by Jim Scheppke 

With just a couple weeks to go until the election, most of the money has been contributed and spent by all ten candidates for mayor and city council. So it’s a good time to see what that looks like. Fortunately we require all major candidates to post their contributions and expenses to the ORESTAR database run by the Oregon Secretary of State, so it’s not too difficult to see what has been going on.

As of May 1st here is the big picture for our five Progressive candidates and the five conservative candidates supported by Marion+Polk First, a Republican-aligned group that has become a big player in both School Board and City Council elections in recent years.

Not surprisingly, our candidates are being outspent by more than 2:1. That has always been true for Progressive Salem ever since we began a decade ago. That’s why our strategy has always been “organized people beat organized money,” and it’s nearly always worked for us. Here is how things look going down to the individual candidate level.

Same story. Where it gets really interesting is when you look at where the money is coming from. Our candidates get a nice balance of small donations, medium-sized donations and large donations. 

It’s quite a contrast when you look at donation sizes for the Marion+Polk First candidates.

Only 4% of the money contributed to our opposition comes from small donors and a whopping 83% comes from over-$1,000 donors! They are donors like developer Larry Tokarski and his company ($57,000), our firefighters union ($14,500), the Oregon Realtors ($12,000) and retired auto dealer Dick Withnell ($10,639). The Marion+Polk First political action committee contributed $102,839 to their candidates, but $100,000 of that came from a shadowy new group called Businesses for Community who can launder their money by giving it to Marion+Polk First.

Of course all this is possible because until now Oregon has had no campaign finance limits. That is supposed to change next year with some new limits passed by the Legislature. So let’s hope this might be the last year that we have to do battle with really big spenders!

Betsy Vega wants to represent Ward 6 on Salem City Council. She just needs you to ignore a few things first. Like the fact that 86% of her campaign funding comes from Marion-Polk First and the Oregon Realtors PAC. Not from Ward 6 neighbors. Not from East Salem families. From two outside money interests with their own very specific reasons for wanting a friendly vote on the council. When developers and real estate PACs are bankrolling 86 cents of every dollar you raise, you are not a community candidate.

And what has Betsy chosen to lead with? A bold public stance on the Oregon gas tax referendum — a statewide ballot measure that a Salem city councilor has exactly zero power over. Salem City Council does not pass state law. Does not repeal state law. Has nothing to do with it. Betsy Vega has the same influence over this referendum as your neighbor’s golden retriever.

Listen, it’s clear the gas tax referendum is doomed. But the funding Betsy is so loudly opposing? It flows back to municipalities like Salem for road maintenance. Betsy Vega is campaigning against money for Salem roads while running for the body that oversees Salem roads. The PACs that built her apparently forgot to brief her on that part. Ward 6 desperately needs road improvements.

Now she’s going after Mai Vang for having a personal opinion on public transit funding too — specifically, for saying she personally supports mass transit and Cherriots while making clear that as a councilor she’d leave funding decisions to voters. But here’s the part Betsy really doesn’t want you to think too hard about: Salem City Council has no vote on any SAMTD payroll tax. Cherriots is an independent district. A Ward 6 councilor cannot impose it, block it, or control it in any way. Vega is attacking Mai Vang for a personal opinion on a tax that the seat she’s running for has zero jurisdiction over.

Yes, the candidate who reads her answers is attacking her opponent for actual thoughts.

Ward 6 has a clear choice: a candidate who was built by outside money, or a candidate who was built by this community. One of them knows what Ward 6 actually needs and what a city councilor actually does. Vote wisely.

By Kathleen Trepa

Mai Vang was elected to Ward 6 in the May 2025 special election and is running for re-election for a full term.

A Willamette University Law School graduate and daughter of Vietnam War refugees, Mai brings a strong sense of family, cultural diversity, the value of community and the belief in the American dream to Ward 6 and the City Council. Mai has already shown she leads with her heart and values. 

Mai’s primary goals are to focus on transportation improvements, including traffic calming, pedestrian safety, and access to bus routes and bike lanes. She is committed to improving 911 response times in Ward 6. She supports the construction of the previously approved local Fire Station and funding the necessary police and fire resources to effectively serve Ward 6. She also champions the Community Violence Reduction Initiative. 

Housing affordability is a critical issue in East Salem, which is home to many minority and lower income neighborhoods. Mai’s dedication to supporting renter protections and rights is driven by her personal experience as a renter; she will propose a city task force of property owners and renters to explore options to protect affordable rental housing.

Helping people keep their homes is a more cost-effective and humane strategy than only funding intervention efforts once people become unhoused. As a result, she supports the re-establishment of the City’s Social Services Advisory Board with an annual $400,000 budget. Fifteen percent of Salem’s population lives below the Marion County poverty line, and the bi-annual Point In Time homeless count shows that the majority of Salem’s unhoused are from Salem. Mai believes the City should and can do more to help keep her neighbors housed. 

Join Progressive Salem in supporting Mai’s re-election campaign. To learn more, please visit electmaivang.com.