Catch and Release: An Oregon Life in Politics

by Les AuCoin

In 1974, at the age of thirty-two, Les AuCoin became the first Democrat to win a US House seat in Oregon’s First District. He was one of the post-Watergate reformers who shook up an insular, autocratic Congress and led fights for affordable housing, “trickle-up” economics, wilderness protection, abortion rights, and nuclear arms control. In the 1980s, the Oregonian called him “the most powerful congressman in Oregon.”
 
In this compelling collection of life stories, AuCoin traces his unlikely rise from a fatherless childhood in Central Oregon to the top ranks of national power. Then came a painful defeat in one of the most controversial races in US Senate history, against incumbent Bob Packwood.
 
A fly fisher, AuCoin uses “catch and release” as a metaphor for succeeding and letting go of loss with dignity and equanimity. His memories are in turn funny, suspenseful, and revealing. AuCoin takes us to the Kremlin, pre-industrial China, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and into the tortuous politics of the Northwest spotted owl crisis. He interacted with world figures like Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, House Speakers Tip O’Neill and Jim Wright, and Oregon legends Tom McCall and Mark Hatfield. Closer to home, AuCoin allied himself with activists like Sidney Lasseigne of the Newport Fishermen’s Wives.
 
Catch and Release offers readers a revealing glimpse behind the scenes of congressional life, as lived by the 535 souls who inhabit the US House and Senate—including the author, who assesses his own strengths and foibles with humility and candor.
 

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Andy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember Les AuCoin being elected to Congress in 1974, he was part of the reformer "Watergate" class that so many of us were counting to change the political world, and change the world itself. I went to law school in Oregon shortly after that and closely followed his career, especially after meeting his cousin, and was impressed with how he represented his "swing" district which included diverse voters from loggers to ardent environmentalists. I was sad when he lost his Senate bid against Bob Packwood in 1992 especially after we all learned that the Portland Oregonian suppressed the story about Packwood's serial sexual harassment until after the election.
I was excited to get his memoir and it was even better than I anticipated. It started with his honest recounting of his childhood and his parents getting divorced. AuCoin ably fills in his memories with letters and articles he found and conversations he had with his dad's family. His dad abandoned his wife and two young sons and never contributed child support. AuCoin describes his mother's heroic efforts working hardscrabble jobs, living in modest homes while raising her two sons explaining why he was repelled by James Carville's defense of Bill Clinton against Paula Jones of "Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park and there's no telling what you'll find." AuCoin comes to understand but not excuse his dad's behavior when he learns more about him and his difficult upbringing and those pages are especially poignant.
AuCoin's pages on his political career has something for everyone. His chapter on what he describes as the "Gordian knot of Oregon politics," the management of Oregon's forests is an example of chapters detailing the complexities and nuances of political issues and the intricacies of the legislative process in solving them.
The memoir also has the inside political gossip. At the end of a chapter describing AuCoin's legislative battles against Reagan's Interior Secretary James Watt he describes many years later when his family runs into Watt and his wife in Jackson Wyoming and how Watt's wife hissed at Watt that he didn't have to talk to him! AuCoin finishes by saying "in politics you love it when your work leaves a lasting impression." In a passage describing legislative strategy with Mark Hatfield, someone AuCoin admires throughout the book, he describes how Hatfield referred to Bob Packwood as "my colleague" never by name and always dropping his voice an octave when delivering the sobriquet showing Hatfield's sarcasm.
AuCoin also ruminates on politics today and the reforms he helped enact. He notes how Newt Gringich exploited the reforms in a sustained partisan attack strategy and then unraveled them when he obtained power and how today's toxic partisan scene may prevent a complete return to reform, he also laments the focus on continually dialing for dollars to meet spiraling and uncontrolled campaign spending. But despite these lamentations I concluded after finishing the memoir that AuCoin and his fellow reformers in his generation accomplished what those of us hoped for, making the political world and our whole world, a better place.

[Edwin Battistella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A political memoir that sparkles with heart and humanity and tells us all what democracy and leadership are about. AuCoin went into political in the “Ask not what your country can do for you” era and his witty, well-crafted memoir tells us not just about how things were in the past but what is missing today.

[Neal Lemery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories about a politician's climb up the political ladder during interesting times, which were so different than today. I felt there was more to be told, and it lacked a lot of the untold stories and moral dilemmas of the age.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

AuCoin shows in this memoir why he was regarded as a brilliant and effective Congressman. Recounting stories about arms control, relations with the Soviets and Chinese, timber resources, and more, the book is a very useful primer on the weaving of policy-making and politics.

[Kate Belt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly liked the book. Appreciated the descriptions and insights into Oregon history during a period beforeI moved here.