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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.

This is it! My final "Oregon insiders" as I put Capital Chatter on "Who's who" on hiatus.

I'll still be around, paying attention.

And you can join Jennifer Williamson, Carlos Fuentes, Dirk VanderHart and me at the Portland City Club on Jan. 26 for a panel discussion about the upcoming legislative session.

Oregon insiders: Who's who in and around state government - Your Oregon News At the Oregon Department of Justice, Attorney General Dan Rayfield appointed Paul Smith as solicitor general and Jeff Howes as chief counsel of the Criminal Justice Division. Smith has over […]

I just submitted my semi-retirement notice to my editor with Carpenter/EO Media Group. But I'll be doing one last "Who's who" today. If you have any job updates, please send them to me by 2 p.m. PST today.

As I told the editor, "I'm at peace with semi-retiring. I’ve had a great run with Capital Chatter and then 'Who’s who,' but I'm looking forward to life without weekly deadlines. Now is a good time to step back. The 2026 legislative session, let alone the election cycle, looks to be awful. It’s a good time to focus on writing the Peter Courtney biography."

I plan to continue my occasional writing for Opinion in a Pinch.

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.

Here is my latest, and perhaps last, update on who's switching jobs in and around Oregon state government. Big changes.

Oregon insiders: Who's who in and around state government - Your Oregon News The Oregon Capitol’s new work area for journalists will be named for longtime statehouse reporter Peter Wong. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 14. Wong first covered legislative sessions […]

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...

"Oregon insiders: Who’s who in and around state government" has a new home. I hope you can access it OK. There's much to discuss in this hot-off-the-virtual-press edition.

Oregon insiders: Who's who in and around state government - Your Oregon News Shelby Campos, the longtime operations director for the Governor’s Office, joined the Chief Human Resources Office at the Department of Administrative Services. Kathryn Jones, who moved to DAS in July as the procurement transformation director, will become chief procurement officer as of Jan. 1. S...

This is a thoughtful column by Steve Duin about Oregon's estate tax.

Oregon: No Place to Die Oregonians in their golden years are advised to leave the state to avoid the estate tax, and no one is tracking the number who do.

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...

Lots of job changes happening in Oregon state government, including on Gov. Tina Kotek's staff.

Oregon insiders: Who's who in and around state government - Oregon Capital Insider Bryan Longoria is leaving the Governor’s Office on Jan. 1 to join Secretary of State Tobias Read’s executive team as lead creative and digital strategist. Before becoming Gov. Tina Kotek’s digital communications manager in 2024, Longoria worked for the Department of Forestry and the Bend Park ...

I donated. Will you?

Here's the latest news on who's switching jobs in Oregon state government.

Oregon insiders: Who's who in and around state government - Oregon Capital Insider Among changes at the Oregon Department of Transportation: — Tova Peltz was appointed interim administrator of the Delivery and Operations Division. She joined ODOT in 2007. Peltz has been a geotechnical engineer, assistant resident engineer in construction, geo-environmental unit manager, region p...