Ashland Senator Golden To Compete In State Treasurer Primaries

ASHLAND, Ore. — State Senator Jeff Golden, Oregon’s state senator for District 3, which includes Medford, Ashford, Phoenix, Jacksonville, the Applegate Valley, Ruch, and Talent announced yesterday that he intends to campaign to become Oregon’s next state treasurer.

This follows the announcement of Tobias Read, Oregon’s current state treasurer, that after serving almost eight years in the job, he is running for secretary of state. The state treasurer’s responsibilities are to look after state investments- which include the $94 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERS) and manage public banking and saving programs such as OregonSaves and the Oregon College Savings Plan.

Golden said that he will reveal details of his plans after the current legislative session ends on March 10, and has not yet filed his candidacy with the Secretary of State’s Office. His reelection campaigns- most recently in 2022 for appointment to the state senate were based on his experience as a Jackson County Commissioner and state legislator.

Golden noted his intention to run against fellow Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Elizabeth Steiner of Portland, and Jeff Gudman, a former city councilman from Lake Oswego who ran as a Republican previously. The third candidate- Seth Woolley, a software engineer, is running for the Pacific Green Party nomination. Golden said, “I plan to offer Oregon voters a different vision for leadership of the state Treasury.”

Planning to focus on the critical legislation still left in this session before campaigning, Golden looks forward to plenty of conversation about why he is running and what he hopes to accomplish. In previous filings, he listed himself as politically independent and as a Democrat. He wants to return to the Senate to ensure national pressure to strip women of reproductive rights gets no traction in Oregon and also seeks to defend Oregon democracy against the ‘stop-the-steal’ uprisings that he believes are designed to overturn elections.

Senator Jeff Golden’s Legislative Achievements

Legislative accomplishments listed by Golden include:

• Protecting communities by balancing rigorous law enforcement, education, and human services, lifting people towards self-sufficient lives.
• Removing criminal cannabis operations in the Valley.
• Protecting Oregon from megafires before they start, and steadily moving from fossil fuel to clean energy systems that create jobs to reduce their severity.
• Breaking the stranglehold that big money has on state politics.
• Boosting community economies by supporting small businesses.

Aside from State Senator, Golden lists river guide, carpenter/contractor, journalist, and mediator as his occupations. He has been educated at Southern Oregon University, Harvard University, Stanford University (graduate program) as well as union carpentry school.

His biggest competition-Steiner is considered a frontrunner, having served as co-chair of the formidable budget-making Joint Ways and Means Committee for the last five years. Golden and Steiner have been at odds in the Legislature, disagreeing on who should pay for crucial increases in state wildfire funding.