20 Facts About Bill Bradbury

Bill Bradbury was an American politician who served as a member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as the 23rd Oregon secretary of state from 1999 to 2009.

Bill Bradbury was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1949, the third child of William and Lorraine Bill Bradbury.

Bill Bradbury grew up in Chicago, where his father was an associate professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.

Bill Bradbury graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory High School in 1967.

Bill Bradbury attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he studied communications, and moved to Oregon in 1969 where he worked as a news reporter, director, and producer in Bandon, Eugene, and Portland.

Bill Bradbury was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives from Curry and southern Coos County in 1980.

Bill Bradbury was elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1984, where he was elected by his colleagues to serve in the leadership posts of Senate majority leader in 1986, and senate president in 1993.

Bill Bradbury worked to pass legislation to establish Small Business Development Centers at community colleges around the state, to develop the Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program, to develop a relief plan to assist displaced timber workers, and prevent offshore oil drilling off the Oregon Coast.

Bill Bradbury left the Oregon Legislature in 1995 and founded and became the executive director of For the Sake of the Salmon, a regional non-profit organization which sought to restore salmon stocks and watershed restoration.

Bill Bradbury was elected to the office in 2000, and re-elected in 2004, serving for nine years.

Bill Bradbury chaired the Oregon State Land Board, which oversees management of state-owned lands, and was appointed by the Governor to chair the Oregon Sustainability Board.

Bill Bradbury increased the transparency of financial transactions in our elections by having the Secretary of State's website host ORESTAR, an electronic reporting system for campaign contributions and spending.

Bill Bradbury took the lead in coordinating state agencies to create an online business registry in Oregon to reduce paperwork and filing fees.

Bill Bradbury only carried one county in the state, Multnomah County, home to Portland.

Bill Bradbury was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Oregon in 2010, but lost in the primary to former governor John Kitzhaber.

Bill Bradbury had been endorsed by former Democratic National Committee Chairman and Presidential candidate Howard Dean; former Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts; former Vice President Al Gore; the Oregon Education Association; the American Federation of Teachers-Oregon ; and the Oregon School Employees Association.

Bill Bradbury lived in Salem and Bandon, Oregon, with his wife Katy Eymann, whom he married in 1986.

Bill Bradbury is the daughter of Richard O Eymann, who served as speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives in the 1970s.

Bill Bradbury had two daughters, Abby and Zoe, from a previous marriage.

Bill Bradbury died while on an around-the-world cruise with his wife, on April 14,2023.