Christina Stephenson, an employee-side civil rights attorney, announced Jan. 18 she’s running for Oregon Labor Commissioner. The announcement likely comes as a relief to Oregon labor leaders.
Labor Commissioner is responsible for enforcing wage and hour, prevailing wage, apprenticeship, and civil rights laws as head of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), but it can sometimes be hard to attract candidates to run for the job. That’s because the agency has been perennially underfunded, and its director has the lowest salary of any statewide elected office: $77,000.
But for Stephenson, 38, it’s a dream job. Speaking to the Labor Press by phone just before filing, Stephenson said she was already keeping a “to-do” list of things she wished BOLI would do. Then Congressman Peter DeFazio announced his retirement Dec. 1 after 36 years in Congress, and Oregon’s current labor commissioner Val Hoyle—a longtime former state legislator from DeFazio’s district—announced she’d run for his seat. Stephenson was interested in the job of labor commissioner, but she waited, thinking a better known candidate might announce. Now, six weeks later, with the encouragement of friends in the labor movement, she’s entering the race for the non-partisan seat.
“I think this is an agency that needs stability,” Stephenson said. “It needs someone who is doing this work because they deeply care about the work.”
Stephenson is well known in labor circles, having worked behind the scenes to help draft...
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