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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
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Michelle Wu

David Wu (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 Chinese from Taiwan, Wu is the first Chinese American and the first Taiwanese American member of the House of Representatives.

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. He spent his first two years in the U.S. in Latham, New York where his family were the only Asian Americans in town.

Wu received a bachelor of science degree from Stanford University in 1977, and attended Harvard Medical School, 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."

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 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.

Controversy

In October 2004, The Oregonian (a statewide newspaper) alleged in a front page article that Wu, during the summer of 1976, 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. Wu was not arrested and the woman declined to press charges.

The story broke in the midst of a contentious race for Congress. Wu's Republican challenger, Goli Ameri, injected the story into her campaign in its waning days, but Wu won the election with 58% of the vote to Ameri's 38% in spite of the story.

In June 2005, Wu went to Iraq and passed out polyester tee-shirts, made by an Oregon company, to American soldiers, ignoring the known risk of serious burns in the event of a fire. Despite soldiers having been catastrophically injured as a direct result of wearing polyester clothing, Wu continued to place earmarks in Congressional budget bills mandating the purchase of the company's unsuitable polyester garments.

“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. 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.”

References

1. Tyler, Christina (June, 1999). "To Make a Broader Difference". The Library of Congress Information Bulletin. Retrieved 2006-09-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. Schmitt, Eric (July 28, 1999). "House Renews China's Trading Benefits". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
3. Lydgate, Chris (August 11, 1999). "A Question of Conscience". Willamette Week. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
4. Nishioka, Joyce (July 15, 1999). "David Wu in the House!". Asian Week. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
5. Laura Gunderson, Dave Hogan and Jeff Kosseff (October 12, 2004). "Allegation of assault on woman in 1970s shadows Wu". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
6. Hamilton, Don (October 22, 2004). "Ameri pummels Wu over incident". Portland Tribune. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
7. David Heath and Hal Bernton (October 14, 2007). "$4.5 million for a boat that nobody wanted". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
8. Mann, James. Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (ISBN 0670032999)
9. Kosseff, Jeff (January 13, 2007). "Where no congressman has gone before". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2007-01-13.

External links

• U.S. Congressman David Wu official site
• United States Congress. "David Wu (id: w000793)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Federal Election Commission — Mr. David Wu campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — David Wu issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — David Wu campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative David Wu (OR) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — David Wu profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: David Wu voting record
• David Wu for Congress official campaign site
• Bush: Admit Your Mistake, End This War. David Wu, BlueOregon, January 9, 2007, commentary on Bush's Iraq policy
• David Wu's "Klingon" speech on the House floor — video on YouTube

• 1955 births
• Foreign-born American politicians
• Living people
• Members of the United States House of Representatives from Oregon
• Chinese American politicians
• Taiwanese Americans
• Asian American politicians
• Stanford University alumni
• Yale Law School alumni
• Political sex scandals
• Scandals in Oregon