About Tobias Read

Tobias Read believes Oregon should be a state with world-class schools, affordable and accessible health care, good jobs, and clean air and water. He first ran for State Representative in 2006, was re-elected in 2008 and is currently serving his third term in Oregon Legislature for the 27th district.

As State Representative, he has fought to bring a long term focus to Oregon's government. Future generations of Oregonians deserve the best of our attention, effort and energy, not partisanship or inaction. In 2007, with Representative Read's help, the legislature returned to thinking, and acting, with the long run in mind by creating a state savings account, advancing a comprehensive environmental agenda, and updating the Bottle Bill, just to name a few.

Since then, the trend continued as the legislature dealt with a difficult economic climate by continuing to focus on the long run. Tobias played a key role in helping the legislature protect investments in education, make improvements in healthcare access and affordability and create new jobs throughout the state. To help Oregon students get off to a great start Tobias carried Senate Bill 248 to passage, which makes full-day kindergarten the norm across Oregon public schools by 2015. Likewise, with Senator Mark Hass, Tobias crafted and helped pass SB 242, a higher education measure designed to grant Oregon Universities and Community Colleges greater flexibility and accountability. Tobias has also led efforts to jumpstart Oregon's growing solar energy industry and to pass landmark legislation to finance energy efficiency projects that create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Tobias is Co-Vice Chair of the committee on Transportation and Economic Development as well as a member of the committee on Revenue, Ways and Means, and Co-Chair of Ways and Means sub-committee on Transportation and Economic Development. Tobias remains an ex-officio member of the Oregon Innovation Council and was elected as the House Democratic Whip.

Tobias returned to the Oregon Capitol after his 2006 election, having worked for two terms as an aide to former Representative Bryan Johnston. His political experience also includes service in Washington, D.C. as an aide to U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers during the Clinton Administration.

For over a decade, Tobias has been working to keep Oregon a great place to live. As a development officer for Willamette University he built partnerships with business and community leaders to find innovative solutions that strengthened both the community and University. In his current job as a product developer of kids' footwear for Nike, Tobias helps one of Oregon's only Fortune 500 Companies maintain its position as a world leader, bringing jobs and business home to Oregon.

Tobias has been a coach for youth basketball, a member of Neighborhood Association Committees and Citizen Participation Organizations, and a volunteer at Greenway Elementary as part of the SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program. He is a member of the Willamette University Athletic Director's Advisory Board, a founding board member of Hoopla (Oregon's largest three-on-three charity basketball tournament), a volunteer with the Oregon Bus Project, and a member of the Northwest Earth Institute and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance among other organizations.

Tobias earned a Bachelors degree in Politics and Economics from Willamette University, and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington. He lives in Garden Home with his wife, Heidi Eggert, and their young daughter.