As more than one person has described it, Oregon’s Commissioner of Labor and Industries is one of the most important elected offices that people don’t know much about.

We hope you will support Cheri Helt for labor commissioner.

You get to vote in this race no matter what your party affiliation is. It’s nonpartisan. The winner may be decided in the primary. If one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, that candidate wins. If no candidate clears 50%, the two candidates with the most votes meet in November.

The job of labor commissioner is about fairness. It’s about being a referee between employees and employers when they are in a dispute over wages. It can be over getting paid on time. It can be about overtime. It can be about the rate of pay. It can also be about meal breaks and sick leave. Those disputes must be settled fairly, not only for the people involved, for all the other employees and employers.

The job is also about protecting civil rights. Nobody should face discrimination from an employer or when looking for housing. And Oregonians should not be denied the right to access public places because of discrimination. And the job oversees apprenticeship programs, ensuring Oregon has the right programs and they have the right standards.

Seven people are running. Eight will be on the ballot because Chris Henry announced his withdrawal after the deadline of March 11. We interviewed Helt, the former state legislator and restaurant owner from Bend; Casey Kulla, a Yamhill County commissioner and farmer; and Christina Stephenson, a civil rights attorney who has been endorsed by former labor commissioners and many unions.

We confess we know Helt the best because of her service on the Bend-La Pine School Board, as a state legislator, as a restaurant owner and her work in the community. The BOLI commissioner job is not a place for partisan decisions. It’s about being fair. We trust Helt in that role.

She runs a business with her husband with 63 employees. Their employees have health insurance. They have a 401k. They produce a quality product.

That means she understands the needs of businesses and she has also been looking out for her employees. When Helt was in the Legislature, she helped push for Oregon’s paid family leave act. She was disappointed to see the Legislature agree to delay its implementation.

If Helt is elected, she plans to call for an audit to assess the agency’s strengths and weaknesses. She sees the state’s apprenticeship program as being an engine of opportunity for workers and for employers. She wants to ensure we are getting the most out of it.

We have little doubt Kulla or Stephenson would also make good commissioners. Stephenson, in particular, works in the field and with the agency. She is not sure BOLI’s technical division, which helps employers understand the law, has enough people to cover the whole state. It has six.

Whoever wins, our concern is that many Oregonians may not know that BOLI is there to help when they aren’t getting the pay they are owed or feel they face discrimination in employment or housing.