The officially non-partisan race for commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries — known by its acronym as “the BOLI” — has split along partisan lines.

Former Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, was endorsed this week by two candidates for governor.

Former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, the Republican nominee, announced she was backing Helt.

Helt was also endorsed by former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, the Columbia County Democrat who resigned from the party and the Legislature to run as a non-affiliated candidate for governor.

Portland attorney Christina Stephenson earlier won the endorsement of former House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, the Democratic nominee for governor.

Helt said the endorsement by the Republican and non-affiliated candidates for governor underlined her desire to make the office less of a labor vs. business battleground.

“We cannot get our state back on track without working with Oregonians of all political parties, or no party at all,” Helt said. “Oregon’s working families and small businesses simply cannot afford more of the same failed policies out of BOLI, or any other state agency.”

Stephenson has promised to retain the office — sometimes referred to as just “labor commissioner” — as a place where workers can raise issues about unfair or illegal practices by their employers.

The long official title of the job and its broad but at times obscure role in state government often makes it a backburner campaign that is perennially in the shadow of bigger races. The BOLI election every four years is timed to coincide with the vote for governor.

The labor commissioner is one of the five statewide elected offices.

Three officeholders – governor, secretary of state and treasurer – are barred in the Oregon Constitution from running for a third consecutive term.

Two have no term limits. The attorney general’s was originally an appointed office. The labor commissioner office wasn’t created until 1903.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries enforces civil rights laws, including allegations of discrimination in jobs, housing and services.

It has the job of both educating employers about employee rights and enforcing compliance when employer actions disregard or forget worker protections.

The BOLI ensures employers follow the laws on hourly wages. The office is also in charge of state-registered apprenticeships, hopefully pivoting programs with changes in demand for new workers in Oregon.

The May primary included all candidates, regardless of political party registration.

Stephenson made an unsuccessful bid for a House seat in 2020 as a Democrat.

In the BOLI race, she came close to winning the office outright in May.

Stephenson’s 46.2% of the vote fell just short of crossing the 50% mark needed to avoid a November run-off. Helt was second with 19.3% of the votem moving her into the general election as well.

Stephenson has raised $776,425 for her campaign, paced by large donations from political action committees of labor unions.

Local 48 Electricians PAC has given $100,000, while the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has given $80,000.

Stephenson has spent $642,110 through Sept. 8 and currently has $162,009 in the bank.

Helt has raised $365,075 and spent $324,276, with $53,247 left in the bank. Helt, who co-owns two restaurants in Bend with her husband, has received support from business groups and service industry organizations.

Contributions have included $40,000 from the Oregon Realtors Political Action Committee and $30,000 from Lyons-based Freres Lumber Co.

The winner of the race will succeed Val Hoyle, the former House majority leader who was elected labor commissioner in 2018 and last year had launched a 2022 re-election bid.

Hoyle changed plans when U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, announced late last year that he would not seek re-election. Hoyle jumped into the race for the 4th Congressional District and received DeFazio’s endorsement. She won the May primary and now faces Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg, the Republican who narrowly lost to DeFazio in 2020.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries is best known by many in Oregon for a 2015 action over a bakery refusing to make a cake for a lesbian couple.

Then-Commissioner Brad Avakian levied a fine of $135,000 against Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Gresham bakery, for discrimination. 

Avakian, a Democrat, ran for secretary of state in 2016, beating Hoyle, and Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin in the May primary.

Republican Dennis Richardson made the Sweet Cakes by Melissa fine a centerpiece of his campaign, holding it up as symbol of government overreach. Richardson’s victory gave the GOP the BOLI office for the first time in three decades.

The Sweet Cakes case is still in litigation. Bakery owner Melissa Klein and her husband Aaron asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to reconsider the state’s public accommodations law that was the basis for Avakian’s fine. The couple say they shouldn’t be penalized because their religious beliefs objecting to same-sex couples.

The U.S. Supreme Court had sent the case back to Oregon courts in 2018, but the Kleins are seeking a chance to have their case argued again.