Jim Bunn

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.

Nothing terribly exciting occurred at yesterday’s candidate filing extravaganza at the Capitol. The biggest surprise goes to former Congressman Jim Bunn who decided at the last minute to file for a state House seat in Yamhill county. Perhaps he will take a cue from Eliot Spitzer’s recent woes and leave the sex scandals to the Democrats this time around.  read more »

Some Republican insiders suggest that Mike Erickson could drop his bid for Congress in the fifth district, clearing the field for Kevin Mannix to seek the open seat held for the last 12 years by Democrat Darlene Hooley. Republican polling shows Mannix with a substantial lead over Erickson, and with strong approvals among GOP primary voters.  read more »

The congressional seat Darlene Hooley is giving up was the one that once belonged to Al Ullman, who may have been one of the most powerful House members in Oregon history. Ullman first ran for office in 1954, when he challenged freshman GOP Congressman Sam Coon; he lost 53%-47%. In a rematch two years later, Ullman beat Coon by 1,375 votes (51%-49%). Over the next 24 years, Ullman had little trouble winning re-election by huge margins. Ullman became Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in 1975, after Wilbur Mills resigned amidst a scandal involving a stripper.

Oregonians rarely get the opportunity to see any real competitive races for Congress. Earl Blumenauer and Peter Defazio have solid Dem districts with large enough followings to ward off a serious challenge from any party. Greg Walden has seen a few scrappy Democratic candidates try and mount a race in his conservative eastern Oregon based district, but nothing the DCCC or the Democratic Party of Oregon pays any attention to. He won 67% of the vote in his last race.