Digital Exhibits

Journal describing months following win in 1974 US House of Representatives election and first few months in Congress

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."

This is one of a collection of digitized objects from the Les AuCoin Papers (MS.147) at the Pacific University Archives. AuCoin served in the Oregon House of Representatives (1971-1975) and in the United States House of Representatives from Oregon's 1st District (1975-1993).

AuCoin, Les

November 1974-May 1975

United States. Congress. House.

Legislators--United States

Elections--United States--20th century.

Diaries.

United States

Oregon

Washington, D.C.

PUA_MS147_536

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Les AuCoin Papers, Pacific University Archives

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