Les AuCoin

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Les AuCoin (born October 21, 1942) was a United States Representative from Oregon, and was the first Democrat since statehood to represent Oregon's 1st congressional district. He served in the House of Representatives for 18 years until 1993, rising to the position of dean of the Oregon House delegation and becoming 84th in overall House seniority.

[edit] Early life

AuCoin was born in Portland and spent his childhood in Redmond. A graduate of Redmond Union High School (1960), he attended Pacific University in 1961, but left to join the United States Army infantry one year later, where he became a public information specialist in West Germany. His army postings including 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 B.A. in journalism with an emphasis on political science in 1969.

[edit] Political career

From 1971 to 1973, AuCoin served in the Oregon House of Representatives, and, at the age of 32, became the youngest House Majority Leader (1973-1975), a record that still stands. AuCoin has been a member of the Democratic Party for his entire life, and is considered to be in the liberal wing of that party. He earned the Herman Scoville Award from the Union of Concerned Scientists for legislating a ban on flight testing anti-satellite weapons in the 1980s, the national Distinguished Service Award from the Sierra Club in 1985 for his work in doubling Oregon wilderness lands, and in 1976, was named by the U.S. Jaycees as "One of America's Outstanding Young Men." AuCoin was a member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, serving on the Defense and Interior Subcommittees. He also served as an official congressional observer to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva and the Helsinki Human Rights Commission.

Among AuCoin's other legislative accomplishments are the development of the Army's Javelin infantry anti-tank missile, first used in the Iraq War, the first ban on off-shore oil and gas drilling, the buy-out of a mining claim at Rock Mesa in Oregon's Three Sisters Wilderness area, restoration of the Grande Rhonde and Siletz Indian tribes, location of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, the Oregon Trail Center in Baker City, the Seafood Consumer Research Center in Astoria, and, in collaboration with Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, the construction of Portland's east- and west-side light rail projects. The latter was the largest public works project in Oregon history and contains a plaza at one of the stations dedicated to him.

In 1992, AuCoin gave up his seat in the House of Representatives to run for the United States Senate against Republican incumbent Bob Packwood. AuCoin lost by some 78,000 votes (gaining 46.5% to Packwood's 52.1%) and subsequently retired from elective office. He was a visiting professor at Southern Oregon University, winning the "outstanding professor of the year" award in 2004 from Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's largest academic society, wrote a syndicated newspaper column and was an award-winning public radio commentator. He is a co-author of Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Management (Island Press, 2006) and is now working on his first novel. AuCoin and his wife, Sue, live in Ashland, Oregon, and Bozeman, Montana.

Preceded by Wendell Wyatt

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon's 1st congressional district 1975–1993

Succeeded by Elizabeth Furse