Rep. Tracy Cramer is hoping to serve a second term in the Oregon House as opponent Lesly Muñoz challenges her in the race for House District 22.  The district includes a portion of northeast Salem, Brooks, Gervais and Woodburn.   After defeating Anthony Medina in 2022, Cramer became the first Republican to represent the district since 2004. Cramer and Muñoz both describe themselves as proud products of the public school system and say they want to increase funding to schools, but differ on approaches to homelessness and other key priorities. Here’s a closer look at the candidate’s views on education, housing, gang violence and workers’ rights. Tracy Cramer, Republican Tracy Cramer is House District 22’s Republican incumbent running for re-election this year. (Photo provided by Tracy Cramer’s campaign) Cramer, 35, is a small business owner and a mother of three. Born in Gervais, Cramer has stayed in the area her whole life and run several property management businesses with her husband. She didn’t see herself getting into politics at all until her family’s collegiate housing business shut down due to the Covid pandemic. “I guess it really started opening my eyes …  all of these government decisions and policies are affecting my life, and I have no say in it,” Cramer said. She decided  to run for state representative in 2022.  Cramer has worked on the education and early childhood and human services committees, and also the ways and means subcommittee on education.  If re-elected, Cramer said, she would focus on increasing state funding for schools, addressing gang violence and tracking drug re-criminalization.  Name: Tracy Cramer Party: Republican Age: 35 Residence: Gervais Occupation: Small business owner Education: Gervais High School; Anthem College, dental assistant certificate Prior governmental experience: House District 22 representative Top issues: Education, gang violence and addiction treatment/housing Education Cramer would use a second term to specifically push for state funding of school resource officers, who are law enforcement officers that work inside schools. She said she will continue to advocate for changes to state law that would allow more students to enroll in virtual charter schools, public schools that are privately-run and offer online classes. State law currently allows public schools’ districts to block new students from enrolling in virtual charter schools if more than 3% of the student body is enrolled. Last year, Cramer was a chief sponsor of a law to require school districts to collect data on virtual charter school enrollment. Although the bill was a victory for Cramer, the state can deny students based on a charter school enrollment cap.  Cramer said she would use her second term to push for either removing or changing the cap. She also wants to track how the Oregon Department of Education and school districts are enforcing the bill. “I think there’s still parents that are not getting the notifications that they’re supposed to so that they can move forward and potentially enroll their child in a charter school,” Cramer said. She wants to watch for “hiccups” in how the state and school districts are implementing the bill.  In the state’s last budget cycle in 2023, Cramer urged Gov. Tina Kotek to increase the proposed state school fund by $500 million. Her push was unsuccessful, but lawmakers approved the 2023 budget with $300 million more than Kotek’s original recommendation.  This budget cycle, Kotek is proposing a budget that would increase school funding by about $500 million. “I’m glad to see her (Kotek) calling for increased funding for schools this time, I just hope it comes with tightening the government’s belt in other areas,” Cramer said in an email.  Cramer also sees gang violence and its effects on children as a key issue, particularly in northeast Salem. “The other issue is it’s happening at younger and younger ages, which is very concerning,” Cramer said. Cramer said she has no specific plans for tackling gang violence now, but is in conversation with Marion County’s District Attorney, commissioners and sheriff’s office about potential legislative action. Addiction treatment and housing Cramer worked earlier this year on the bipartisan effort that re-criminalized drug possession on Sept. 1. Since the bill only took effect one month ago, Cramer wants to keep a close eye on implementation and state reports on re-criminalization’s impacts.  The final bill didn’t include a way for parents to put unwilling minors into drug treatment, something Cramer pushed for and will continue to support. She said it would have provided the “accountability drug addicted minors need to get help.”  “There’s countless parents that I’ve talked to that have had to take their kids out of state to get help because Oregon doesn’t have it,” Cramer said. “So that just breaks my heart.” Cramer also wants to track how the bill helps homeless people who struggle with drug use get into treatment and housing. During her first term, she worked on several laws to expand shelter capacity and fund housing for agricultural workers and homeless youth.  Salem budget As the city of Salem faces a substantial budget deficit, city leaders have looked to the state for support to cover public safety costs. Cramer said she supports Rep. Tom Anderson’s proposed bill which would compensate Salem for state-owned land in the city. If passed, the bill’s expected to bring the city around $5 million per year. Cramer said it would “fill in gaps for police, fire, and other priorities.” But she said she wants to see the city use its budget “more responsibly” in the future. She said she credits the current budget deficit to the city’s failure to prioritize spending on public safety and homelessness.  