On March 29, 2022, I spoke with Oregon Gubernatorial candidate Jessica Gomez of Medford, Oregon to find out more about her and her campaign.
Gomez decided to run for office after watching Oregon struggle for the last couple of years. She believes Oregon needs a leader that will start delivering back some value to the taxpayers.
“We need a CEO and a leader who’s going to start delivering back to Oregonians some value that people are paying for with their tax dollars, said Gomez. We’re really not getting a return on that investment.”
Gomez believes that government should empower it’s people to be able to grow and thrive without controlling them or applying burdensome taxes.
When asked about some of the problems in the state, Gomez talked about how Oregon has become anti-business which impacts everything from long term prosperity to tax revenue.
“We have families that have generational wealth that are thinking of leaving and moving away and that is not a good place to be,” said Gomez.
Un-sheltered homelessness is another area that Gomez has stressed concern and has proposed some solutions for. Gomez would like to model homeless care after the current elderly care systems which has multiple levels of care that depends on the specific need of the individual.
”In elderly care you have your most secure level consisting of memory care residents, then you have your assisted living, and then independent living, said Gomez. We need to do that for un-sheltered homeless struggling with addiction and mental health, to get them the help they need to get better.”
Gomez wants to enable more parents of young children to enter the workforce. In order to help with this, Gomez proposes clearing some of the regulatory hurdles that are preventing companies from being able to provide on-site child care and finding ways to encourage more companies to offer on-site child care.
Gomez explained her views on building a stronger regional economy, saying that different parts of the state have different needs to make them successful, and that Salem has failed to nurture the economies of the more rural communities.
“We have spent a lot of time agonizing over the tri-county area, up north, Portland metro area, said Gomez. We have really lost something in not really nurturing the economies of the rest of Oregon.”
When asked about the effects of the pandemic Gomez said it is now more of an endemic and is not going away but we have systems in place to mitigate its effects, and it’s time to get back into our lives and a sense of normalcy.
“Get out, visit with your families, travel if you can, get back to work, said Gomez. You’re going to feel a lot better.”
The full audio interview is below.
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