NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 21, 2016 | PAGE 15
A UNION ELECTRICIAN RUNS FOR THE OREGON LEGISLATURE
Journeyman electrician Ray Lis-
ter, a full-time union organizer
since 2012, is applying for a
new job: state rep. Since March,
Lister has personally knocked
on over 5,500 doors and talked
with over 2,000 voters in House
District 26, which stretches
from Wilsonville and Sherwood
to Hillsboro, Aloha, and Tigard.
His candidacy is backed to the
hilt by his union, IBEW Local
48, and by the labor movement
generally. That gives him a
fighting chance against Richard
Vial, a wealthy Republican real
estate lawyer. Because Oregon
has a part-time citizen legisla-
ture, if Lister wins, he’ll con-
tinue to work for IBEW when
the Legislature’s not in session.
The Labor Press interviewed
him by phone Oct. 10.
As someone dedicated to
building the union movement,
why are you running for leg-
islative office? I think anybody
who gets involved in their union
has an underlying hope that all
of the community can act like
our unions act. We want solidar-
ity not just for union members
but for everybody. We want
Photo by Russell Sanders, courtesy of Oregon AFL-CIO.
5 Questions for Ray Lister
DOOR-TO-DOOR DEMOCRACY: Ray Lister talks to an HD 26 voter.
everybody to be brought up. So
this is the next logical step.
What’s it like to knock on
doors to try to get elected? It’s
funny because as an organizer
I’m often knocking on people’s
doors offering them a legitimate
opportunity for a better job, bet-
ter pay, retirement, health care.
But they’re not always happy to
see me at the door as a union or-
ganizer. As a candidate, I rarely
run into somebody who isn’t
happy to talk to me. There’s a
good chunk of people who just
want to be heard. Whether they
agree with you or not, they’re
glad you came to their door.
What’s most on the minds of
the voters you’ve talked with
this year? It depends what part
of my district I’m in. But hous-
ing is something a lot of people
are concerned about right now.
If they’re renting, they’re wor-
ried. And everybody I’ve talked
to is concerned about education.
Nobody likes the idea that we
have a high dropout rate in Ore-
gon. The other thing I hear a lot
about is transportation. We have
so many problems with traffic.
Our infrastructure just hasn’t
kept up.
If you win, what do you most
hope to achieve in the legisla-
ture? As a freshman, I’m going
to be going learning a lot. I’m
going to be another voice for
workers inside the caucus. The
two things I’m most excited
about working on are education
funding and transportation. I
have a 12 and 14 year old in
public school. They’re part of
the reason I’m running. I want
to make sure their teachers and
administrators have not just the
resources they need, but
longterm strategic planning abil-
ity.
I noticed nothing on your
campaign web site says you’re
running as a Democrat (and
nothing on your opponent’s
web site says he’s running as a
Republican). Why is that?
Well, for me it goes to a core
ideology in general. I’ve been a
Democrat my whole life, and
that’s where my principles have
always been. But I don’t intend
to be a Democrat in Salem. I in-
tend to be a representative in
Salem. Yes we should caucus to-
gether and talk with our party,
but at the end of the day, we
need to represent our district.
Just like the bargaining table: I
go to the bargaining table to rep-
resent all the workers I’m nego-
tiating for. And that means ne-
gotiating with whoever’s on the
other side of that table in a real
way, as a partner, not as an ide-
ologue. In my district, if you
look at the partisan makeup, the
registration advantage is only
very slightly Democratic, for the
first time. But I’ve knocked on
Republicans’ doors, Democrats,
doesn’t matter who it is, and I
hear all the time that people like
to vote for the person, not the
party.
WANT TO HELP SEND A UNION
ELECTRICIAN TO THE LEGISLATURE?
Visit RayLister.com to find out more,
contribute funds, and volunteer to
make calls or knock on doors.