Lesly Muñoz, Democrat Lesly Muñoz is a union consultant running to represent House District 22 in this year’s election. (Photo provided by Lesly Muñoz’s campaign) Muñoz, 48, wants to bring her background in union bargaining to the state legislature.  Muñoz, a single mother of four, said she’s inspired to work hard by her parents, who came to the United States from Poncitlan, Mexico as children. Muñoz has lived in Woodburn for almost 20 years, and grew up in Duarte, California before going to college in Oregon.  “I spent my career, you know, replicating my dad’s hard work, my mom’s hard work,” she said. As a labor representative, Muñoz has spent around 12 years advocating for working families around Oregon and within House District 22. She’s currently a consultant for Oregon Education Association, a union of around 44,000 public educators, including those in the Salem-Keizer School District. With her career in union bargaining, Muñoz said she already has experience bringing people together to “build consensus and solve problems,” and would bring that approach to the state capitol if elected. “I know that this is a majority minority district, and that’s also why I decided to step up as a bicultural woman,” Muñoz said. “I’m a cultural broker, and I’ve been able to get a lot of groups together to find solutions that fit and meet all needs.” If elected, Muñoz would focus on housing, protecting worker’s rights and funding education. She also supports fully funding local and state police and fire departments.  Name: Lesly Muñoz Party: Democratic Age: 48 Residence: Woodburn Occupation: Union consultant, Oregon Education Association Education: Portland State University, bachelor’s degree in liberal arts; Mt. Sierra College, bachelor’s degree in telecommunications Prior governmental experience: None Top issues: Housing, education and labor rights Housing & homelessness To address homelessness, Muñoz supports a “multi-pronged” approach that addresses mental health, addiction and housing availability. She wants to push for more affordable housing and increasing access to addiction treatment. She said, if elected, she would also advocate for state funding to support peer-run groups and fully staff hospitals.  “We don’t have enough tier one services to provide people with that mental health treatment that they need, and so I would like to see us expand those services and the facilities to bring folks in,” she said. For housing in general, Muñoz wants to strengthen tenant protections, such as protecting against unjust evictions, and increase rent assistance.  Education On education, Muñoz wants to push for fully funding Oregon public schools’ quality education model,the amount a state commission said it would take to run schools that meet the state’s educational goals. She also wants to expand access to early childhood education.  Muñoz said she wants to push for increased investment in apprenticeship and career and technical education programs in public schools.  Through working for teachers’ unions, Muñoz has seen that teachers and administrators “have the very same ideas of what needs to be done,” but funding is missing.  In particular, Muñoz wants more teachers hired to give children more attention and care in classrooms and help reduce violence. “There’s no way that one person can deal with all of these things and so if we had smaller class sizes, we could personalize education more and kids could thrive,” Muñoz said. “I would love additional funding to have the number of teachers that we need to appropriately serve students.” Labor rights If elected, Muñoz wants to continue her work as a union organizer and protect the rights of workers in her district and around Oregon.  Muñoz wants to push for fair wages for workers, especially in the wake of recent inflation. She did not give specifics about whether she would push to raise the state’s minimum wage. She said she would support providing incentives for small businesses so they could expand hiring. Muñoz also wants to push for getting workers a say in workplace decisions and safe working conditions.  “We spend a lot of time at work, probably more time at work than at home,” Muñoz said. “If they (workers) are safe … and have good, safe protections, they’re able to take off time to take care of their families.”  Increasing funding for education and vocational training will provide more people with access to good-paying jobs, she said.  Salem budget Muñoz said she did not have an opinion on the state making an annual payment to Salem to help cover its public safety costs as she hasn’t looked into the policy yet.  She did not have details about what she would do as a legislator, if anything, to help stem the city’s budget crisis, but she said she believes it is “essential” that Salem is funded to provide “high-quality services” to the community.  Salem “must have the resources” it needs to fully fund police and fire departments, upgrade roads and improve public transportation, Muñoz said.  Campaign finance Cramer Campaign contributions: $609,366 Expenditures: $636,972 Cash on hand: -$15,833 Top contributors: Bring Balance to Salem PAC (a committee largely funded by Nike co-founder Phil Knight) $192,835; Oregon Realtors Political Action Committee, $91,526; Jobs Political Action Committee $22,500; PNW PhRMA PAC, $20,000; Marion Polk First PAC, $16,412. Muñoz Campaign contributions: $276,668 Expenditures: $256,460 Cash on hand: $32,309 Top contributors: Future PAC, House Builders (the campaign arm of Oregon House Democrats) $60,803; Citizen Action for Political Education (the committee of the Service Employee International Union) $30,130; AFSCME (the union representing many local government and state employees) $30,000; OEA PAC, $20,443; Democratic Party of Oregon, $19,704. Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected]. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Muñoz challenges incumbent Cramer to represent northeast Salem and Woodburn appeared first on Salem Reporter.