 During her tenure as a state senator, she worked to bolster funding for public schools, foster innovation in school programs, and remove barriers to achievement.In 2001, she gained national press attention when she and State Senator Margaret Carter (D-Portland) filed suit in U.S. District Court to force the Census Bureau to disclose its adjusted statistical count, which they suspected would reveal an undercount of as many as 43,000 Oregonians.They further estimated the cost to the State of Oregon in lost federal funding for social and educational programs over ten years at US$16 million.