About Ben
• RESIDENCE: Albany.
• OCCUPATION: Stay-at-home parent since start of the pandemic.
• OCCUPATION/WORK HISTORY: Served in Army, 2001-06, including deployments to Germany and Tikrit, Iraq; Samaritan Health Service IT Department supervisor.
• EDUCATION: diploma, South Albany High School; associate’s degree, Linn-Benton Community College; attended Defense Language Institute, Monterey, Calif.; bachelor’s degree in English. Oregon State University.
• PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Serves on Greater Albany Public Schools Budget Committee.
• ENDORSEMENTS: Oregon Education Association, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, AFSCME, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, UFCW, Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon, The Mother PAC.
• VOLUNTEER FOR BEN
• DONATE TO BEN’S CAMPAIGN
• FAMILY: Wife Pamela, teacher at South Albany High School, and children William and Penelope, both students in Albany public schools.
• HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Cooking, camping, fishing, hiking and bike riding with my family, board games.
• WEBSITE: benwattsfororegon.com
•FACEBOOK: facebook.com/ben.watts.583
• WHY I'M RUNNING:
I have two children who attend public schools here in Albany. Looking at the many challenges that are mounting in Oregon, the United States and in the world, I am worried about the environment, economy and standards of equity that we are leaving behind for our children and for future generations.
The energy that Oregon uses is mostly produced from non-renewable sources, we must increase our renewable energy generation to meet the demands of today and establish an infrastructure designed to meet the demands of our children tomorrow.
Meanwhile those children are struggling now. One in seven Oregon children suffer from food insecurity, which means they can’t count on 3 meals a day every day. We can and must feed our children.
We need to ensure that families today have access to housing that they can afford. We will work with builders to increase the raw number of housing units at every economic level, so renters are better able to pay their rent and to make the American dream of home ownership more attainable.
To help with these housing costs, we must increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour so that our hard workers are receiving a greater share of the value they create, and we can help small businesses as we make that transition.
We must also solve the homelessness crisis here in Oregon. I will work to create a program that connects with our homeless veterans to provide physical and mental healthcare, job retraining and temporary housing so we can bring them from a place of crisis to a place of stability. As we find success in this program, we will apply this model to the greater homeless community, knowing as we go forward where our challenges are, and we will have solutions ready to meet them.
• CONTACT BEN: benwattsfororegon.com/contact
• OCCUPATION: Stay-at-home parent since start of the pandemic.
• OCCUPATION/WORK HISTORY: Served in Army, 2001-06, including deployments to Germany and Tikrit, Iraq; Samaritan Health Service IT Department supervisor.
• EDUCATION: diploma, South Albany High School; associate’s degree, Linn-Benton Community College; attended Defense Language Institute, Monterey, Calif.; bachelor’s degree in English. Oregon State University.
• PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Serves on Greater Albany Public Schools Budget Committee.
• ENDORSEMENTS: Oregon Education Association, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, AFSCME, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, UFCW, Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon, The Mother PAC.
• VOLUNTEER FOR BEN
• DONATE TO BEN’S CAMPAIGN
• FAMILY: Wife Pamela, teacher at South Albany High School, and children William and Penelope, both students in Albany public schools.
• HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Cooking, camping, fishing, hiking and bike riding with my family, board games.
• WEBSITE: benwattsfororegon.com
•FACEBOOK: facebook.com/ben.watts.583
• WHY I'M RUNNING:
I have two children who attend public schools here in Albany. Looking at the many challenges that are mounting in Oregon, the United States and in the world, I am worried about the environment, economy and standards of equity that we are leaving behind for our children and for future generations.
The energy that Oregon uses is mostly produced from non-renewable sources, we must increase our renewable energy generation to meet the demands of today and establish an infrastructure designed to meet the demands of our children tomorrow.
Meanwhile those children are struggling now. One in seven Oregon children suffer from food insecurity, which means they can’t count on 3 meals a day every day. We can and must feed our children.
We need to ensure that families today have access to housing that they can afford. We will work with builders to increase the raw number of housing units at every economic level, so renters are better able to pay their rent and to make the American dream of home ownership more attainable.
To help with these housing costs, we must increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour so that our hard workers are receiving a greater share of the value they create, and we can help small businesses as we make that transition.
We must also solve the homelessness crisis here in Oregon. I will work to create a program that connects with our homeless veterans to provide physical and mental healthcare, job retraining and temporary housing so we can bring them from a place of crisis to a place of stability. As we find success in this program, we will apply this model to the greater homeless community, knowing as we go forward where our challenges are, and we will have solutions ready to meet them.
• CONTACT BEN: benwattsfororegon.com/contact
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