34 Oregon Trucking Association, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch Building a War Chest: OTA TruckPAC Committee By Jennifer Sitton | OTA Communications Consultant AS ANYONE WHO has spent time in Salem knows, advocacy takes many different forms, especially when it comes to advocating for Oregon’s trucking industry. While OTA’s team spends their days advocating for and against bills impacting our industry in the halls of the Capitol building, OTA’s members have other opportunities to get involved in advocacy work through committees like OTA in Action, Government Affairs, or the more behind the scenes committee, the TruckPAC Committee. While the Government Affairs Committee helps develop legislative priorities and OTA in Action connects members directly with their local legislators, TruckPAC (Political Action Committee) plays a complementary, supporting role to both committees. TruckPAC is responsible for fundraising and allocating political contributions. “Our goal is to create our own war chest to combat some of the harmful legislation and proposed policies that affect how we operate as an industry,” said Erik Zander, Chief Operating Officer at Omega Morgan and TruckPAC Committee Chair. Erik, who has been an active OTA member for nearly a decade, is wellversed in the needs of the trucking industry and knows just how critical TruckPAC is to OTA’s advocacy efforts. “The PAC gives all of our members an opportunity to contribute some money— whatever is meaningful to them—to have their voice heard,” said Erik. “Not everyone can take a day off of work to come to Salem or get involved in other ways, but making a donation is an easy way to give back to the organization and get involved on a different level. It doesn’t have to be a thousand dollar donation— even fifty dollars makes a difference to the PAC.” Erik is responsible for gathering the committee on a consistent basis during the election cycle to determine where that funding should go. He and the committee work closely with OTA’s leadership and lobby teams to determine which candidates they want to support or if there is a coalition working to prevent
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