Independent Leadership for Marion County

Last week the Oregon Secretary of State announced that we officially earned the Independent nomination for Marion County Commissioner position 2. This means that I will be listed on the November ballot as both a Republican and an Independent. I am grateful to all of the Independent voters who wrote my name in on their primary election ballots.

On Monday, I also attended a lunch hosted by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce to discuss the viability of commercial air service in Salem. It has been ten years since Marion County residents could catch a commercial flight out of Salem. Jack Penning from Indiana based Volaire Aviation Consulting in his presentation said that a commercial airline flying out of Salem would likely connect to Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco. But in order to make the service viable for a commercial airline, ticket prices would likely be about $40 per ticket higher than comparable flights out of Portland. In the discussion that followed, however, at least one participant pointed out that once travel to Portland and parking fees were taken into consideration the actual price difference for a Marion County resident may be nominal.

You can read a write-up on the event from the Statesman Journal. I am interested to see if this proposal comes to fruition.

Finally, last week I attended a meeting with counselors and outreach coordinators from the Salem-Keizer School District. I learned about ways that those of us who are not educators can have a positive impact on students and their families. In particular, the principal of Hallman Elementary told me how important it is for her students to have positive role models who are willing to give the kids the attention that they crave. Merely being a responsible mentor who shows up consistently and reliably over the years can have a massive impact in a young person’s life. I am grateful for all of the work that our teachers and counselors do for our children in Marion County.

We are now just four months away from the general election, and we need to raise the resources we need to finish strong in November. If you have already donated to our general election effort, thank you so much. It is only because of you that we have gotten this far. If you haven’t yet made a donation this month, I would really appreciate it if you could help us out again.

We have worked so hard to get to this point, and now it is time to finish the job.

Thank you so much for all you have done for my campaign.