May 2: District 7 Candidate Forum

Two individuals are running in the Democratic Primary for election to House District 7, which includes much of Springfield. John Lively is the incumbent representative and Ryan Rhoads has filed to run. Mr. Lively has accepted the City Club invitation to appear at the forum on May 2, Mr. Rhoads has not yet responded to our invitation.

Mr. Lively has submitted a statement describing his candidacy:

Springfield City Club Statement – House District 7

I am honored to have served the citizens of Springfield and HD 7 now for 12 years. During that time much has changed, but how to best represent the district in the legislature has not changed.

Key issues I have worked in cooperation with the leaders and constituents in Springfield include transportation funding, land use changes and funding to support development of housing, infrastructure funding to offset costs to the local community, 0-12 education funding and policies to address the ever-changing challenges of our families and students. In addition, recently with my role as Chair of the Higher Education committee the focus has been on addressing strategies to fund additional support for students to offset the need for so much student borrowing.

Besides serving as Chair of the Higher Education Committee, I also this past two sessions served as chair of the Gambling Regulation Committee, served on the Economic Development and Small Business Committee. Also served on the Infrastructure Finance Authority with Business Oregon, the Road User Fee Task Force, the Oregon Growth Board, and others in addition to regular legislative duties.

Priorities moving forward is transportation system funding, continued work on to address the crisis in addiction and treatment, homelessness, and housing, managing the state budget to support the ongoing priorities, and finding new strategies to address the ever-increasing consequences of climate change.

John Lively