An open Springfield House seat draws candidates focused on affordability

A city councilor and a wealth adviser both concerned about the cost of living in their district will compete against each other in November to represent the Springfield area in the Oregon House of Representatives.

After more than 13 years in office, Democratic incumbent Rep. John Lively announced his retirement from the Oregon House late last year, leaving an open seat for either Democrat Kori Rodley or Republican Adam Wilson.

The candidates will mostly compete to sway the district’s nonaffiliated voters, who make up nearly 40% of registered voters in the district, followed by 30% Democrats, 22% Republican and 8% from other parties, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s September voter registration count. 

Meet the candidates

A financial adviser and sixth-generation Oregonian, Adam Wilson said he decided to run for office out of frustration on what he said is economic mismanagement at the state level. 

“There are people who are more concerned with staying in power than they are making correct decisions for the people they represent,” he told the Capital Chronicle.

Affordability, economic prosperity and homelessness are the issues he said he’d prioritize if elected into office. 

Wilson said he’d prioritize repealing a 2021 law that allows local governments to regulate public spaces, such as setting hours or restricting specific areas, but prohibits them from unreasonably banning or criminalizing outdoor rest. The law codified a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a case out of Grants Pass that the Supreme Court has since overturned.

He also said he’d prioritize imposing criminal penalties on open-air drug use, including mandatory jail time and treatment options for repeat offenders. After voters approved decriminalizing drugs in 2020, the Legislature passed a bipartisan law that reinstituted criminal penalties but allows Oregonians to avoid jail time or fines by completing treatment.

Kori Rodley is a lifelong Oregonian with a background in nonprofit human resources. She works at Lane County Developmental Disabilities Services and in 2021 she joined the Springfield City Council. 

Rodley said she decided to run after Lively encouraged her to. 

As the chair of the city council’s legislative committee, Rodley said she has become familiar with lobbying the state for her district’s needs. 

If elected, she said the main issue she’d prioritize addressing is cost of living, specifically when it comes to transportation, healthcare and childcare. 

“I spent years as a working single parent, and so I firsthand experienced the challenges of childcare from the time they were young to as they grew, and it’s something that we still haven’t fixed,” she said, adding that she’d push to incorporate infant to prekindergarten childcare into state public schools.