US Congressman Les AuCoin's typewritten journal from late June 1987. The journal notably describes his meeting with Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin in order to support the immigration cases of refuseniks, as well as the early brainstorming of his run for the Senate in the 1990s.
A study of the 1974 election by Yaden Associates, Inc. titled "Les AuCoin v. Diarmuid O'Scannlain: The Race for Congress in Oregon's First District." As described in the table of contents, the study covered the method used in the study, the division of the vote (the strength of commitment, likelihood to vote, and choice for Congress by area and group), attitudes toward the race and the candidates (opinions of the candidates), issues in the race for Congress (national problem, demands on congressman, rating of Congress, rating of [Wendall] Wyatt's performance, prosecution of Nixon, wage and price controls, log exports, environment, and jobs and economy).
A 32-page memoir by Oregon journalist and author Ron Abell titled "Some Personal Observations on the Wayne Morse Re-Election Campaign of 1968," written in September 2005. In his memoir, Abell detailed his experiences and what he witnessed as a salaried employee of the 1968 Re-Elect Wayne Morse Committee for the US Senate, including the campaign's finances, the primary election, how Vietnam was viewed as a campaign issue, how the press treated the campaign, his perspective of the Bob Packwood campaign, and how the Morse campaign ultimately failed. The Robert "Bobby" Kennedy presidential campaign is notably mentioned.
A Dallas Morning News newspaper article clipping titled "Notes from Abroad: The road to Moscow: If it's Monday, this must be Kiev," by Mark Nelson. The article described the 11-day, trip taken by House Speaker Jim Wright and 19 other members of Congress, including US Congressman Les AuCoin, to Berlin, Madrid, and the Soviet Union in April 1987.
Personal observation notes, perhaps taken by but not directly attributed to, US Congressman Les AuCoin at a breakfast hosted by Cyrus Vance, the US Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977-1980.
In-depth analysis comparing the legislative history of Oregon State Representatives Les AuCoin and Hugh McGilvra in 1974. As Rep. AuCoin ran for and won the election for Oregon's 1st congressional district in the US House of Representatives that year, this analysis was more than likely requested or put together by his campaign. Compared legislative positions include those on Oregon House bills on a cigarette tax, property tax relief, a port tax, an airport tax exemption, gas tax freeing, pollution prohibition, Highway Division and Tourist Information, teachers' fair dismissal, campus claims, the department of education budget, educational districts contracting, tax/education, ballot information, the legislative compensation committee, compulsory retirement, newsletter, veterans funding, agriculture, and farm labor camps. There are also sections summarizing each state representative's respective legislative proposal history.
A written piece titled "Reflections on China" by Gary Conkling, the staff director for US Congressman Les AuCoin. In the 1970s, Representative AuCoin led efforts to normalize trade relations between the US and the People’s Republic of China. When the two countries normalized economic and diplomatic relations in January 1979, AuCoin led the first trade delegation to China just one month later, traveling with a group of Oregon business leaders. In his reflections on the trip, Gonkling details AuCoin's efforts to remove barriers to trade between the nations, his experience traveling and meeting Chinese politicians and citizens, making an appeal at the Peking Zoo for a rare animal exchange involving Giant Pandas to Portland's Washington Park Zoo, seeing a brain surgery with acupuncture at Huashan Hospital, visiting Peking University and being lectured on the Cultural Revolution by a Professor Hung, visiting Feng Pan People's Commune, attending a Peking opera show, and sightseeing and investigative research at the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Summer Palace, Imperial Palace/The Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, the Port of Shanghai, Ma Ling Canning Factory, the Shanghai Arts & Crafts Research Institute, Kwangchow, and Kweilin. Conkling also described his observations about the Chinese people, the economic conditions of the average Chinese citizen, and made notes about the food the group was exposed to and what they learned about the Sino-Vietnamese War, which was ongoing while the group was in China.
