40 Facts About Stan Bunn

Stan Bunn was born on June 25,1946 and is an American politician and lawyer in the US state of Oregon.

Stan Bunn made unsuccessful attempts to be elected as Oregon Attorney General in 1976 and to serve in Congress representing Oregon's first congressional district in 1996, when his brother was running for re-election in the neighboring Congressional district.

Stan Bunn faced scrutiny over back taxes while Superintendent of Public Instruction and was accused of committing over one thousand ethics violations by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, stemming primarily from the use of a state car and use of a state cell phone for personal use.

Stan Bunn challenged their findings and later reached a settlement in which he did not admit wrongdoing and paid $25,000 to the Commission in a payment that could not be called a fine.

Stan Bunn was born in McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon, on June 25,1946.

Stan Bunn was raised on a dairy near Dayton, Oregon, and went to school at Lafayette Grade School and later Dayton High School.

Stan Bunn persuaded his parents to co-sign on a loan in order for him to buy cattle that year.

Stan Bunn paid for much of the tuition to the small liberal arts school with the funds he earned raising hogs.

Stan Bunn served as a page at the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, which led to an internship with Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield in Washington, DC.

Stan Bunn then wrote his third year law school paper on residency requirements.

Stan Bunn later sold the practice after his election to a statewide office in 1998.

Stan Bunn continued expanding his real estate holdings and owned as many as 14 rental properties.

Stan Bunn lived in Yamhill County during these times, first in his hometown of Dayton and later near Newberg.

Stan Bunn won re-election to a second two-year term in 1974 and served through the 1975 special session of the legislature.

Stan Bunn worked to pass legislation in 1975 to create the Willamette Greenway, and to make the state's laws tougher against drunk drivers.

In 1976, Stan Bunn then ran to serve as the Oregon Attorney General, but lost in the Republican primary, coming in third, and did not run for re-election to the House.

Stan Bunn remained out of elected office until he was elected to the Oregon House again in 1984.

In July 1987, Republicans appointed his brother Jim to the Oregon State Senate, a seat Stan Bunn had hoped to be appointed to instead.

Stan Bunn then ran in the 1992 election to replace John Brenneman in Oregon Senate District 2, where Stan Bunn then lived after redistricting.

Stan Bunn won the November 1992 election and the four-year term in the Senate.

Stan Bunn served through the 1996 special session representing parts of Yamhill, Lincoln, Polk, Lane, and Tillamook counties.

In 1996, Stan Bunn ran in the Republican primary to represent Oregon's 1st congressional district, at a time when his brother Jim was running for re-election in Oregon's 5th Congressional district.

Stan Bunn returned to politics in February 1998 to run for the non-partisan Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction to replace the retiring Norma Paulus as head of the Oregon Department of Education.

Stan Bunn was one of sixteen candidates in the May primary, finishing first and faced Democratic Senator Margaret Carter in a runoff in the November 1998 election.

Stan Bunn's campaign focused on stabilizing funding for schools, continuing school reform, reducing class sizes, and supporting charter schools, but not school voucher programs.

Stan Bunn spent over $100,000 of his own money in winning the position, defeating Carter 522,263 votes to 412,235 votes.

Stan Bunn took office on January 4,1999, with plans to reduce class sizes, increase teacher training, create a reserve fund to help stabilize school funding, and work to better the relationship between teachers' unions and the Department of Education.

Stan Bunn supported the concept of charter schools as long as local schools retained control of those schools.

Stan Bunn proposed changing the state's certificate of initial mastery to a program with seven separate CIMs, but the Oregon State Board of Education declined to adopt his proposal.

Stan Bunn paid all the back taxes, including interest, and apologized for the transgression, blaming it partly on a change of address due to selling his law firm and on not having the money after leaving private legal practice.

Stan Bunn denied any wrongdoing and expected to be cleared by the commission where he was once chairman.

Stan Bunn's department was undergoing a state audit at the time over concerns of lack of oversight on state issued contracts.

Judge Ellen Rosenblum determined Stan Bunn had abused his discretion in not finding evidence that the group discriminated against those who did not believe in God.

Stan Bunn had reimbursed the state for many of the personal expenses and returned the state car and state cell phone after the improprieties were discovered by The Oregonian newspaper.

Stan Bunn drew further scrutiny when he mailed his defense of the allegations to state legislators using state funds and letterhead, which led to another ethics complaint.

Stan Bunn did not accept the findings of the commission, so the commission sued to enforce the findings in court.

Federal judge Robert E Jones mediated the settlement where Bunn did not admit to any violations, and the $25,000 could not be characterized as a penalty.

Stan Bunn was optimistic the investigation would exonerate him and that voters would focus on his record instead of the ethics issues.

Stan Bunn married Mary and they had two children: his son Michael and daughter Kristine.

The couple divorced in 1991, and Stan Bunn did not remarry, but maintained joint-custody of the children.