Rep. David Wu (D)

The congressman from the 1st District is David Wu, a Democrat elected in 1998 and the first Chinese-American to serve in the House. He was born in Taiwan in 1955 and came to the United States with his family to join his father, who was studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in 1961. He grew up mostly in Orange County, Calif., graduated from Stanford, started medical school at Harvard, and then switched to law school at Yale. He clerked for a federal judge in Portland and settled there. He worked on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign in 1980 and Gary Hart’s in 1984. He started his own law firm in 1988 and served on the Portland Planning Commission. When the House seat became available, the Democratic front-runner was Linda Peters, who was well known as the Washington County Board chairwoman and had the financial backing of EMILY’s List. Wu left his law practice and spent $100,000 of his own money. He attacked Peters in ads for taking a personal loan from a developer and accused her of misspending tax dollars while traveling on county business. He won the primary 52%-43%. The Republican nominee, 29-year-old Molly Bordonaro, the daughter of a prominent real estate businessman in Portland, came out of the primary with more money than Wu and a more united party behind her. She and Wu were running even in the polls. With help from national Democrats and labor unions, Wu caught up on fundraising. He used his life story to extol America’s system of education and to call for more spending on Head Start (his wife was a Head Start teacher) early education and aid to college students. He won 50%-47%.

In the House, Wu joined the New Democrat Coalition and developed a centrist voting record. With one notable exception, he has been a reliable Democratic vote on education, health care, abortion, and gun control. As chairman of the House Science panel’s Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Wu has pushed for environmentally friendly transportation construction and has championed a bill to promote technology innovation. He angered local tech firms by voting against normal trade relations with China because of “the sacrifices of countless families like mine.” In November 2003, he had a rare moment in the national spotlight as one of only 16 House Democrats to vote for the Republican leadership’s Medicare prescription drug bill. During the extended, three-hour roll call, he sat stoically and silently among acutely displeased Democrats on the floor, looking as though he wanted to be anywhere else in the world. He said he has decided that the bill was good for his constituents but had promised his leaders that he would not cast his yea vote until a majority of House members had cast theirs. His was the final, and by then largely irrelevant, vote in support of the bill, which passed 220-215. Afterward, Wu conceded that he would have to mend fences with Democrats on Capitol Hill and at home. Redemption was slow to arrive. When the party took control of the House in 2007, other Oregon Democrats gained influence in the new majority while Wu remained a backbencher, criticized by some back home as increasingly marginalized. On the air, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh poked fun of Wu’s use of metaphors from the television program Star Trek to criticize President Bush’s policy in Iraq.

In the 2004 election, Wu faced spirited competition from Goli Ameri, an Iranian-born communications consultant who was new to politics but showed a good grasp of local economic issues and raised lots of money. Ameri supported Bush on the war in Iraq and tax cuts, but she differed with the administration on embryonic stem cell research, which she supported, and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which she opposed.

In mid-October, the Portland Oregonian published a lengthy article setting out in great detail allegations that Wu had sexually harassed and physically attacked a former girlfriend when they were both Stanford undergraduates. The newspaper reported that he was not arrested and that no criminal charges were filed, but that the university disciplined him and he privately apologized. After the story was published, Wu issued a statement taking responsibility and admitting to “inexcusable behavior.” Some Wu supporters questioned the newspaper’s decision to run the story so close to the election and just a few days after it had endorsed Ameri. In a debate three days later, Ameri raised the matter. “I cannot in good conscience stand here and pretend that violating the most fundamental human right, a woman’s safety, is merely a wrongdoing.” Wu replied that Ameri’s attack was “unfortunate.” She ran campaign ads featuring the incident, but the news story and the extensive coverage that followed appeared to cause little political harm to Wu. He won 58%-38%, carrying Washington County 55%-41%.

By 2006, the incident from his past had disappeared locally. Wu was re-elected 63%-34%, and his victory over state House majority whip and self-styled maverick Derrick Kitts was never in serious doubt. Kitts raised little money and Wu avoided debates. In 2008, Wu endorsed presidential contender Barack Obama a month before the Oregon primary, and Wu was easily re-elected over businessman Joel Haugen, an independent.