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Sen. Lee Beyer is not green enough to please environmentalists. And probably not sufficiently blue, either.

Nine organizations, including 1000 Friends of Oregon and the Oregon Environmental Council, made a last-ditch attempt to derail the Springfield Democrat’s appointment to the Oregon Transportation Commission. Their letter to Gov. Kate Brown subsequently was joined by additional environmental groups and coalitions representing people of color.

Their effort undoubtedly explains why Beyer took four times the allotted time to make his case Wednesday during a virtual public hearing before the Senate Interim Committee on Rules and Executive Appointments. Each of Brown’s 75 or so first-time appointees was given a minute to discuss their interest in serving on their particular board or commission.

Brown was not dissuaded by the Sept. 13 letter asking her to withdraw Beyer’s name and instead let the next governor make that appointment. The betting is that the new governor will be progressive Portland Democrat Tina Kotek, although respected national political analysts currently rate Oregon’s gubernatorial election as a tossup.

Beyer, who is retiring from the Legislature, represents a vanishing breed within the State Capitol: a moderate. He also backs the gubernatorial quest of his former Democratic Senate colleague Betsy Johnson, who is running as a non-party candidate against Kotek and Republican Christine Drazan.

The letter to Brown was cc’d to the Senate committee but not included in the public documents for Wednesday’s meeting, which I find odd. Among the four points that the critics made was that representation matters:

“Replacing outgoing Commissioner Alando Simpson, a Black business owner from ODOT Region 1, with a white, retired legislator from Region 2 fails to ensure that the OTC is representative in as many ways as possible, including age, race, ethnicity, income, and geography. Over half Oregon’s population resides in the Greater Portland Metro region and billions of dollars are planned for transportation investment in this area in the next decade.

“This appointment continues the outdated legacy of appointing only people who regularly get around by private vehicle, ignoring representation of those who are locked out of that opportunity by disability or poverty. It fails to incorporate the concerns of youth and older adults about their own needs for transportation and for their future in an increasingly dire climate crisis.”

Brown has made a point of naming people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community and other underrepresented groups, to commissions and executive roles in her administration. Yet she also has rewarded former legislative colleagues, such as appointing Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Beyer has chaired the Senate transportation committee since 2011. Having also dealt with transportation issues as a member of the Springfield City Council and city planning commission, he admits to favoring local control and Oregon’s “bottoms up” approach to transportation planning.

Within the Legislature, he is regarded as a transportation expert. When I wrote about toll roads for last week’s Capital Chatter, I looked back to see what Beyer said about congestion pricing as part of the bipartisan 2017 transportation infrastructure package. He told the Senate committee on Wednesday that his primary interest for joining the transportation commission is to ensure the 2017 legislation is carried out and to hold the Oregon Department of Transportation accountable.

Citing a litany of programs included in that massive legislation, Beyer said it is untrue that he cares only about roads. But Oregon is an export state, and he stressed the importance of good roads for moving freight to ports as well as for everyday commerce.

“I like to say that Oregon’s economy moves on wheels, and those wheels need something to roll on,” he said.

Beyer’s nomination appears in no danger when the Senate meets Friday to consider the governor’s appointees. He is included in about 100 new and reappointments that the committee endorsed Wednesday and sent to the Senate for an up-or-down vote as a group.

Sen. Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, the committee chair and Senate majority leader, agreed to a request from Sen. Fred Girod, R-Lyons, that six other nominees go to the Senate for individual votes.

All are likely to be approved by the majority Democrats despite Republican opposition. They are Shenoa Payne, Oregon Government Ethics Commission; Anne MacDonald and Erica Medley, Governing Board of the State Department of Geology & Mineral Industries; Ronnee Kliewer and Kelly Kuklenski, State Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision; and Brenda McComb, reappointment to the State Board of Forestry.