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Lottery chief going strong at 90 By CHARLES E. BEGGS of the Associated Press SALEM -- E.D. "Debbs" Potts easily could be the oldest person ever to head a state commission. For 14 years, Potts, 90, has been the first and only chairman of the state Lottery Commission. A southern Oregon businessman, Potts is an Oregon political legend, continuously serving for 40 years in local or state public offices. He said he's been lucky, not exceptional. "I've never considered myself distinctive. I've been the most privileged person in Oregon. I've served directly under six governors," Potts said. He's tended his businesses as cemetery owner, machinist and sawmill operator while being acting governor, state Senate president and mayor of Grants Pass. He's unofficial mayor of Pottsville, an unincorporated community north of Grants Pass that's his collection of memorabilia. It includes antique cars, machinery, a 100-pound chunk of stone from the state Capitol and some political records he saved from the dump. "I've got to get it in better order. I plan to make it a park," Potts said in a recent interview before another 200-mile drive home after a Salem meeting of the Lottery panel. He still oversees a sawmill, machine shop and road construction business. Potts, who turns 91 on Dec. 10, was born in a northern California logging camp to parents who soon moved to Lakeview. "If my mother would've put it off three days, I'd have been an Oregonian," said Potts. He was named after prominent Socialist leader Eugene Debs by Potts' father, a Socialist, and the "Debbs" nickname with an extra "B" stuck. Potts spent his political life as a conservative Democrat -- about the only kind of Democrat with a chance of winning in Josephine County. He worked in timber mills and with his father, a machinist. After Navy service in the Korean War era, Potts made his money in lumber in the Grants Pass area. He served two years as Grants Pass mayor before winning his first term in the Oregon Senate in 1960. He served 24 years there before being defeated in 1984. A coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats twice elected him president, in 1967 and 1969. Potts often voted with the GOP. He was a behind-the-scenes power in Salem, running the Senate and the committees he headed by consensus. He brags that his vote couldn't be bought because he never accepted a donation. "I've never spent a dime of anybody else's money for any political expenses," he said. "I had 12 bumper stickers in my first campaign, and I've still got two of them." Potts wears cowboy boots with his suits. Soft-spoken and folksy, he seldom made speeches in the Senate. "I consider myself an exceptionally good listener," he said. It was said in the Capitol that he read through every bill on the agenda before he voted. Potts said that was exaggerated but that he studied most of them. Until voters changed the state constitution in 1972, the Senate president became acting governor when the governor left the state. Potts said he was governor for a total of about six months during the late Gov. Tom McCall's trips. He was acting governor during a weekend riot at Oregon State Penitentiary in 1968. His inclination to bargain wasn't his first reaction. "I wanted to get some machine guns and go in there and end it," he said. Except for injuries to some guards, the incident ended peacefully after all-night talks. Potts seems to have few political enemies. "Even when chastising somebody, he did it a gentle way," said former Democratic state Sen. John Powell. Powell has known Potts since 1974 and now deals with him as a lobbyist for GTECH Corp., which has a contract to operate the Lottery's main computer system. Potts became chairman of the Lottery Commission on the day his last Senate term expired. The panel was created by voters when they approved the Lottery measure in November 1984. There was irony in Potts' appointment by former Gov. Vic Atiyeh, a Republican and longtime Senate colleague, because both opposed the lottery measure. Once appointed, Potts said, his bosses became the people. "To be honest," he said, "I haven't had a more satisfying job than being chairman of the Lottery Commission" -- a post that pays $30 a day and expenses for the monthly meetings. "'I like it because we're making money instead of spending it," Potts said. Video poker foes are trying to put an initiative measure on the ballot to end that game, which generates three-fourths of all lottery revenue for the state. Potts said he thinks the voters would defeat any anti-lottery measure. But in any case, he said he isn't ready to quit working, in Salem or Pottsville, or somewhere else. In fact, retirement is something he's not going to discuss. "I don't like the word," he said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA