City Councilor Voisin rules out run for house

Citing personal and professional commitments here, Ashland city Councilor Carol Voisin says she has decided against a run for the state house seat being vacated by Rep. Peter Buckley, six-term representative of this firmly Democratic district.
The decision leaves city Councilor Pam Marsh, a Democrat, as the only declared candidate for the race, which will be decided this year in the May primary and November general elections. Voisin had said publicly she was considering the race.
Voisin said a big factor is her 98-year old mother, who is living with her.
“I don’t want to leave her for weeks at a time. I’d also be leaving friends and loved ones for quite a while and I don’t want to leave them. It tipped the scale,” said Voisin, who is nearing the end of her second four-year term on the council.
Voisin in on the University Seminar faculty of Southern Oregon University — and notes, “I don’t want to give up my teaching. I get a great deal of satisfaction teaching young adults how to think critically and ethically. I didn’t think it was that huge ’til I had to think about leaving it.”
Her work in the leadership of the city weighed in heavily, says Voisin, especially the unfinished work on climate mitigation and “broadening the scope of how to protect ourselves from climate conditions that are going to be changing our lives … I’m very concerned about our energy and food security issues.”
Voisin said she also needs to keep working on city infrastructure issues and maintaining transparency in all the city’s work.