Rep. Al King faces a diverse spectrum of constituents ranging between the conservative resource-based southern Linn County and liberal south Eugene.
Rep. King is the new state representative for the Holley and Crawfordsville areas as well as the rural areas southwest of Sweet Home. His district includes Creswell, Brownsville, Coburg, the Marcola area, parts of Springfield and south Eugene.
He is a second-term representative. He is a fifth-generation Oregonian, a descendent of “wagon trainers” on both sides.
While attending the University of Oregon, during the summer, Rep. King worked for the Sweet Home Ranger District in 1969 as a firefighter, the second-largest fire year. He was at Oak Ridge in 1967 during the largest fire year.
“This district has a lot of diverse interests,” Rep. King said. In between south Eugene and southern Linn County, he has working class city residents in Springfield, the high-growth bedroom community of Creswell and two-income rural residents in Pleasant hill, Walterville and Marcola.
Those interests will require balance in his approach to, for example, environmental issues.
“To maintain Oregon’s unique quality of life, we must have strong communities, a healthy environment and a sustainable economy,” Rep. King said. “It is my commitment to work to provide Oregon’s best balance of all these important concerns.”
During the spotted owl controversy of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rep. King was chairman of the Lane County Chapter of the Oregon Project and worked with the Yellow Ribbon Committee.
Rep. King holds a strong environmental position promoting sustainable forest management practices, he said. The spotted owl issue is one he understood clear back into the 1970s. He considers himself a Democrat who advocates “good forest policy.”
Back when timber was huge, if someone said anything about biodoversity and sustainable forestry being keys to production, “people would look at you and say you were out of your mind,” Rep. King said. “Now people understand that.”
Now, what many Oregonians don’t understand is that the forest products industry is made of “probably the best environmentalists in the country,” Rep. King said. The people in that industry understand sustainable forestry, and they’re the ones who live there.
Rep. King thinks it’s hard to have someone who can represent such diverse characteristics as within his district, but “I do it as well as anyone can.”
Rep. King lives in rural Lane County. He is involved in the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and works in Eugene.
Most of the time, being a state legislator is enjoyable, Rep. King said. He can find win-win solutions to problems, but sometimes “you do need to make some choices that are difficult.”
Sometimes the win-win solution is difficult to find because one side is extremely liberal or conservative, Rep. King said. “the way this district is designed now … the district is very much that way.”
If a decision is “conservative enough to make the folks in Linn County perfectly happy, you’re not going to make the folks in south Eugene perfectly happy,” Rep. King said. He listens to both sides of an issue and attempts to understand the problems that underlie the concerns of those involved.
“A lot of times, there is good policy at the other end of the process,” Rep. King said. Sometimes legislators need to listen to both sides, not just to find a balance, but to hear everything. Sometimes, a policy or position is wrong, but it may have some good points that can be worked into other ideas if it isn’t discarded right away.
Rep. King’s former district included Oakridge. Oakridge has similar issues to Sweet Home, and he has worked hard helping the town, Rep. King said. His also district included most of eastern Lane County and parts of the Springfield School District.
“I’ve always been a legislator that cares about my towns, that includes my small towns,” Rep. King said. He has already contacted and had conversations with Sweet Home City Manager Craig Martin.
“(Jeff) Kropf’s the downtown state representative,” Rep. King said. “But I’m in the neighborhood, and sometimes you need both. I’m a Democrat. He’s a Republican, and sometimes you need both.”
Rep. King plans to incorporate Sweet Home into his work.
“I do need to know the town, be a resource,” Rep. King said. “I need to know who these people are and be a part of that town.… I look forward to meeting the community leaders, visiting the schools, meeting the city council.”
Referring to his conversation with the city manager, they “had a long conversation on the police academy ripoff,” Rep. King said. “There still is accountability to come on that.”
That process comes along again, Rep. King said, Sweet Home won’t be treated like that again.
“Sweet Home was treated unfairly in that process,” Rep. King said.
Rep. King is a stock broker with Dain Rauscher in Eugene, a position he has held for 26 years.
He is running for Senate in District 6. In the primary election, he will face incumbent Bill Morrisette.
Rep. King co-sponsored the Elvis Day bill, what was to have been a charity fund-raising event, last legislative session with Rep. Kropf.