A warrior departs.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A pugnacious and courageous legislator is leaving active politics for the relative obscurity of the state Employment Appeals Board. Tony Corcoran, D-Cottage Grove, will resign from the Oregon Senate - a move forced, he said, by workplace retaliation for his role in reforming the Public Employees Retirement System.

Corcoran, a veteran labor organizer and negotiator, was first elected to the Oregon House in 1994, succeeding fellow Democrat Sam Dominy. He was re-elected in 1996 and moved up to the Senate in 1998, replacing Republican Bob Kintigh. He won a second Senate term last year in a reconfigured District 4 that takes in eastern Lane County and northern Douglas County.

It's not unusual for a legislator to move into full-time public employment - Corcoran will follow former lawmakers Lee Beyer, Grattan Kerans and others into well-paid government jobs.

But it is unusual for a legislator to say publicly that his resignation is a result of his having been punished for his work in Salem. Corcoran said his role as the primary architect of the 2003 legislation that reformed PERS put him at odds with the union for which he worked.

Organized labor opposed the PERS reforms, and some unions have sued to have those reforms overturned. Until this year Corcoran was regarded as the most reliable pro-labor vote in the Capitol, but the unions felt betrayed by his support for what they saw as a rollback of workers' pension rights.

Corcoran's leadership on PERS reform, however, was fundamentally in the best interests of public employees. The legislation approved this year saved the pension system. Without reforms, PERS would almost certainly have been abolished outright and replaced with a new system less beneficial to organized labor and public employees. A bill to abolish PERS actually cleared the Senate last year, and might be revived if the lawsuit against the reform legislation prevails. Now Corcoran claims his union employers made his job so unpleasant that it became clear that his best option was to seek other employment.

Corcoran could have ducked the PERS issue - indeed, given his record as an automatic labor vote, that's what he was expected to do. Instead, Corcoran volunteered to head the Senate committee that constructed the reform legislation. It was a gutsy move, and revealed some iron behind his bluster.

Corcoran's sacrifice of his close political and professional relationship with labor looks less painful when it's noted that his job on the Employment Appeals Board will pay up to $84,000 a year. But it's not plausible to believe that Corcoran would point an accusing finger at his union, the Service Employees International Union, unless he honestly felt he was being ostracized. He wouldn't burn his bridges in such a fashion unless they had already fallen down.

The SEIU denies having made Corcoran pay for his legislative work, and there can be honest differences of opinion on such matters. Still, the claim of retribution comes from a highly credible source. It reflects poorly on the union's loyalty to a long-time backer, its support for an employee and its ability to understand its members' interests.

Senate confirmation for Corcoran's appointment should be routine. County commissioners in Lane and Douglas counties, acting on party recommendations, will name a Democratic replacement in Senate District 4. They'll do well to seek someone in Corcoran's mold - someone who's willing to do what he thinks is right, even at the expense of friendships and job security.