Democratic incumbent Rachel Prusak is running for reelection for House District 37, which includes West Linn, Durham, Rivergrove, Tualatin and Stafford. The district is traditionally red and had been sending Republicans to Salem for four decades until Prusak unseated Julie Parrish in 2018. Prusak says she’s running again because “there’s still so much to do.” 

In an interview with The Wolf, Prusak recalled that in 2018, after 20 years as a nurse, she was tired of seeing the dark side of her job — “patients rationing their medication, not seeking health care because of the cost and tired of politicians limiting patients’ access to health care.” Julie Parrish had led the opposition and voted no on Measure 101, a package of health care taxes meant to support low income Oregonians. After knocking on 50,000 doors, Prusak defeated Parrish and turned District 37 blue. 

In Salem, Prusak is the Vice Chair of the House Health Care Committee, sits on the Joint Transportation and Economic Ways and Means subcommittee and chairs the workgroup on Universal Access to Primary Care.

EDUCATION

Prusak highlighted that the House passed the Student Success Act in her first session. The bill sought to bring $2 billion in Oregon education every two years. However, due to the COVID pandemic, leading to the closures of businesses that fund the bill, there will be a reduction in funds. Tigard-Tualatin School District (TTSD) was supposed to receive $10 million, but will now only receive $3 million. 

“The Republicans tried to halt the [Corporate Activity Tax] which would mean we would lose money in the Student Success Act. I fought to protect the [Corporate Activity Tax] and not go back on my vote to pass it. That’s what my plan is — to continue fighting to keep those investments,” Prusak said. 

The Corporate Activity Tax, House Bill 3427, is a 0.57% tax on 10% of Oregon businesses after the first $1 million in sales. 

Four out of five Tigard-Tualatin school board members endorsed Prusak — Directors Ben Bowman, Karen Emerson, Jill Zurschmeide and Maureen Wolf, as well as the Oregon Educators Association. 

“I knocked on 50,000 doors in 2018 and I heard overwhelmingly that this district cared about funding education,” Prusak affirmed.

POLICE REFORM

At this summer’s Special Session, Prusak voted for all six passed police reform bills: banning chokeholds unless circumstances dictate use of deadly force; requiring police officers to intervene to prevent or stop another officer from engaging in an act they know or should reasonably know is misconduct; requiring the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to establish a statewide online public database of records for officers whose certification has been revoked or suspended with reasoning and timeline; prohibiting law enforcement agencies from using tear gas for crowd control, unless riot conditions are met; if an officer appeals a disciplinary action to arbitration, the arbitrator must impose original discipline if they agree misconduct occurred; creating a Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform to continue work with recommendations due by Dec. 31. 

In the West Linn Tidings, Prusak responded to Sloop’s opinion to defund cities that choose to defund the police, calling it “irresponsible.” 

“She’s basically trying to instill fear into our communities because of the Portland protest. I’ve said over and over again that I condemn the violence but I represent Washington County and Clackamas County. I don’t represent Multnomah County and I don’t represent Portland. That job is for the mayor of Portland. But for her to punish an entire community because of protests going on is irresponsible,” Prusak explained. 

CLIMATE CHANGE

“When I knocked on 50,000 doors, I heard from House District 37 who overwhelmingly support policies to protect the environment,” Prusak stated.

She pointed out that she was on the House floor for six hours debating the Cap and Invest bill, which tried to provide Oregonians the path toward reducing emissions through supporting upgrades to homes and small businesses with insulation to use less energy, assistance with installing solar rooftops to lower electricity costs and helping fund transportation options from mass transit in cities to electric vehicle charging everywhere else.

The bill passed in the House but not in the Senate after it faced another Republican walkout and was tabled.

Prusak also voted for the Oregon Environmental Protection Act “to make sure environmental standards are maintained in Oregon despite what might be happening on the federal level.” She passed bills including a continued moratorium on fracking, banning off-shore drilling and requiring truck owners in the tri-county area to transition to cleaner-burning diesel engines.

Sierra Club endorsed her, as well as Oregon Conservation League Voters with a 100 percent score.

“The bottom line is — we’re seeing the devastation of the climate crisis all around us. Whether it’s the wildfires, the droughts in Eastern Oregon or the ocean acidification on the coast, and we need to make sure that we are protecting our environment, and as a nurse I see it as a public health risk to not do anything,” Prusak asserted.

TOLLING ON I-205

Prusak has been working on solutions to fund the seismic upgrades needed on Abernathy Bridge since it will be tolled following the passage of HB 2017, Keep Oregon Moving. 

“It’s fundamentally unfair because you were going to toll our roads to pay for them years before the project was being done. While we were going to be shovel-ready to start our project. I did an amendment to have funding from the I-5 Rose Quarter since they were not ready and still arguing about how they were going to proceed. I’m basically trying to stop the current tolling plans because they negatively impact our community and come up with a more regional solution,” Prusak reasoned. 

Her amendment had bipartisan support but couldn’t be passed due to the Republican walk out. 

She is working on another solution, but says it is “dependent upon city councilors, county commissioners, state representatives, other elected officials working together for regional solutions. We shouldn’t be paying for the use of these roads locally when others are using them…Ultimately we have to invest in seismic upgrades for safety of the roads and the current plan isn’t working.”

MENTAL HEALTH ACCESS

Prusak highlighted a statistic that 33 percent of all LGBTQ youth attempt suicide compared to 6 percent of their peers. 

“That number is drastically reduced when schools offer comprehensive health and wellness education. I showed up to school boards to show support for comprehensive health and wellness education for classrooms. The statistic that adults report poor mental health is 41.3 percent which is 6 percent higher than the national average, and we’re one of the worst [states] in accessing mental health coverage and addiction care,” Prusak stated.

The workgroup that Prusak created and chairs, Universal Access to Primary, Prusak says, is making sure that behavioral and  mental health care is integrated into primary care. She revealed that the goal is to remove copays and make sure patients may access their mental health care the same day as primary care, as well as being able to access telehealth mental health care.

School-based health centers are a priority for Prusak. She has been working on a School-Based Health Center Bill to ensure that students have access to a nurse, therapist or mental health provider. Currently both Tigard and Tualatin High Schools have school-based health centers on site. However, not all high schools in Oregon have one.

“We don’t have enough hours, there’s not enough money for all schools to have a school-based health center. TTSD has them, you’re all lucky. Not every school has them. Not all [school based health centers] have mental health access at them,” Prusak said.

GUN SAFETY

Prusak is a gun violence survivor. She said she has passed bills to rescind guns from domestic abusers and stalkers and currently is working on a bill for safe storage, which will be named after the victim of the Clackamas Mall shooting.

Endorsed by Everytown and Moms Demand Action, Prusak pointed out that her opponent, Kelly Sloop, is endorsed by the National Rifle Association and Oregon Firearms Federation.

Prusak received an “F” rating by the National Rifle Association while Sloop has an “A” from filling out the association’s candidate questionnaire. 

Curious about what Prusak’s opponent, Kelly Sloop, has to say about the same issues? Check out this corresponding article!