Carolyn Tomei

Tomei was born in Charleston, West Virginia. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in social work from Portland State University.^[1]

Tomei served on the Milwaukie Planning Commission in the 1990s and was elected to the Milwaukie City Council in 1996. In 1998, she ran for mayor of Milwaukie, and won a three-person race by 2–1 margin over her closest competitor.^[2] Tomei was first elected mayor in a special election held March 10, 1998. The election was held following the recall of Mayor Craig Lomnicki. Tomei won the three-way race with 2,003 votes over Councilor Rob Kappa's 952 votes and former councilor Rick Farley's 819 votes.^[3] In the November, 1998 election, Tomei ran unopposed.^[4] In 2000, she ran for an open seat in the Oregon House of Representatives, previously held by Republican Jane Lokan. In the general election, Tomei defeated Republican Dick Jones.^[5] She was re-elected to the same seat six times.^[1][6]

In March 2014 she announced she would not run for another term.^[7]

Tomei is married to Gary Michael, and the couple have 17 children, step children, and foster children.^[1][6]

Raised Roman Catholic, Tomei later identified herself as a secular humanist.^[8] In January, 2013, while leading the Oregon House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance Tomei changed the words "one nation under God" to "one nation under love."^[9] In December, 2013, Tomei was endorsed by the Freethought Equality PAC because of her "commitment to promote a more secular government and a will to protect the rights of all people, including the now 20 percent of Americans that don't identify with any particular religion."^[10]

• Legislative website
• Project VoteSmart biography