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Les AuCoin

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'''Les AuCoin''' (born October 21, 1942) is an United States American politician. In 1974, he became the first Democrat since statehood to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the first congressional district of Oregon. He served in the United States 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.

Early life
AuCoin was born in Portland, Oregon and spent his childhood in Redmond, Oregon. He attended Pacific University during 1961, but left to join the United States Army 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. Honorably discharged in 1964, he graduated from Pacific University, receiving a B.A. in journalism with an emphasis on political science 1969.

Political career
From 1971 to 1973, AuCoin served in the Oregon state 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 United States Democratic Party 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. In 1992, AuCoin decided to risk his political career by leaving the House of Representatives and run against Republican incumbent Bob Packwood for a seat in the United States Senate from Oregon. AuCoin was narrowly defeated in that election, and subsequently retired from elective office. He now lives in Ashland, Oregon, where 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 now working on his first novel. Category:1942 births AuCoin, Les Category:American columnists AuCoin, Les Category:American professors AuCoin, Les Category:Living people AuCoin, Les Category:Members of the Oregon House of Representatives AuCoin, Les Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Oregon AuCoin, Les Category:United States Army soldiers AuCoin, Les Category:United States Senate candidates AuCoin, Les

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