David Wu

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For other persons named David Wu, see David Wu (disambiguation).
David Wu
David Wu
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Oregon's 1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office 
January 6, 1999–
Preceded by Elizabeth Furse
Born April 8, 1955 (1955-04-08) (age 53)
Hsinchu, Taiwan
Political party Democratic
Spouse Michelle Wu
Religion Presbyterian

David Wu (traditional Chinese: 吳振偉; pinyin: Wú Zhènwěi; born April 8, 1955) is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives for Oregon, representing the state's First Congressional District, which includes a small section of western Multnomah County and all of Yamhill, Columbia, Clatsop and Washington Counties. As an ethnic Han Chinese from Taiwan, Wu is the first Chinese American[1] and the first Taiwanese American[2] member of the House of Representatives.

Contents

[edit] Background

Wu was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan to mainland Chinese parents who had settled in Taiwan due to the Chinese Civil War and moved to the United States with his family in 1961.[3] He spent his first two years in the U.S. in Latham, New York where his family were the only Asian Americans in town.[4]

Wu received a bachelor of science degree from Stanford University in 1977, and attended Harvard Medical School (where he shared an apartment with Bill Frist[5]), but dropped out. Instead, Wu received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1982. He is married to Michelle Wu, and has one son, Matthew, and a daughter, Sarah.

Prior to being elected a U.S. Representative, Wu served as a clerk for a federal judge and co-founded a law firm, Cohen & Wu, which primarily served the high tech sector in Oregon's "Silicon Forest."

[edit] Congressman

Wu was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, replacing fellow Democrat Elizabeth Furse, and began serving in 1999 with the 106th Congress. He is currently serving on the House Committee on Education and Labor, the House Committee on Science, and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Wu also serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, and is a member of the Subcommittee on Space, the Subcommittee on Higher Education, and the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and trade. He won re-election in 2000, defeating state senator Charles Starr in the November election with 58% of the vote to 39% for Starr.[6]

He currently is a member of the Executive Board for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and served as Chair from January 2001 to January 2004. Congressman Wu is also a member of the New Democrat Coalition (NDC), a group of moderate Democrats in the House.

In the 2006 election, Wu won re-election to a fifth term, defeating Republican state Representative Derrick Kitts of Hillsboro and two minor party candidates. He is seeking a sixth term in 2008.

On April 24, 2008, Wu endorsed Barack Obama for President.[7]

[edit] Controversy

In October 2004, The Oregonian (a statewide newspaper) brought up an incident from 1976, in which no arrest or charges had been made, alleging in a front page article that Wu had attempted to force an ex-girlfriend to have sex with him. Wu had just completed his junior year at Stanford University at the time. According to the article, Wu, then 21, was questioned by Police Capt. Raoul K. Niemeyer after the incident. Niemeyer reported that Wu had scratches on his face and neck, and wore a stretched T-shirt.[8] The story broke in the midst of a contentious race for Congress. Wu's Republican challenger, Goli Ameri, then injected the story into her campaign in its last days,[9] but Wu won the election with 58% of the vote to Ameri's 38% in spite of the story.

[edit] “Klingons in the White House” speech

On January 10, 2007, Wu made a speech on the House floor referring to people in the White House as Klingons with regard to the Iraq War. Wu, a fan of Star Trek, said he was making a reference to a book by James Mann.[10] Mann wrote that the foreign policy advisory team of George W. Bush's 2000 campaign gave itself the nickname “Vulcans”, originating from the large statue of the Roman god in Bush advisor Condoleezza Rice's hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.

Wu said that unlike “the Vulcans of Star Trek”, who “make decisions based on logic and fact”, Rice and her cadre behave more like the warlike Klingons, saying, “there are Klingons in the White House”. Wu continued that unlike “real Klingons”, who are also known for their courage and code of honor, those in the White House “have never fought a battle of their own”. He concludes, “don't let faux Klingons send real Americans to war.”[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tyler, Christina. "To Make a Broader Difference", The Library of Congress Information Bulletin, June, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-09-02. 
  2. ^ Schmitt, Eric. "House Renews China's Trading Benefits", The New York Times, July 28, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-09-02. 
  3. ^ Lydgate, Chris. "A Question of Conscience", Willamette Week, August 11, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-09-13. 
  4. ^ Nishioka, Joyce; Janet Dang. "David Wu in the House!", Asian Week, July 15, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-09-13. 
  5. ^ http://www.nationaljournal.com/pubs/almanac/2008/people/or/rep_or01.htm
  6. ^ 2000 U.S. House of Representatives Results. U.S. Federal Election Commission. Retrieved April 7, 2008.
  7. ^ Superdelegate Wu Backs Obama In Oregon. KPTV.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  8. ^ Laura Gunderson, Dave Hogan and Jeff Kosseff. "Allegation of assault on woman in 1970s shadows Wu", The Oregonian, October 12, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-01-16. 
  9. ^ Hamilton, Don. "Ameri pummels Wu over incident", Portland Tribune, October 22, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-09-13. 
  10. ^ Mann, James. Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (ISBN 0670032999)
  11. ^ Kosseff, Jeff. "Where no congressman has gone before", The Oregonian, January 13, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-01-13. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Elizabeth Furse		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Oregon's 1st congressional district
1999 – present		 Incumbent
v • d • e
Oregon's current delegation to the United States Congress
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