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'''Les AuCoin''' ({{pron-en|ɔːˈkɔɪn}}, {{respell|aw-<small>KOYN</small>}}) is a former U.S. [[United States|Representative]] from [[Oregon]]. He was the first Democrat to represent {{ushr|Oregon|1}} since statehood<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon's_1st_congressional_district</ref>. Since that election, the nominally Republican district has remained in Democratic hands. AuCoin served in the U.S. House for 18 years until 1993, rising to the position of dean of the Oregon House delegation<ref>http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19910722&id=cLgSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6552,2671489</ref> and becoming 84th in overall House seniority.
'''Les AuCoin''' ({{pron-en|oʊːˈkɔɪn}}, {{respell|oh-<small>KOYN</small>}}) is a former U.S. [[United States|Representative]] from [[Oregon]]. He was the first Democrat to represent {{ushr|Oregon|1}} since statehood<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon's_1st_congressional_district</ref>. Since that election, the nominally Republican district has remained in Democratic hands. AuCoin served in the U.S. House for 18 years until 1993, rising to the position of dean of the Oregon House delegation<ref>http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19910722&id=cLgSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6552,2671489</ref> and becoming 84th in overall House seniority.


==Early life==
==Early life==

Revision as of 20:29, 11 August 2009

Les AuCoin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Oregon's 1st district
In office
January 3 1975-January 3 1993
Preceded byWendell Wyatt
Succeeded byElizabeth Furse
Personal details
Political partyDemocratic

Les AuCoin (Template:Pron-en, oh-KOYN) is a former U.S. Representative from Oregon. He was the first Democrat to represent Oregon's 1st congressional district since statehood[1]. Since that election, the nominally Republican district has remained in Democratic hands. AuCoin served in the U.S. House for 18 years until 1993, rising to the position of dean of the Oregon House delegation[2] and becoming 84th in overall House seniority.

Early life

AuCoin was born in Portland, Oregon[3] and spent his childhood in Redmond, Oregon. He graduated from Redmond Union High School in 1960, and attended Pacific University (Forest Grove, Oregon) for a year[3] and Portland State University (Portland, Oregon) for one term[3] before enlisting in the United States Army, where he became a public information specialist in West Germany. His army postings included Fort Ord, California; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Benning, Georgia; Sullivan Barracks, West Germany; and Fort Slocum, New York. Among other units, he served in the 2nd Infantry and the 10th Mountain Divisions. Honorably discharged in 1964, he graduated from Pacific University, receiving a bachelor's degree in journalism with an emphasis on political science in 1969[3].

Political career

From 1971 to 1975, AuCoin served in the Oregon House of Representatives. At the age of 32 he became the youngest House Majority Leader (1973–1975), a record that still stands[citation needed]. AuCoin is a lifelong member of the Democratic Party.

During his nine terms in the Congress, AuCoin was a major legislative critic of weaponizing space, opposing the Strategic Defense Initiative[4] and remains a critic of national missile defense, writing that probability theory shows it cannot defend the U.S.[5] Rep. AuCoin earned the Herbert Scoville, Jr. Award from the Union of Concerned Scientists for legislating a ban on flight testing anti-satellite weapons in the 1980s, the national Distinguished Achievement Award from the Sierra Club in 1985 for his work in doubling Oregon wilderness lands[6], and in 1976, was named by the U.S. Jaycees as "One of Ten Outstanding Americans Award[7]." He was one of the House's key leaders for abortion choice (Steve Duin column, The Oregonian, July 27, 1993)[8]), and helped defeat the Hyde Amendment barring public funds for abortion services for pregnant Medicaid recipients.[9] and in U.S. military hospitals abroad[10]

AuCoin was a member of the United States House Committee on Appropriations[11], serving on the Defense and Interior Subcommittees. He also served as an official congressional observer to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva[12].

Among AuCoin's other national legislative work included the development of the Army's Javelin[13] infantry anti-tank missile[14], first used in the Iraq War, the first ban on off-shore oil and gas drilling, his legislative strategy in 1991 to defeat Senate attempts to curb funds for the National Endowment for the Arts[15], and investigation into the death of Ben Linder[16], a constituent, allegedly by the Nicaraguan Contras back by President Ronald Reagan[17].

AuCoin's Oregon achievements included the buy-out of a mining claim at Rock Mesa in Oregon's Three Sisters Wilderness area[18], restoration of the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde[19] and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz[20], location of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, the Oregon Trail Center in Baker City[21], the Seafood Consumer Research Center in Astoria[22], and, in collaboration with Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, the construction of Portland's east- and west-side light rail projects[23]. The latter was the largest public works project in Oregon history and contains a plaza at one of the stations dedicated to him. He also won appropriations for the the Fort Clatsop Memorial Visitors Center (ibid.), and renovation of Crater Lake Lodge (ibid.).

In 1992, AuCoin gave up his seat in the House of Representatives to run for the United States Senate against Republican incumbent Bob Packwood. After surviving a bitter primary against millionaire Harry Lonsdale by 298 votes in a recount that kept him sidelined for five weeks,[24], AuCoin lost by some 78,000 votes (winning 46.5% to Packwood's 52.1%)[25]. The election took place while the Washington Post delayed until after the election[26] but ultimately published details claims of sexual abuse and assault made by 10 women against Packwood. The state's largest daily newspaper, The Oregonian, also failed to report the story, despite its congressional correspondent being subjected to Packwood's abuse[27]. The subsequent scandal eventually forced Packwood to resign[28]. Following the Packwood resignation, AuCoin announced that he would not run for the open U.S. Senate seat and would retire from elective office.