The journal of US Congressman Les AuCoin detailing his trip to Warsaw and Krakow, Poland; Dublin, Belfast, and Shannon, Ireland; Berlin, Germany; and Prague, Czechoslovakia roughly a year before the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in August 1990. In his journal, Congressman AuCoin details the devastation of Prague, meeting foreign leaders (including Polish President Lech Walesa, East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere, and Czech Preisdent Vaclav Havel), the landscape of each country, and visiting the Reistag to find no Checkpoint Charlie or Berlin Wall. When describing the situation of Ireland admist the Northern Ireland Conflict (A.K.A. The Troubles), AuCoin stated "I never wanted to get out of a place so fast in my life -- as bad, really, as the Soviet Union. Taunting hatred, underlying evil everywhere; people/automotons walking in a daze." Reflecting on his trip overall, AuCoin stated "I leave with the feeling that 'minimalist' America is missing a bet here. Americans are idealized, not the Germans, not the Japanese, not even the Italiians, [sic] who are swarming through the place and trying to put together an economic block that would include Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, as a counter-weight to an united Germany and to leverage its on poistion. But with our popularity, a 'Marshall Plan' would give us a dominate position in a post-Cold War era that we've spent trillions of dollars of bombs and missiles one [sic]. Yet Geroge Bush talks of volunteers. They need infrastructure, they need massive chemical and toxic waste cleanup, they need coal scrubbing technoloogy, [sic] they need telecommunications, they need hotels, roads, hospitals, financial services -- and a plan to produce products."
An excerpt of the Oregonian article "We don't have time for this" by Steve Duin, first published on March 19, 1992, and reprinted by the Les AuCoin for Senate Committee. Duin's article analyzes the 1992 House banking scandal in Congress, of which AuCoin was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the US Department of Justice. In 1992, an investigation discovered that hundreds of members of Congress had overdrafted their House bank accounts numerous times, although it was found that the vast majority did so unintentionally -- as the House bank system did not properly alert members of their overdrafts and delayed processing deposits -- and did not break any laws. Duin describes the scandal as "absurdly overblown," defending both Congressman Peter DeFazio and Congressman Les AuCoin.
US Congressman Les AuCoin's 37-page-long journal describing the immediate months following his win in the 1974 US House of Representatives election. Providing a picture of how Congress operates behind the scenes, AuCoin writes in detail about his transition from Oregon to Washington, D.C.; the process of hiring congressional staff; attending the Democratic mini-Convention in Kansas City; him, his wife Sue, and their children Stacy and Kelly moving into a condominium apartment in Washington, D.C. from their house in Forest Grove, Oregon; the attention he received from the media and fellow politicians; the four-day train trip through America's heartland; his swearing-in ceremony on the US House floor; attending President Gerald Ford's State of the Union address; his first markup session in the Banking, Currency, and Housing Committee; his first time successfully legislating with the Emergency Middle-Income Housing Act in the Housing Subcommittee; scheduling town meetings back home for his constituents, writing a letter to one of his campaign staff's sons to encourage him to finish high school; his first embassy party with his wife Sue at the West Germany embassy; and congressional discussions on the Vietnam Humanitarian Assistance and Evacuation Act of 1975. On the Democratic Party in 1975, AuCoin stated: "All of which means, in my judgement, that there must be a new dogma in the Democratic Party -- a new impetus for cost-consciousness and performance accountability in government programs. The old pork chop vote of the New Deal days is gone forever. You just can't spend a million dollars for this, or that -- or create a new federal office for this, or that -- and win the hearts and minds of the voters in either party today.... People just distrust government -- they distrust its morality and ethics and they distrust its ability to solve problems....Certainly, the party cannot thrive in the '70s and '80s if, intellectually, it's still serving warmed-over New Dealism."
Photocopy of an excerpt from the 1980 Oregon general election voters' pamphlet. The excerpt features the front cover and the page for US Congressman Les AuCoin's profile.
A photocopy of HR6026, the Columbia River Gorge Act of 1982. The bill was introduced by Representative James Weaver and supported by Representative Les AuCoin in the U.S. 97th Congress but never passed. A similiar bill introduced by Rep. Weaver passed and became law in 1986 in the 99th Congress as HR5705, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act.
A handwritten list of dates in 1980 of US Congressman Les AuCoin's important speechs, accomplishments, events, and statements. A year seemingly focused on environmental and economic concerns, some notable subjects listed include "MFN Status of China," "Community Energy Conservation Act HR 7136," "Tillamook YMCA bill," several bills relating to the Siletz Indians, "Maritime Education and Training Act HR 5451," tesimony on the housing and timber industries, and the "Northwest Electric Power Bill."
Remarks by Mark Gaede on behalf of US Congressman Les AuCoin before the Oregon Chapter of the National Committee on the Prevention of Child Abuse, delivered on November 19th, 1982. In his remarks, Gaede discussed AuCoin's track record with the organization and in Congress, AuCoin's support of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act, and AuCoin's opposition to the Family Protection Act supported by the Ronald Reagan Administration.
