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Photo by Jim Craven Rep. Bob Smith plays with his 2-year-old golden Labrador retriever, Chaka, at his home near Medford. Smith retires in January after 36 years in elective office. Coming home for good Smith fit the district By PAUL FATTIG Congressman Bob Smith sits easy in his legislative saddle when he looks back down the campaign trail. The longtime Burns rancher who now makes his home in Medford notes with approval that there was no deviation from his conservative path. Smith, 67, is voluntarily leaving Congress on Dec. 31 after serving for 14 years as representative for the 2nd Congressional District. "I fit this district," observed the conservative Republican. "That didn't happen because I analyzed what this district wanted. It happened because my philosophy fit that of the majority of the residents in this district. "It allowed me to be absolutely open, absolutely direct," he added. "It's kind of fatalistic, but I figured it was my responsibility to be honest with the people who elected me. If that wasn't good enough then they could elect someone else." They never did, at least not when Smith was in the race. But after serving more than half of his life -- 36 years -- in elected office, including 22 years in the state Legislature, he has come to the end of his legislative ride. Smith, the only Oregonian ever to chair the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, decided not to run in the last election. He wanted to spend more time with his wife, Kay, and their three grown children. Their ranch in Burns is now leased out. It's not the first time he has left Congress to spend more time with his family. He originally retired in 1994, but reluctantly ran again in 1996 at the behest of the party after Wes Cooley, his successor, was convicted of lying in the voter's pamphlet. Now Smith insists that nothing could convince him ever again to run for public office. "There is no office that I would be interested in -- at all," he said, noting that includes the office of governor. "I'm pleased to sit back and play a secondary role," he added. "That's satisfactory to me. I have no great ambitions left for public office." Instead, he plans to stay active in the GOP, recruiting candidates for local and state offices. He will also likely do some consulting, resuming work that he started in 1994. He is prohibited by federal law from directly lobbying any members of Congress for one year after his retirement. Reared in Burns, Smith was an only child whose parents both died when he was 18. His father, a country doctor, died of a heart attack; his mother, a nurse, died in an accident in Portland. "That little town of Burns kind of threw its arms around me and raised me," he said. "I didn't have a family. I was practically raised in the City Hall in Burns. When you go through something like that, you develop a deep sense of loyalty." That sense of loyalty can be seen in his Medford office, where there are photographs of Smith alongside GOP leaders such as President Ronald Reagan and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Smith won his first public office in 1960, when he was elected to the Oregon House. He became House speaker in 1969, and his performance during his two terms made him the most dominant speaker in post-World War II history. He was elected to the Oregon Senate in 1972 and became leader of the Republican minority after Vic Atiyeh was elected governor in 1978. He was elected to the 2nd District congressional seat in 1982, after Denny Smith, the Republican incumbent from Salem, chose to seek election instead from the newly created 5th District in the mid-Willamette Valley. "I never had a great desire to change the world, but I've always had a keen interest in government and in elected positions," he said. He also had an abiding interest in things conservative. While in Congress, he championed conservative causes such as revising the Endangered Species Act, reforming the welfare system and pushing a balanced budget amendment. And he put his brand on natural resource issues: agriculture, livestock, timber and mining. Although he regrets the circumstances which led to him returning to Congress, he says the last term was highly successful. "It was a dream come true," he said. "We balanced the budget. Another great effort was welfare reform. We also reduced taxes for the first time in 16 years." But there have also been disappointments, particularly in freeing up more federal land for timber and mining production, he said. "The pendulum has swung too far on the protection side," he said, then predicted, "But it will turn back to management." Looking back on his legislative career, Smith believes he made the right choices. "The politics of today has brought us the highest standard of living and most powerful nation in the world," he said. Yet he has some concerns. "With these recent events, it got to be very tense and nasty," he said of the House impeachment of Clinton. "But I don't think that will last. "Congress ought to be a place of civility where issues of the country can be discussed and debated without bringing personalities into it," he added. Smith, who voted for impeachment, expects the Senate to censure Clinton, bringing that issue to a close. "In the House, he has already been punished with a title that will last throughout history," he said. "That's harsh punishment." With the bare-all approach of today's journalism, public figures have been largely stripped of the insulation they once enjoyed, he noted. As a student at Willamette University, he recalled having political heroes such as Dwight Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Hatfield, the former Oregon governor who became a longtime senator. "There aren't any heroes anymore, just plain people who make mistakes," he said. "They are exposed. That's sad because there needs to be heroes, especially in public life." Worked hard, paid attention By PAUL FATTIG Bob Smith rides a little taller in the saddle than most lawmakers, observes Vic Atiyeh. Oregon's governor from 1979 through 1986, Atiyeh applauds the fact that Smith intends to remain active, even though he is stepping down from public office. "With Bob, what you see is what you get," said Atiyeh, a Republican who served with Smith in the Oregon Legislature. "No mistake about it. When obfuscation was the order of the day, you always knew where he stood. "When you asked someone how they were going to vote, you could always take Bob's word to the bank," he added. "Unfortunately, there are fewer Bob Smiths out there." While noting he didn't always agree with Smith -- "I don't even agree with my wife on everything" -- Atiyeh shared his philosophy. "He worked hard and paid attention to what he was doing," Atiyeh said. "He had that characteristic found in a lot of Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon residents: He had his head screwed on real good. He'll leave a wonderful legacy." Democrat Larry Tuttle met Smith along the campaign trail, challenging him in 1986 and 1988. Even though he lost both races, Tuttle holds no grudges. "I don't have any bad feelings about him, and I think that says a lot," said Tuttle, an environmental activist now based in Portland. "Bob and I bumped heads, but always on the issues," he added. "It was never a case where I felt I was being dragged through the mud." Tuttle later testified at congressional hearings in which Smith participated. "He had ample opportunities to take a potshot at me but never did," Tuttle said. But Tuttle never came around to supporting Smith's conservative philosophy, particularly when it came to natural resource issues or government. "Rep. Smith had a tendency to make the government into a bogeyman," Tuttle said. "So you got this constant reinforcement that government and everyone who works in it is bad. That has a negative cumulative effect after a while." Joseph resident Andy Kerr, former director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, also took exception to Smith's philosophy. "He (Smith) is a nice guy, but there isn't much we agreed upon when it came to environmental issues," Kerr said. "Looking back, I'm glad he was so radical, or reactionary, depending on your point of view," added Kerr, known for his own radical stance in defense of the environment. "When Bob introduced bills to deal with livestock and grazing and timber, those bills did not become law, because he overreached. We're glad he did." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA