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Eldon Johnson Age : 68 Position : Owner, Perry Electric and Plumbing, headquarters in Medford, retail stores in North Bend and Roseburg Public career : Medford School Board, 1968-77; state representative, District 51 (southwest Jackson County and part of Josephine County), November 1977 (appointment)-1999 Legislative committees : Commerce, chairman, 1993, 1995, 1997; transportation/economic development budget subcommittee, 1995, 1997; Agency Oversight and Efficiency, 1997; education and human resources budget subcommittees, 1991; Labor, 1979-89, vice chairman 1983-89; Human Resources, 1979-89 except 1987, vice chairman 1981; Rules and Reorganization, 1993; Environment and Energy, 1987. Looking forward, no regrets Eldon Johnson back in business, gives up politics By PETER WONG When Eldon Johnson of Central Point completed 21 years in the Oregon House, he did not do what most of 24 colleagues did when faced with Oregon's term limits last year. Unlike 16 of them, he did not run for another public office. Unlike Bob Repine or John Watt, he did not return to Salem as a state agency head or a lobbyist. Even before he left public office early this year, Johnson returned to his businesses, which sell electrical and plumbing fixtures and supplies in Roseburg and North Bend. His office is in Medford. "I am having a good time running my business," he said. "It has taken me a year or two to get caught up on the changes that have occurred. So I have no interest in doing anything more in the public arena. I am not looking back. What I had was a great challenge." Johnson was a 47-year-old businessman and a Medford School Board member when he was appointed in November 1977 to a vacancy in House District 51, which covers southwest Jackson County and part of Josephine County. One of only three dozen Oregonians to spend 20 years or more in the Legislature, Johnson combined a hard-headed approach to business with a soft spot for human services. "I thought to myself: Why is a Republican businessman from Medford so interested in human resources? It does not appear to be a natural fit," said Bob Shiprack, formerly a Democratic state representative from Beavercreek. "But he was knowledgeable about issues affecting both. We will never see that again with term limits." Shiprack, now an advocate for Oregon State Building and Construction Trades, got plenty of opportunities to work with Johnson. He and Johnson were members of the House Human Resources Committee in the 1985, 1987 and 1989 sessions, when he also chaired and Johnson was the top Republican on the House Labor Committee. They also were members of the Legislature's joint budget committee in the 1991 session. As a member of the Human Resources Committee in the late 1980s, Johnson championed the JOBS pilot project that links welfare recipients with training and work. It was the forerunner of federal welfare changes in 1996. He also supported the Oregon Health Plan that provides basic medical services to poor people. Johnson, who has been on the boards of the Salvation Army and Hearthstone Manor, said there is no mystery about his interest in human services. "Our society is geared to have social service programs," he said. "My goal was to make them work as well as possible, both for recipients and taxpayers. There is a clear need for them." When social service agencies scrambled for money in the 1991 session, after a property tax limit forced the Legislature to divert money from state services to local schools, Johnson emerged as their champion on the Legislature's budget committee. "The more he learned, the more he realized how desperate our issues were and how much we needed a champion like him," said Arnie Green, then director of Ashland Adolescent Center and now director of Community Works. "He became a champion within the Republican Party for human services. It is why he got into so much trouble when he put himself on the line." Johnson eventually lost a seat on the budget committee, and its human resources subcommittee, for supporting more money than Republican leaders wanted in 1991. As chairman of Commerce, and the top Republican member on Labor for four sessions in the 1980s, Johnson was a defender of small-business interests. But Shiprack, then and now a labor-union official, said he still got along well with Johnson. "We worked together, labor and business, trying for many years to reform the workers' compensation system," Shiprack said. "A lot of the excesses were created by third parties. I think it was the genesis of Gov. Neil Goldschmidt's appointment of a group of labor and business people, excluding some of the other players, to work out a solution." The 1990 changes led to increases in maximum payments to workers injured on the job. But they also tightened eligibility by requiring an on-the-job injury to be the "major contributing cause" of a compensable disability. The big losers were lawyers specializing in workers' compensation, and some providers of health services. Johnson said the changes, which this legislative session made permanent, have resulted in dramatically lower insurance premiums for businesses as well as higher payments for injured workers. Though Johnson was a reliably Republican and usually conservative vote, he said he never felt out of place in the Democratic-dominated Legislatures of his first dozen years. "I learned how to work in that role and still make things happen," he said. "Partisanship may be OK, but it was way down on my list of priorities. I think I was respected on both sides of the aisle because I never came there just to be a Republican. I came there to make a difference." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA