>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

THOUGHTS ON POLITICS (OR FISHING?): Jack Ohman is the editorial page cartoonist for The Oregonian. (The Observer/JEFF PETERSEN).

By Jeff Petersen

Observer Staff Writer

WALLOWA LAKE —

Every classroom has at least one compulsive doodler.

But what happens to these people once they graduate from high school, or run out of PeeChees pocket-folder space?

At least one became a political

cartoonist.

Jack Ohman, 42, who is also an incurable political junkie, has been the editorial page cartoonist for Portland's newspaper, The Oregonian, for two decades. Earlier this month Ohman, a workshop presenter at Summer Fishtrap, offered tips on how to connect with non-political readers, and contribute to the running debate on issues as big as the Iraq war — or as small as a neighborhood squabble over dogs.

Nine students gathered in a uniquely Fishtrapish classroom. The deck of the log home where Ohman and his family — wife, Jan, and children, Eric, Julia and Bobby — were staying deep in the woods lacked a chalkboard and desks. But it did feature the Wallowa River roaring in the distance, and ravens offering advice while teetering in nearby firs.

The students were the usual eager-for-knowledge suspects. High school art students, drama and English teachers, even a retired surfer and llama raiser turned out to pick Ohman's brain for two mornings.

Ohman's life, however, has not always been as serene as these surroundings. When he announced to his dad, a Ph.D. in plant pathology, his intended career path, the response was shock and

dismay.

"Artists don't make any money," Dad stormed.

Ohman, though, has over two decades built a lucrative career in the doodling trade. The cartoonist has published nine books of drawings. That complements his daily editorial drawings in the newspaper, and a daily strip that he created — Mixed Media appears in The Observer. Ohman dropped drawing the strip five years ago due to overcommitment, and it is now drawn by a friend, of whom Ohman has many.

He has enemies too.

That's due to his liberal-leaning politics, but the cartoon books are not all political. A couple are devoted to fly-fishing, Ohman's other passion. He had a job offer from a major newspaper in Seattle and may still be in the running for a job at a major newspaper in Chicago. Neither newspaper, though, has much of a chance of landing the cartoonist, since they lack the access to fly fishing Ohman requires.

So he stays put, happily, in Portland, and goes to places like Fishtrap to teach a class of about nine students — and, oh yeah, to fish.

Ohman's interest in politics developed early. His family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1968, and at age 7 he attended Robert F. Kennedy's burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Later the family moved to Minnesota, where as a teenager he got an internship at the state Democratic Party headquarters. He drove the press bus and met politicians like Walter Mondale and Ted Kennedy and columnists like David Broder. When he was 17, he drove in the presidential motorcade for Jimmy Carter.

"It's great as a teenager. You're going 80 miles per hour down the freeway and the police are just sitting there watching you," he said.

A high school journalism teacher told Ohman he'd make a really good political cartoonist, so he started doing cartoons for the high school newspaper.

Later he interviewed for the cartooning job at the University of Minnesota Daily. He feels his knowledge of political trivia and such leading lights as William F. Buckley helped him land the job over 30 other applicants.

Ohman proved to be a prodigy and was syndicated at age 19 while still attending UM, perhaps the youngest syndicated cartoonist ever, and had cartoons published in the Washington Post, New York Times, Newsweek and other national publications.

"My 15 minutes of fame came early," he said, referring to Andy Warhol's well-known saying.

By 1981, and well short of graduating from college, he had received several job offers. He snatched one up at a newspaper, the Republican-owned Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, even though he is a diehard Democrat.

"I'm not a granola Democrat," he clarified. "I call myself a nostalgic Democrat in the Roosevelt, Kennedy, Humphrey vein."

It was in his year working in Columbus that he met Jan. His wife has ties to Lake County in Oregon and had a role in Ohman's looking west.

Ohman then went to the Detroit Free Press for 1 1/2 years.

During this time, knowing The Oregonian had a political cartoonist in his 70s, Ohman started calling the Portland paper every week for six months, hoping when the other cartoonist retired, he might be able to fill his ink-stained shoes.

Finally, Ohman got hired and the rest in history. He said The Oregonian, despite having a Republican publisher, has never raised a stink about Ohman's politics and sees the value of "talking to varied audiences."

Now he goes fishing, and fishing for cartoon ideas, every chance he gets.

SOME OHMANISMS

• Throw a changeup from time to time. "A reader gets bored if you throw them the same pitch over and over. In a typical week, I draw everything from the space shuttle to Trail Blazer basketball player Damon Stoudamire to goofiness in the Legislature."

• Tread carefully when wearing the clown shoes. "There's a fine line between being humorous and accepting of the human condition, and thinking everyone is a moron.

• Set a positive tone. "I can go up and start screaming at you. Or I can schmooze you. You might not do what I want, but if I schmooze you, we might at least have a civil discussion."

• The importance of being (or not being) earnest. "I have to fight being overly earnest about a public policy issue, because I will probably be more effective if I approach the issue with humor. ...

"The thing I love about Fishtrap is the earnestness of it. It's cool to see people getting together and talking about something other than NASCAR."

• Political schmitical. "The average reader is not as plugged in to the political process as the average journalist. Journalists have to figure a way to bring a lot more people in to the newspaper. Political cartoons are one way of doing that."