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Peter Wong = integrity, accuracy, consistency.

Press offices at Oregon State Capitol named for this longtime reporter Former Statesman Journal reporter Peter Wong is honored during a dedication at the Oregon State Capitol.

Last week’s column about the Peter Courtney Memorial Lounge was probably my final Capital Chatter.

The Oregon Capital Insider website is no more; it now automatically redirects to Your Oregon News, which has a paywall and is not focused on state government and politics. It’s been important to me that my writings have a broad audience and not be subscription-based.

The timing is good.

For months, I’ve been mulling how to cut back, so I would have more time for my priority project: researching – and writing – a biography of the late Senate President Peter Courtney, whose impact on Oregon is undeniable. (I welcome your observations, comments and recollections about Peter.)

My passion has been to help Oregonians better understand one another. There’s always a chance I will connect with another journalism outlet, perhaps on a less-frequent basis – biweekly? monthly? occasionally?

Who knows?

I have a ton of column topics I’ve never gotten to. I’m still a journalist, I love being part of the Oregon Capitol press corps, but the Courtney book will be my focus. I’m not riding off into the sunset.

I took over Capital Chatter in December 2016 after being laid off from the Statesman Journal after 34.94 years (but who’s counting?). Losing that job turned out to be for the better. I got back to being a journalist instead of a corporate-run news executive. I freelanced for TV, online, magazines and print newspapers. I expanded my writing coaching and public speaking.

I will forever be grateful to Steve Forrester and Joe Beach, and later Julie Johnson and Tim Trainor, for their faith in me. I have nothing but appreciation and admiration for their leadership, their editing prowess and their commitment to community journalism.

At first, I wrote a weekly column, along with occasional state government editorials for the EO Media Group newspapers. Steve Forrester subsequently asked me to launch “Who’s who in and around state government.” On most Fridays, it has had the highest readership of any Oregon state government item, according to the State Library’s daily calculations.

I’ve done a bit of other writing, including for Opinion in a Pinch, which I plan to continue. The editorials I’ve ghost-written have appeared in newspapers from Washington to Florida to California. I also wrote about half the editorials for the Eugene Register-Guard until its opinion pages were eliminated.

I’ve greatly enjoyed the public speaking, even when I dropped my notes on the floor and had to speak from memory, and a couple of gigs lined up.

And I’ve done some writing coaching.

2026 will mark my 50th year as a professional journalist, starting in 1976 at the McMinnville News-Register. My first encounter with an Oregon governor, however, was as editor of the Linfield College newspaper, when I interviewed Gov. Tom McCall a few times and, in 1974, broke the news that he was turning down Linfield’s offer to become president.

Thanks for reading my musings.

Appreciatively,
Dick
P.S. Apologies that I’m behind on responding to emails. I’ll catch up.

Can a tuna sandwich improve Oregon politics? I hope so.

Here is my new Capital Chatter. It has a new online home, so I hope you can access it OK.

Capital Chatter: New cafeteria feeds both sides of the aisle - Your Oregon News Something hopeful happened inside the Oregon State Capitol last month. The new Peter Courtney Memorial Lounge was dedicated as part of the ongoing Capitol reconstruction. When the 2026 Legislature convenes, all state senators and representatives will have one common eating area, a concept long champ...

My new Capital Chatter: The plan(s) for rebuilding Oregon's economy.

Capital Chatter: The power of a plan - Oregon Capital Insider A dozen years ago, I went back to school and earned a master’s degree in management through Southern Oregon University. I had several excellent professors. One in particular emphasized the importance of having a business plan. If I recall correctly, the data showed that the existence of such a pla...