Seven candidates are running to head the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

It's Oregon's mystery political job. One of five elected executive offices — alongside governor, secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general.

The position has been around since 1903 — with different names. It has no term limits — one man served 24 years. Four Republicans and three Democrats held the job before it became a non-partisan office with the 1996 election.

The mystery office? Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, commonly referred to by its acronym as "the BOLI." Often, the job is called by its original name, Labor Commissioner.

The official title has changed several times, with the longest moniker from 1918 to 1930: Oregon Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Inspector of Factories and Workshops.

The current commissioner, Val Hoyle, dropped her re-election bid to run for the 4th Congressional District seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield.

The vacuum left by Hoyle's departure from the race drew three veteran political candidates.

• Yamhill County Commissioner Casey Kulla switched from the Democratic primary for governor to the BOLI race.

• Portland employee rights attorney Christina Stephenson, who placed second in a 2020 run for the House District 33, filed the day after Kulla.

• On the last day to file for office, former Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, jumped into the race.

Rounding out the field are Cornelius forest management...

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