Oregon Public Broadcasting

John Kitzhaber could make history in Tuesday's primary election in Oregon.

If he wins the Democratic nomination, he'd be the first former Oregon governor to be nominated for the chance to win back the state's top office.

But as Chris Lehman reports another iconic governor tried unsuccessfully to do the same thing more than 30 years ago.

The bottle bill. The beach bill. Land-use planning. All legacies of two-term Republican governor Tom McCall.

But when McCall tried running for a third term in 1978 after sitting out for four years, he was trounced in the GOP primary.

The winner, Vic Atiyeh, went on to unseat incumbent Democrat Bob Straub in the general election.

Brent Walth is the author of "Fire At Eden's Gate," a biography of McCall. Walth says by then the Republican party had moved to the right.

Brent Walth: "He was older, he wasn't feeling well. He wasn't as sharp as he had been when he was in office. It was very hard for him to sort of reengage in a way that convinced people that 'Yeah, we really want him back.'"

Kitzhaber is just two years younger than McCall was when he tried his comeback.

Walth says Kitzhaber may have a better chance because Kitzhaber sat out for eight years and isn't trying to unseat an incumbent.