U.S. ELECTIONS | Guide to the 2008 Election
01 February 2008
A Democrat Makes Himself Comfortable in Republican Territory
Representative David Wu serves the Oregon 1st in the U.S. Congress
Portland, Oregon -- When I was growing up in Oregon, my dad took my brother and me to the beach at least once each summer. Looking out over the Pacific, he would point to a cloud on the horizon and tell us it was Japan. We believed him.
The point of this story is that, like most Americans living on the West Coast, residents of Oregon’s 1st Congressional District look to Asia for trade, travel and sometimes practical jokes. For Oregonians, the Far East is not to the east, but to the west, and Tokyo is closer than London.
So it should come as no surprise that Congressman David Wu, the representative of the Oregon 1st, is one of only two Asian Americans now serving in the House of Representatives from a mainland state, and the first Chinese American. After a razor-thin win in 1998, he has served for 10 years and is a perennially formidable candidate.
Unlike most House members, who slowly climb up to Congress from local or state government positions, Wu, a Democrat, won his seat in Congress on his first try at elective office. Despite there being more registered Republicans in his district than Democrats, Wu garnered 50 percent of the vote. Since then, despite occasional political missteps and a story of youthful misconduct that popped up in his 2004 campaign, Wu has won re-election by comfortable, if not overwhelming, margins.
Born in Taiwan to parents from mainland China, Wu moved to the United States in 1961. “America,” he says, “is a land where you can become what you aspire to be.” He earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in 1977 and received a law degree from Yale University in 1982. Before his election to Congress in 1998, Wu was a founding partner in an Oregon law firm that specialized in the high-tech industries so important to the Oregon 1st.
OREGON 1ST VOTERS VALUE PERFORMANCE MORE THAN PARTY
Although he is a Democrat in a district that has a plurality of Republicans, Wu has solidified his position with the independent-minded voters of his region, who vote for the candidate rather than the party. Like all members of Congress, Wu has an office in his district, as well as one in Washington, to maintain contact with state, county and city governments and the local press. The district office also helps residents who have questions for, or problems with, the federal government, and Wu has gained a reputation for looking after the people of his district.
Wu comes home frequently, making the roughly 8,000 kilometer round trip to Oregon and back about three times each month, according to his office. That pace generally picks up during an election year. David Saroshan, a political columnist for the Portland Oregonian says that, as election time approaches, “you can’t turn around in the district without seeing Congressman Wu.” Cultivating contacts in his district has paid off. Saroshan says, “It’s amazing who will endorse him,” including small town conservative newspapers that remember things he has done to help the local economy.
Wu’s committee assignments help him look after his district. He chairs a House subcommittee on technology and innovation and serves on subcommittees dealing with education issues -- a major concern in the district. He also is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Trade, a reflection of the importance of international trade to his district.
Like other Democrats who have represented this largely Republican district for the past 34 years, Wu maintains a generally moderate voting record, ranking neither among the most liberal voting groups nor among the most conservative. He also has displayed an occasionally quirky sense of humor, criticizing opposition administration figures as being like Klingons from the television program Star Trek, and airing a campaign commercial that showed him bungee jumping off a bridge.
With the election approaching, Wu is a shoo-in for his party’s nomination. It is not clear yet who his Republican challenger will be. Whoever it is, it is clear that unseating Wu will be a formidable challenge, no matter which party has the advantage in voter registration. As Saroshan says, “Republicans felt for a few years that the district was rightfully theirs and with the right candidate they would take it back. This feeling is fading.”