A speech by Paul Romain on behalf of US Congressman Les AuCoin at a candidates fair with employees of PGE, Intel, Floating Points, and General Telephone in Oregon on October 12, 1982. In his speech, Romain provided a track record of Congressman AuCoin's career and discussed the critical issues prioritized by his campaign for re-election in Oregon's 1st Congressional District, including the economy, unemployment, and the environment. Romain especially asserted that AuCoin had fought against the Reaganomics that had created large deficits in the federal budgets, weakened the economy, and bankrupted businesses and Americans.
A letter from US Congressman Les AuCoin to a congressional colleague regarding the formation of the new, bi-partisan, Congressional Housing Caucus. Congressman AuCoin states that "The group will transcend political, partisan, and ideological lines to provide a cohesive block of support for pro-housing legislation....The Caucus will push for the development and swift enactment of a multi-faceted housing production program to stimulate housing production and sales. The Housing Caucus -- working with the Homebuilders, Realtors, labor and volunteer advocacy groups -- will play a major role in this." The letter was also signed by Congressman Joseph McDade.
A letter by US Congressman Les AuCoin addressed to a "friend" -- perhaps a congressional colleague -- describing his intent to fight against a $120 billion federal budget deficit proposed by the Reagan Administration. Ccongressman AuCoin shared his proposals to reduce the deficit, which included cutting the proposed increase in defense spending, getting rid of tax loopholes, and deferring the third year of the personal income tax cut.
A Washington Post newspaper article clipping titled "Interior Again Weighs Leasing Off Scenic Coast" by Dale Russakoff published on March 26, 1982. The article describes the Interior Department's controversial consideration of allowing oil and gas development off of the Northern California coast. It notably mentions US Congressman Les AuCoin and his attempts to introduce legislation to ban leasing in the basins, with the article describing that "AuCoin read from reports that the area is unstable -- it is near the San Andreas fault -- and could be prone to oil spills. He also quoted from a study that rates the basins as relatively low in oil potential."
A letter by US Congressman Les AuCoin to a congressional colleague advocating for his bill, H.R. 4146 - A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to limit the application of the subsidized energy financing limitations on certain tax credit to Federal subsidies, and for other purposes. In his letter, dated October 8, 1981, Congressman AuCoin explains how the bill would fix issues under the Windfall Profits Tax Act and ensure support for "state and local governments in their efforts to stimulate energy conservation and the development of renewable energy sources and encourage other states and localities to do the same." The letter is signed by both Congressman AuCoin and Congressman Cecil Heftel.
An excerpt of a Washington Post news article titled "House Would Ban Aborttions on Federal Health Insurance," published on July 31, 1981. The article describes how a bill introduced by Congressman John Ashbrook had prohibited federal employees from using their government provided health insurance to purchase abortions. The article also notes how Congressman Les AuCoin condemned the bill, stating "This madness has gone too far....Who do members of the House think they are to subject my daughter or anybody's daughter to such bondage?"
The rough draft of a letter to Chairman Neal Smith of the Subcommittee on State, Justice, Commerce, and Judiciary, from several US representatives advocating for the Western States Information Network (WSIN) to be included in the fiscal year 1982 federal budget following the news that the Reagan Administration planned to eliminate monetary support for the organization. The letter was dated June 4, 1981, and states that WSIN was crucial in supporting "local law enforcement narcotic investigations in the states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington by providing analytical, financial, and equipment services."
A letter from US Congressman Les AuCoin to a congressional colleague asking for their support for his bill, HR3595 - A bill to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to provide a uniform time for the closing of the polling places in all elections of the electors of the President and Vice President of the United States, to prevent the release of election results before polling places have closed, and for other purposes. The letter was signed June 11, 1981, and the legislation was notably introduced following the 1980 presidential election, when Jimmy Carter conceded the election before polls closed on the West Coast. AuCoin also attached an excerpt from the congressional record that contained his House floor speech regarding his bill on May 14, 1981.
A letter from US Congressman Les AuCoin to a congressional colleague stating his support for HR1864 - Research Revitalization Act of 1981 and HR1539 - A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to provide a credit against tax for certain research and experimental expenditures, and for other purposes. Sending the letter as Chairman of the House Task Force on Industrial Innovation and Productivity, Congressman AuCoin expressed that these bills would address the decline of innovation and US research and development (R&D) spending as a percent of GNP.
A letter from representatives Les AuCoin, Daniel Akaka, Vic Fazio, and Robert Matsui to the members of the Western states delegations advocating for the Western States Information Network following the news that the Reagan Administration planned to eliminate monetary support for the organization. The letter was dated June 9, 1981. The WSIN was designated by the letter's authors as crucial in supporting "local law enforcement narcotic investigations in the states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington by providing analytical, financial, and equipment services."
