Four candidates vie for vacant Salem City Council seat as filing deadline nears

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Four candidates are competing to represent east Salem by seeking a vacant city council seat in the upcoming election on May 20. 

Voters on May 20 will select a new representative for Ward 6, which was vacated when Mayor Julie Hoy left her post as city councilor to take office in January.

The deadline to file for the unpaid volunteer position is March 11. 

The Salem City Council has seven other councilors who represent geographic wards and the mayor, who represents the entire city. Each gets one vote.

The four candidates who have filed so far for the seat include professional community planner Jeffery Evans, North Lancaster Neighborhood Association Chair Deanna Garcia, correctional officer Logan Lor, and Salem family law attorney Mai Vang.

Evans holds a professional certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners and lists a stint working in county government in Sacramento County, California, and working with the California Energy Commission in the 1980s. Evans worked as a private consultant from 2001 until 2018, his candidate filing showed. 

In addition to her work with the neighborhood association Deanna Garcia works as a certified volleyball official with the Oregon State Athletics Association, according to her candidate filing. 

She attended Chemeketa Community College and was elected chair of the neighborhood association in 2021. She has been on the board since 2018, and a volunteer since 2007. 

Lor studied at Chemeketa  and has served on the board of the Faith Christian Fellowship Church since 2008, according to his candidate filing. 

He was the president of the Lo-Pha Society (Hmong community) from 2009 to 2014, and comes from a family of refugees from the Vietnam War who resettled in Oregon in 1986, according to a Facebook post.

Lor said in his Facebook post that some of his priorities include budget control, creating better family wage jobs, encouraging manufacturing and construction in Salem, and increasing livability. 

On his candidate filing Lor lists his prior government experience as serving on the Salem Human Rights & Relations Advisory Commission from 1998 until 2000. 

Vang moved from her home state of Montana to attend law school at Willamette University and is now an attorney at Salem firm Johnson & Taylor Personal Injury & Family Law. She serves as the president of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. 

According to Vang’s election website her priorities include affordable housing and rent, safety and livability, and economic development.

Evans is the only candidate who does not have a campaign finance account on ORESTAR, the Oregon Secretary of State’s campaign finance website.

Such accounts are not required if candidates spend less than $750 on campaigns. 

Contact reporter Joe Siess: joe@salemreporter.com or 503-335-7790.

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