Janeen Sollman the democratic candidate for Oregon House of Representatives District 30 is running against Dan Mason of the Republican ticket and Kyle Merklay running on a Libertarian ticket. All the three candidates had direct nomination with neither facing any opposition during the Primary election. The incumbent holder of the office Joe Gallegos of the Democratic Party did not seek re-election. The two candidates running against Mrs. Sollman all participated in the previous election but failed to clinch the office. In the 2014 Elections for the office of Oregon House of Representatives Dan Mason came second gunning 8518 votes, 40% of the cast votes while the second runners up Kyle Merklay got 1860 votes, an 8.9% of the votes cast (Ballotpedia, 2016). In 2012, Mr. Mason vied for the same position in District 34 but still failed. As a republican candidate, his manifesto has mostly focused on revamping the economy of Oregon while that of Kyle Merklay has focused on civil forfeiture with little interest of peoples’ welfare.
Janeem Sollman, an active volunteer, has been a long-time advocate for her community. In particular, she has been involved with homebound elderly people and war veterans providing them with ‘Meals on Wheels’. The candidate is also behind the Washington County Project Homeless Connect, a program aimed at assisting the homeless families. The candidate has also been in the fore front fighting for schools and believer of giving students equal opportunity to succeed. In so doing, she has been a board member for different schools, serving on various school committees. All her two sons went to their local public school, Hillsboro public school. Mrs. Sollman is a regular American woman (works for Vernier Software & Technology), in touch with the day to day challenges of people of District 30 (Janeen Sollman website, 2016). Her lustrous activism has already started to pay off going by the endorsed she has received from several public figures among them two US Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley amongst others . This is a good gesture showing that indeed Mrs. Sollman has been an active participant in her community and the political field playing crucial roles during the party fundraisers amongst other party activities. During the last election, she played a crucial role campaigning for Joe Gallegos who later won the seat (Ballotpedia, 2016).
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With Oregon being a strong Democrat zone having voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate from 1988 to 2012, and the District 30 and 51 considered among the swing seats, the Democratic candidate has a good chance of winning the election (270townwin, 2016). Also of note is that in the current house Democratic Party is one number shy from enjoying the three-fifth super majority. This trend is expected to continue in the house of representative. As a person of the people who is in touch with the basics on the ground, Sollman has a higher probability of winning though we have to bear in mind that the individuals she is running against participated in the previous election gunning substantial votes.
Sollman who has served as a board member of several school boards, the latest being Hillsboro School Board, has chosen education as her main campaign theme. Sollman has been a vocal advocate for ensuring that schools are well equipped having all the relevant and necessary resources. This is a crucial element within the politics of District 30 and could stand as a key element in her election. This theme is founded on the basis of growth, what better investment than the investment in future leaders who will steer the economy and leadership of the District 30 (Jaleen Sollman website, 2016).
Her other theme which plays so well into winning the women vote is the fact that she is a mother, a parent who wants the best for her children. This second theme is that of helping small businesses grow. In particular, the Democratic candidate wants to intervene and secure chances for the young entrepreneur, the college students have a chance to create partnerships with local business entity something which will guarantee development and skills transfer. This will enable the young fairly capital poor student updates their skills lining them with what the market expects hence can raise capital for their business venture in future. From the established relationship young people will be able to secure job as early as at high school level. From the multiplier effect of young people making their own money, low dependency ratio; the county expendable income will definitely increase giving the district the ability to invest and grow economically. Another campaign theme in line with global goals is that of protection of the environment. Sollman is committed to protecting her community’s environment she grew up, work and raising her children in (Jaleen Sollman website, 2016).
Team Janeem has been working diligently, working round the clock on social media, walking door to door and making phone calls reminding people why they need to vote for her. For Getting out the Vote (GOTV), we are doing extra canvassing by picking up ballots as well as talking to a larger group about Jaheem’s platform for last-minute voting. With her volunteer background, several people have come out to help the course contacting nearly 2000 voters in October’s first week to kick off GOTV. The mission is to increase voter turnout within the Democratic Party and a special kitty has been set aside which will ensure that voters are given a free ride to voting stations. This is in an effort to increase the voter turnout which has always been below par (Crowdpac, 2016).
In terms of donation by size, most of Janeen’s donors are medium donors making 62% followed by big donors at 34% and mall donors at 4%. While going by the sector, Janeen’s donations mostly come from lawyers whose contribution make 33% followed by other people contributing 20% and finally the political class contributing 17% (Crowdpac, 2016).
Adopted from Crowdpac retrieved from https://www.crowdpac.com/races/2016/or/state/lower/30
Compared with the republicans, most of their donations by size come from big donors 85%, followed by medium donors at 15% and finally small donor at 0.9%. From the look of things, Janeen is in touch with the masses making the bulk of the society. Also, to minimize expenses the campaign committee has been depending on canvassing using volunteers and phone banking. This has considerably lowered cost of operation enabling the campaign money to be allocated in other
The seat in district thirty has been oscillating between the Republicans and Democrats. The Democratic incumbent Joe Gallegos took the seat in 2012 from Shawn Linsay, a republican candidate. With the incumbent, not racing and the 2014 Republican candidate still in the race, Republicans stand a chance to pick the seat. In 2014, while Gallegos won 50 % of the vote to Dan Mason's 40.8 percent in a three-way race; Libertarian candidate Kyle Markley received 8.9% of the vote. Kyle Markey has been considering withdrawing from the race leaving it to be a two horse race. The Republicans being moderate are closer to 8.9% conservatives votes that the liberals. This is a real potential threat that we have to consider (Crowdpac, 2016). With an incumbent missing from the race it will be quite difficult to predict the race going by the projection from ballotpedia.
Voter turnout is another problem as the District has always been voting about 70% -75% of the registered voters. From our canvassing, we have identified the neighborhoods with strong democratic support and plans to ferry voters to the station to ensure very few registered Democrats miss to vote. Despite the seemingly tight security, I am banking on the fact that Oregon is currently exhibiting democrat support and is likely to vote for Janeen. Personally, I am comfortable that Sollman is going to win despite the recent literature being against her. I believe the Democratic Party has done enough to campaign plus my candidate has very many endearing qualities at a personal level something which can win over conservatives (Crowdpac, 2016).
Statistically, this election could go either way; however, I do personally feel that Janeen is going to be our State Representative. Compared to her competitors, Janeen has that authentic grass root connection with her community and with nothing but good interest at heart. Despite the results, each and every one of us who has contributed to this Campaign will walk away knowing that we played a clean game and did everything in our power to see that our champion go through.
References
270towin (2016). Oregon vote history Retrieved from http://www.270towin.com/states/Oregon
Ballotpedia (2016). Oregon 2016 election . Retrieved from https://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_races_we%27re_watching,_2016
Crowdpac (2016) Oregon, State House, (30th District) Retrieved from https://www.crowdpac.com/races/2016/or/state/lower/30
Jaleen Sollman website (2016). About Jaleen. Retrieved from http://janeensollman.com/aboutjaneen
