PAGE 6 | March 18, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
Oregon union members
Oregon Senate labor stalwarts step down
RUNNING
FOR
OFFICE
Two state Senate Democrats
What would it be like if the government were run by people like you?
with long ties to organized labor
One way to find out: Run for public office. The union members below leave office when their terms
are running for office this year. They’re graduates of the Oregon Labor expire at the end of this year.
Candidate School, a union-funded training program that gives union
members the skills to get elected. Interested? The next Portland-area
State Sen. Di-
session begins in October. Get your union to sponsor you, and find
ane Rosen-
out more at oregonlaborcandidateschool.org.
baum a former
Ray Lister – a journeyman electrician who’s now a union organizer at
IBEW Local 48 – is running as a Democrat for House District 26 in
Wilsonville. If he wins the Democratic primary in May, he’ll face a
Republican in November for the seat formerly held by Republican John
Davis. Republicans have a slight registration advantage in the district, so
he’ll need all the help he can get from organized labor. — RayLister.com
Adrienne Enghouse – a Kaiser Permanente nurse and a tenacious union
steward within the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals –
is competing with a McDonalds franchise owner to become the Democratic
nominee for House District 51 in Clackamas. But Enghouse, who runs
ironman triathlons, is ready to go the distance. The seat is currently held by
Democrat Shemia Fagan, who’s not seeking re-election.
Roberta Phillip-Robbins is an AFSCME-represented youth and gang
violence prevention specialist at Multnomah County and a former teachers
union member in Florida. She only has to win the Democratic primary to
succeed state rep Lew Frederick, who’s running for state Senate, because no
Republicans have filed this year in overwhelmingly Democratic House
District 43 in Northeast Portland. — RobertaForOregon.com
Teresa Alonso Leon – the daughter of pro-union farmworkers – is an
SEIU-represented diversity coordinator at Portland State University and a
current member of Woodburn City Council. She’s unopposed for the
Democratic nomination in House District 22, but to succeed Democrat Betty
Komp, who’s not running, she’ll have to beat Republican former Marion
County commissioner Patty Milne in November. —ElectAlonsoLeon.com
Sheri Malstrom – a community health nurse at Multnomah County –
helped get others elected as a member of the Oregon Nurses Association.
Now she’s in a race of her own for House District 27 in Beaverton. She hopes
to succeed Tobias Read, who’s running for state treasurer. She faces Darin
Campbell in the Democratic primary. No Republican has filed to run. —
SheriMalstrom.com
union official
with Commu-
nications
Workers of
America
(CWA)—de-
cided not to
Rosenbaum
run for reelec-
tion after 17 years in the Legisla-
ture.
Rosenbaum, 66, has a history
of successes in raising the mini-
mum wage: In 1989 as a lobby-
ist for CWA, she helped get the
Oregon Legislature to raise it
from $3.35 an hour to $4.75.
She later was chief petitioner on
1996 Ballot Measure 36, which
raised it to $6.50, and 2002 Bal-
lot Measure 25, which raised it
to $6.95 with annual adjust-
ments for inflation thereafter.
This year, she was on the Senate
committee that passed a tiered
increase to $12.50 to $14.75.
Besides the minimum wage,
Rosenbaum says she’s most
proud of Oregon’s sick leave
law, the Oregon Family Leave
Act, and laws requiring insur-
ance companies to pay for con-
traceptives and annual breast
cancer screenings.
Rosenbaum retired from the
phone company in 2004. Before
that she was executive vice pres-
ident of CWA Local 7901, and
served on the executive boards
of the Oregon AFL-CIO and the
Northwest Oregon Labor Coun-
cil. She served in the Oregon
House from 1998 to 2008. In
2001, she helped re-start a labor
caucus within the National Con-
ference of State Legislatures,
and served for a time as caucus
president. In 2008, she ran un-
opposed for the Senate District
21 representing Southeast Port-
land, Milwaukie, and Oak
Grove. She served as Senate
Majority Leader from 2010 to
2015.
State Sen.
Chip Shields
is leaving of-
fice after 10
years in the
Legislature.
Shields, 48, is
best known as
an advocate
of criminal
Shields
justice re-
form. He became a member of
American Federation of Teach-
Mark Reynolds – a retired Hood River high school teacher and member
of the Oregon Education Association – is running in House District 52. If he
wins the Democratic primary, he’ll challenge Republican incumbent Mark
Johnson. Johnson, a nonunion contractor, is considered one of the most
anti-labor members of the Oregon Legislature. —ReynoldsForOregon.com
Tom Kane is a teacher, a soccer coach, and an Executive Board member in
the Portland Association of Teachers. A longtime resident of Canby, he’s
running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for House District 18
and will challenge incumbent Republican Vic Gilliam in November.
Sally Cook – a Marion County health educator – is a member of SEIU
Local 503. She’s running for a nonpartisan seat on Salem City Council in
southwest Salem’s Ward 7, challenging incumbent Warren Bednarz, a real
estate investor who has held that position since 2012. —sallyforsalem.org
INCUMBENTS – Current or former union members in the Legislature
Michael Dembrow (AFT-Oregon) SD 23
Diane Rosenbaum (CWA) SD 21
Chip Shields (AFT) SD 22
Laurie Monnes-Anderson (OEA) SD 25
Mark Hass (AFTRA) SD 14
Paul Holvey (Carpenters) HD 8
Rob Nosse (ONA) HD 42
Brad Witt (UFCW) HD 31
Barbara Smith Warner (NALC, AFT) HD 45
Margaret Doherty (OEA) HD 35
Jeff Barker (Portland Police Assn) HD28
Nancy Nathanson (SEIU) HD 13
Jeff Reardon (OEA) HD 48
Mitch Greenlick (AFT) HD 33
Chris Gorsek (AFT-Oregon) HD 49
Lew Frederick (AFTRA) HD 43
If a defective product
causes your work
injury, you may be
able to sue the
manufacturer for
damages in a
products liability
claim.
ers (AFT) when he taught crim-
inal justice classes at Portland
State, and he never forgot the
early labor support he got for his
first House race in 2004.
It’s not widely known, but
Shields also played an important
role in raising the minimum
wage in 2002. When labor
groups were determining
whether they had the resources
to go forward with the ballot
measure, Shields tipped the bal-
ance by contributing $50,000 in
family money. That earned him
the designation “labor hero” at a
2003 AFL-CIO awards dinner.
Over the 10 years he repre-
sented House District 43 and
Senate District 22, he earned top
rankings from the Oregon AFL-
CIO as a steadfast labor ally who
went above and beyond. He
helped win partial unemploy-
ment benefits for workers whose
hours were cut, and co-spon-
sored bills calling for single-
payer health care and urging
Congress to renegotiate trade
agreements like NAFTA. He
fought for “fusion voting” on be-
half of the union-backed Oregon
Working Families Party. And
outside the Capitol, he came out
to support union campaigns; for
example, urging Portland State
University to agree to a fair
union contract for professors.