Minnis scandal eclipses legacy

East County leaders ponder what happened to Minnis ‘dynasty’

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, Dec 9, 2009, Updated Dec 11, 2009 (15 Reader comments)

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Although not of his own doing, John Minnis entered Oregon politics on the coattails of controversy.

Minnis was appointed to Oregon’s District 20 House seat in 1985 after voters recalled Republican Pat Gillis, who admitted to falsifying letters of support as well as his résumé.

Despite the less-than-illustrious beginning, Minnis, a Republican from Wood Village, served in office until term limits forced his retirement in 1998. The call to public service extended to Minnis’ wife, Karen, who served as Oregon House speaker from 2003 to 2006.

Documents released earlier this week revealed Minnis’ intimate relationship with a subordinate employee at the state’s safety training agency.

Under pressure from Gov. Ted Kulongoski, he resigned in late November. With the state attorney general’s office deferring further investigation to California authorities, Minnis’ long career of public service appears to have run its course.

Clark County, Wash., records reveal the Minnises purchased a five-bedroom, five bath, 4,639-square foot house in Camas, Wash. – valued at $827,600 – in late September, putting another period on the couple’s public life in Oregon.

What the future holds for the family, which allied itself with conservative Christian values in sometimes-contentious political races, is anybody’s guess.

Current and former East Multnomah County movers and shakers, if inclined to comment at all, say they’re baffled by the public downfall of a once-mighty political family.

District 25 Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, said she’s disheartened by John Minnis’ recent revelations.

“I get so discouraged,” she said on Friday, Dec. 11. “What is it we don’t know about ourselves that makes people make the decisions they do? I’ve been too busy taking care of my family and earning a living. In a sense it’s hard to relate to.”

Despite differences in political parties and positions, Monnes Anderson admired the couple’s political experience and acumen.

“Through the Legislature, that’s how I got to know them,” she said. “They certainly had an expertise when they first started that I didn’t have. I was always looking to them to learn about the system.”

Former Troutdale Mayor Paul Thalhofer, a Democrat who once ran unsuccessfully against John Minnis, said whatever anyone thinks about the Minnises, their political power in the past two decades was undeniable.

“It’s hard for me to say anything bad about them,” he said. “They formed a Minnis dynasty. As long as one or the other was running, they won. They could raise more money than any lowly Democrat could hope to raise.”

Monnes Anderson said she was bothered by some of John Minnis’ campaign tactics.

In a 1988 race against Portland physician and gay-rights supporter Estill Deitz, Minnis supported a ballot measure that would revoke a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation. He decried Deitz’ fundraising as being inordinately from gay- and lesbian-based organizations.

“It does bug me,” Monnes Anderson said of the disconnect between politicians’ behavior and their subsequent actions. “But I can’t be a judge. It’s pervasive. It’s not just politicians. Look at Tiger Woods. It’s everywhere.”