Life after political office

Les AuCoin went into higher education after leaving the Congress. From 1998 to 2004, he was the Glenn L. Jackson Visiting Professor of Political Science and Business Ethics at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon[29].while a visiting professor of government at Southern Oregon University (SOU) in Ashland, he was named Outstanding Professor of the Year by the SOU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi[30], the nation’s largest scholarly society, and in 2004 SOU students voted voted him one of the university's four "most popular professors." While at SOU, he won an Oregon Associated Press award for political commentary at Jefferson Public Radio[31], serving southern Oregon and northern California.

AuCoin began his second retirement in 2004 and returned to writing, his first profession. He is an author, and writer of op-eds, essays, and book reviews for daily newspapers throughout the western states, the Writers on the Range newspaper syndicate[32], and the Huffington Post[33], CounterPunch, Daily Kos[34] and Blue Oregon[35] blogs. He also writes the Les AuCoin Blog.[36] He is co-author of Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy,[37] and is currently working on his first novel. He is a visiting professor of government at Southern Oregon University [38] and a lecturer and member of the advisory board of the National Security Studies program at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Government[39].

He is a director of two corporations, Teton Heritage Builders, Inc.[26], of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Bozeman, Montana, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle[40].

In presidential elections of 2004 and 2008, AuCoin and his wife campaigned in Wisconsin and Ohio[41], respectively, to speak for the Democratic ticket in the last month of the general election.

Les and Sue AuCoin, now in their 45th year of marriage, divide their time between Ashland, Oregon and Bozeman, Montana.

References

  1. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon's_1st_congressional_district
  2. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19910722&id=cLgSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6552,2671489
  3. ^ a b c d http://www.nndb.com/people/959/000129572/
  4. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/06/world/allies-surprised-by-plans-to-speed-star-wars-tests.html
  5. ^ V
  6. ^ http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:qA7xYjf5hYEJ:www.sierraclub.org/awards/downloads/award_sr.pdf+Les+AuCoin+Sierra+Club+achievement+award&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari
  7. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Chamber_of_Commerce#TOYA_-_Ten_Outstanding_Young_Americans
  8. ^ http://www.oregonlive.com/search/oregonian/
  9. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/12/us/house-in-big-shift-votes-to-restor-aid-for-abortions.html
  10. ^ http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61297280.html?dids=61297280:61297280&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+23%2C+1991&author=PAUL+HOUSTON&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=House+Defense+Bill+Eases+Abortion+Ban+Military%3A+Overseas+hospitals+would+again+be+allowed+to+perform+the+procedure.+The+measure%2C+sent+to+the+Senate%2C+faces+a+veto+threat+over+the+issue.&pqatl=google
  11. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-kkVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SuIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6436,799088&dq=aucoin+gets+appropriations+committee+member
  12. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19910904&id=u28VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mOoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5155,636201
  13. ^ http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/pilum-high-the-javelin-anti-armor-missile-03440/
  14. ^ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1131879.html
  15. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=POIRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BvADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6956,204911&dq=aucoin+hatfield+appropriations
  16. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i3oVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z-sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3003,5884473&dq=ben+linder
  17. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/30/world/us-groups-lay-blame-for-killing-of-volunteers-on-administration.html
  18. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SdgRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ze4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7115,2693841&dq=les+aucoin+rock+mesa
  19. ^ http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=DF2B3771-A6C1-EF95-0A6FD64CE0E0A00A
  20. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rxMRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LuADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6218,1674255&dq=les+aucoin+siletz+restoration
  21. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AWwVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=puEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3226,5058736&dq=aucoin+oregon+trail
  22. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SN4PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cI8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4560,5043751&dq=seafood+consumer+research+center
  23. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=920VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=reEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2158,3390173&dq=les+aucoin+light+rail+funds
  24. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/24/us/the-1992-campaign-close-vote-for-oregon-senate-seat-insures-recount.html
  25. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_1992#Senate_contests_in_1992
  26. ^ a b http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4143666.html
  27. ^ http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2101
  28. ^ http://www.now.org/nnt/11-95/packwood.html
  29. ^ http://archive.dailytidings.com/2004/0213/021304n2.shtml
  30. ^ http://www.socc.edu/about/news/010109/former_congressman_to_speak.html
  31. ^ http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2884
  32. ^ http://www.hcn.org/search?SearchableText=Les+AuCoin
  33. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-aucoin/you-dont-know-dick_b_54249.html
  34. ^ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/23/223824/874/153/482932
  35. ^ http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/01/the-war-within.html
  36. ^ Les AuCoin Blog - Welcome
  37. ^ [1] Island Press, 2006
  38. ^ [2]
  39. ^ [3]
  40. ^ http://www.fhlbsea.com/OurCompany/Leadership/BOD/Default.aspx
  41. ^ http://ohiojournal.wordpress.com/
  • United States Congress. "Les AuCoin (id: A000337)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives

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