At 6-foot-3, Gary Wilhelms is taller than most legislators and towers over his boss, Speaker of the House Karen Minnis. As he stretches his long arms across the table to make his point, there are no strings attached. John Minnis. Still, you can't blame people for wondering. Wilhelms' stature matches his experience and age.
The year-young chief of staff keeps pace with his twentysomething peers in a position that regularly requires hour days.
But then, he is used to it. This session, the longest in state history, will be his 16th in a political career that has taken many shapes, dating back to , when he was elected the freshman Republican state representative from Klamath Falls. As a result, some staffers--and even lawmakers--view him as a father figure. He adds a sense of legitimacy. Chiefs of staff are traditionally jack-of-all-trade aides whose role is to make their bosses' lives easier: managing the troops, standing in during important meetings, working damage control on political boondoggles, writing legislation.
Wilhelms operates in all the traditional roles, but he does so with a playbook tested over the course of three decades of political wheeling and dealing. Wilhelms rose through the Democrat-controlled House of the '70s to the post of minority leader before stepping down after the session. He then launched a year career as the chief Oregon lobbyist for US West and its predecessor companies.
Retiring from the national utility in , he returned to public service in as a special assistant for then-Senate President Brady Adams. In December , Wilhelms transferred from Adams' office to work for House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass, whose lack of experience led to a series of embarrassments during the previous session. There, he served as chief of staff in the role of battle-tested caretaker for a House whose experienced ranks were decimated in the post-term-limits era.
