too much improvement.”
As a result Sen. Yih is opposed to Jan. 28’s Measure 28. She says voters should turn it down and force the state government to set priorities instead of attacking publicly popular programs.
“They cut the highest and most visible budgets first,” Sen. Yih said. “They’re blackmailing the people. I think people will see through it.”
“Unless forced to do it (prioritize), they won’t do it,” Sen. Yih said. “They always want to try to do it the easy way.”
In this case, the easy way is by asking for more tax money, Sen. Yih said. Turning down Measure 28, a .5-percent increase in income taxes for three years, would force the state government to prioritize and live within its means, like businesses and families. Otherwise, it will be business as usual.
Though there is much left to deal with in state government, “I feel I’ve served 26 years, I’ve done a lot,” Sen. Yih said. She has delayed personal business, and now her husband, Steven, will get to be number one in her life again.
As she leaves office, effective last Sunday, “I’d like to be remembered as somebody who keeps faith and trust with the government … keeping faith with the people, somebody who keeps faith and trust with their constituents,” Sen. Yih said. “I think I’ll be remembered as somebody who works for the people.”
She will miss the excitement, Sen. Yih said. “I think if you get something accomplished, you feel like you really have done something. I think it’s the excitement that really keeps you going.”
Sen. Yih won’t miss it too much though. She plans to stay busy getting her house in order. When she’s done with that, she still has her garage and then her barn.
She hasn’t played piano for 26 years, but she plans to start doing that again as well as take up gardening.
She also plans to write a book about her childhood in China. When she was eight years old, she watched as the Japanese invade Shanghei, where she was born in 1928. She lived there until she was 19 years old.
She came to the United States with her mother to visit her brothers. Her mother had to have medical treatment available in the states, and her mother persuaded her father to allow her to come as well.
She enrolled in school at Barnard’s College as soon as she arrived in New York. Her father didn’t want her to enroll in college. Rather he expected to arrange a marriage for her.
She would like to write the book to tell her grandchildren something about their heritage.
Frank Morse representing Corvallis and Albany in a new senate district succeeds Sen. Yih.
To remaining legislators, Sen. Yih said, “keep in close touch with people in the district and invite input on issues.”