Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I am running for State Representative because I believe that it is time for the Legislature to get to work solving the real problems that affect Oregonī's families.

As a business professional, I have seen what the unsustainable and out-of-control rise in health care costs is doing to both businesses and families alike. Increasingly, businesses are caught between doing the right thing or doing the affordable thing when it comes to providing health coverage to their employees. Too often, businesses either cover insurance needs at the expense of wage increases or they are forced to shift more of the costs onto the employee.

The system is broken and we're all getting the short end of the stick.

These same cost increases are drilling a hole right through our state budget, making it more expensive to put police on our streets and teachers in our classrooms.

I am running for the Legislature because I want strong public schools for my four-year-old son, and all of Oregon's kids. I do not want to send my son into a kindergarten classroom of 25 kids, all vying for the attention of one teacher. Our children deserve better.

My campaign is door-to-door and neighbor-to-neighbor because we are not going to get a fair debate in Salem as long as the entrenched special interests continue to control the conversations.

To enact change will take leadership. Leadership that isn't afraid to make tough decisions based on facts, not rhetoric, regardless of the political consequences.

As a business professional, father, husband and 5th generation Oregonian, I think we ought to get back to basics in this state. Safe neighborhoods and good schools. Financial transparency and incentives for government agencies to save money and reduce waste. Local control over local resources. Pragmatic solutions to real concerns like health care. Economic growth. Creating real opportunity for our citizens.

It's time to get to work.

Chris Edwards