Northwest labor press., August 15, 2014, Page 5, Image 5

Scott Mills of Sign Painters & Paint Makers Local 1094
Unionist running for seat in Oregon Legislature
Scott Mills isn’t your typical pro-
gressive labor Democrat. He’s a blue-
collar farm boy who likes his guns. But
he’s union through and through — and
he’s running for the Oregon Legislature
in House District 18.
A 36-year member of Sign Painters
and Paint Makers Local 1094, Mills, of
Aurora, has taken on the difficult chal-
lenge of trying to unseat state Rep. Vic
Gilliam, a wealthy Republican who has
held the office since 2007.
House District 18 — a historically
safe Republican seat — covers portions
of rural Clackamas and Marion coun-
ties, and includes the towns of Silver-
ton, Molalla, Hubbard, Mt. Angel,
Donald, Aurora, and Scotts Mills (his
personal favorite), to name a few. It’s a
commuter district, with most residents
traveling to Portland, Salem, and other
nearby cities to work.
As of June 2014, there were 32,503
registered voters in HD 18, including
14,132 Republicans, 9,887 Democrats
and 6,956 non-affiliated.
In the May Republican primary,
Gilliam easily defeated Tea Party chal-
lenger David Darnell. Darnell, who is
chair of the Marion County Republican
Party, received $100,000 in campaign
contributions from two wealthy busi-
nessmen who had labeled Gilliam as
“not conservative enough.” [Gilliam
was endorsed in the primary by Oregon
AFSCME Council 75 and Service Em-
ployees Local 503.]
Despite the voter registration disad-
AUGUST 15, 2014
vantage, Mills says no one should write
off the general election as an automatic
win for Republicans.
He said the Great Recession of 2008
forced a lot of residents out of their
homes, so there are a bunch of new vot-
ers. And a larger portion of the con-
stituency is comprised of retirees. (In
Silverton, 40 percent of the population
is retired, he said.) Throw into the mix
a third candidate in the general election
— Libertarian Braden Nelson — and
Mills believes he can pull off the win.
Mills, 56, won’t have a huge amount
of money to spend, but he has a slew of
support from organized labor, including
the Oregon AFL-CIO, the Oregon Edu-
cation Association, the Oregon School
Employees Association, United Food
and Commercial Workers Local 555,
Teamsters Joint Council No. 37, the
Oregon Steelworkers Legislative & Ed-
ucation Committee, and the Oregon
State Building Trades Council, among
others.
“Organized labor was one of the
building blocks of this country,” he
said. “Without unions you would have
no middle class, and without a middle
class, there is no democracy.”
Mills works as a paint inspector at
Daimler Trucks. He has been at the
company (formerly Freightliner) for his
entire career, progressing up the ranks
as a painter, foreman, lead man, and
now inspector.
“I was fortunate. I learned a trade
that put me and my family in the mid-
Sign Painters and Paint Makers Local 1094 chairman Scott Mills of Aurora is running for the District 18 seat in the
Oregon House of Representatives.
dle class. Back then the deal was, if you
worked hard, got a good education and
played by the rules, you had a shot at
the American Dream. I worry that our
children won’t have the same opportu-
nity unless we make some changes.”
Mills is active in his union, serving
as chair (the equivalent of president).
He has been a shop steward, a member
of the contract negotiating steering
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
committee, a pension fund trustee, and
he served as political coordinator for all
crafts at Daimler. Last year he helped
coordinate outreach and research dur-
ing a 22-day strike at Daimler.
Mills currently serves as a delegate
to the Northwest Oregon Labor Coun-
cil, and he recently completed the Ore-
gon Labor Candidate School, a pro-
gram that prepares union members to
run for political office. Another recent
graduate of the Labor Candidate School
is Rob Nosse, who now serves in the
Oregon Legislature representing South-
east Portland’s District 42.
For much of his adult life, Mills has
been involved in politics. He has served
in Aurora on the City Council, on the
Public Works Commission, on the
Planning Commission, on the Budget
Committee, and on the Traffic Safety
Committee.
He also is active in the Oregon
Democratic Party. He and another party
activist recently wrote the Business and
Labor plank of the Democratic Party
Platform. “It made it through the con-
vention without any edits. That’s a ma-
jor coup,” he said.
During his campaign, Mills has
knocked on thousands of doors in his
district. As he visits with constituents,
he says three issues rise to the top:
• People want a pay raise.
• People want their home equity
back.
• People have a lot of anxiety about
retirement security.
“The key to growing jobs and creat-
ing a sustainable economy in Oregon
includes an investment in state and lo-
cal infrastructure and targeting state re-
sources to support small businesses,”
he said.
Mills was born in Silverton, Oregon.
He graduated from Canby High
School, and worked summers on his
grandfather’s dairy farm. He spent four
years as a medic in the Air Force, and
went through a trade program at
Clackamas Community College to
learn auto body painting. He and his
wife Cherene have been married for 33
years. She is a teacher in Woodburn
and president of the Woodburn Teach-
ers Association.
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