Oregon's oldest living Congressman, and how Les AuCoin got to Washington

In January, Darlene Hooley will become the twelfth  living former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon.  Oregon’s oldest living former Congressman is Wendell Wyatt, a Republican who will celebrate his 91st birthday on June 15.  Wyatt, an ex-FBI agent and the Republican State Chairman from 1955 to 1957, won election to Congress in a 1964 special election and easily held the seat in subsequent races; Wyatt won 69% in 1972, running twelve percentage points ahead of GOP presidential candidate Richard Nixon.

In 1974, at age 57, Wyatt decided to retire.  The race for his open seat was hotly contested: the Democratic nominee was Les AuCoin, a 32-year-old ex-Oregonian reporter and a two-term State Representative (he had become Majority Leader in his second term).  In a five-candidate Democratic primary, AuCoin beat Ralph Bunch, who won just 31% against Wyatt two years earlier, by a 49%-22% margin. 

In the general election, AuCoin defeated Republican Diarmuid O’Scannlain, a 34-year-old Harvard graduate who had served as Deputy Attorney General, as a Public Utilities Commissioner, and as Governor Tom McCall’s Director of Environmental Quality.  In the Watergate year, AuCoin was able to win the GOP seat by a 56%-44% margin.  O’Scannlain went on to serve in the Reagan administration, and since 1986 has served as a Judge of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Besides Wyatt and AuCoin, Oregon’s other living former Congressmen are: Jim Bunn, Wes Cooley, Robert Duncan, Elizabeth Furse, Mike Kopetski, Denny Smith, Robert Smith, James Weaver and current U.S. Senator Ron Wyden.