Bob Tiernan — who has previously served as a state legislator, chief petitioner of a mandatory minimum sentencing measure and chairman of the Republican Party — wants the next chapter of his life in Oregon politics to take place at Mahonia Hall in Salem.
The Lake Oswego resident and former president of Grocery Outlet announced his candidacy in a crowded field for governor Monday, Feb. 14. He feels his combination of political experience and business acumen — as well as his many years in the Navy Reserves — will make him well suited for the job.
“I don’t think you’re going to find anyone else running as a Republican or Democrat that has the skills and the background that I do,” he said.
Tiernan represented Lake Oswego in House District 24 from 1992 to 1996 and also was a chief petitioner of a number of significant ballot measures including Measure 11 — which established mandatory minimum sentencing for some of the most serious crimes like murder, rape, assault and robbery. This measure has since been rolled back to some degree. Tiernan felt that it had proven successful and that a recent crime uptick in Portland is indicative of the need to prosecute and incarcerate criminals more aggressively.
“Reducing crime by having penalties has proven to work. Is it the only solution? No, absolutely not,” he said.
Other measures he petitioned included Measure 17, which mandated that Oregon prisoners must work while incarcerated. Tiernan was also chairman of the corrections and crime committee as a legislator and said he helped pass bills to establish sex offender registration and protect elders from abuse.
“Public safety has to be the number one issue,” he said. “If you don’t feel safe in your home walking down Lake Oswego, walking to a restaurant, to the lake, going through George Rogers Park, with your kids going to school, that’s the number one function of government. I think we’ve been dropping the ball in Oregon.”
Tiernan said following his political stints, he focused on putting his kids through college and his executive responsibilities for Grocery Outlet and then Raley’s. He thought he had retired from politics but felt so dissatisfied by what he viewed as the devolution of the state in the past few years that he was compelled to put his hat in the ring.
He compared the governor’s role in curbing crime and homelessness locally to an orchestra conductor.
“You need a leader. You need someone who is going to say ‘I am overall responsible for the state.’ We need to resolve these problems and do it together as a community,” Tiernan said. “They (the governor) have the bully pulpit. They have the ability to get people together and say we can tackle this.”
Other than public safety, Tiernan said he would put an end to all vaccine and mask mandates immediately and felt that local jurisdictions, not the state, should have control over such policies.
“The counties aren’t dumb. I would push control to the cities and counties to develop their own rules based on their own communities, their needs and problems that are happening,” he said.
Tiernan acknowledged that Oregon has not elected a Republican governor in four decades but felt that the current homelessness crisis and what he described as lawlessness in the state would compel voters to think differently this time around.
“I think Oregonians right now are so fed up with the lawlessness and the crime that’s taking place in their neighborhoods and around their communities that they will vote for someone who will take care of and fix the problems,” he said. “The public has lost faith in their leaders and I’m someone with a resume and experience to solve problems … I think that’s what is going to win this time.”
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