Stan Bunn

Stan Bunn (born June 25, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born and raised in Yamhill County, he is part of a political family that includes his brother Jim Bunn who served in Congress. A self-described moderate Republican, Stan served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, including a successful run for the Oregon House of Representatives while in law school in 1972. Later he served as Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1999 to 2003, in a political career spanning four decades. In non-elective offices, he was chairman of the state's ethics commission and on the Oregon Traffic Safety Commission between stints in the legislature.

Bunn also 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. Bunn faced scrutiny over back taxes while Superintendent of Public Instruction and also 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. 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.

Early life Stan Bunn was born in McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon, on June 25, 1946. One of eleven children in the family with five brothers and five sisters, he was the fourth oldest of Ben and Viola (Fulgham) Bunn's children. His grandfather was once mayor of Lafayette, Oregon, and his father was on the city's school board. Bunn also continued expanding his real estate holdings and owned as many as 14 rental properties. He won re-election to a second two-year term in 1974 and served through the 1975 special session of the legislature. In 1973 during this time in the Oregon House, he was the only Republican there who voted against a resolution that praised Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon after Nixon ended the war in Vietnam. Representing District 29, he won re-election to successive two-year terms in 1986, 1988, and 1990. In July 1987, Republicans appointed his brother Jim to the Oregon State Senate, a seat Stan had hoped to be appointed to instead.

The seat became open when Tony Meeker was appointed as Oregon State Treasurer. The possible contest between brothers created some tension in the family. Bunn then ran in the 1992 election to replace John Brenneman in Oregon Senate District 2, where Bunn then lived after redistricting. On July 2, 1992, he was appointed to the position when Brenneman resigned from the seat. His younger brother Tom was appointed to the House to fill Stan's seat the next day, which lead to three Bunns serving in the Oregon Legislative Assembly simultaneously. He served through the 1996 special session representing parts of Yamhill, Lincoln, Polk, Lane, and Tillamook counties. While in the legislature this second time, he went against his party and voted to place a Democrat on the Northwest Power Planning Council, with his vote the decisive vote. During his campaign, he teamed up with his brother to run a joint commercial featuring two talking hamburger buns with the tag line "We just have to get our Bunns to Washington".

State school superintendent 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. He 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. Bunn's campaign focused on stabilizing funding for schools,

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. He also supported the concept of charter schools as long as local schools retained control of those schools.

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

In 2001, potential ethics violations arose over use of a state cell phone and state vehicle for personal use. Soon after, a previously tabled bill in the legislature that would change Bunn's office to an appointed position in lieu of an election was reintroduced. The taxes were owed in two counties, some as far back as 1997, with one property facing foreclosure by the county. Judge Ellen Rosenblum determined Bunn had abused his discretion in not finding evidence that the group discriminated against those who did not believe in God. The commission also removed 1,334 of the charges made against Bunn.

Bunn did not accept the findings of the commission, so the commission sued to enforce the findings in court. While the legal action was in progress, the ethics commission decided to pursue the allegations against Bunn concerning the free trip for his daughter, but declined to investigate the mailing incident. 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.

In March 2002, he filed to run for re-election to his office while the ethics case against him was still pending. Bunn was optimistic the investigation would exonerate him and that voters would focus on his record instead of the ethics issues. Castillo won enough votes to avoid a runoff in the November general election and took over for Bunn on January 5, 2003. The couple divorced in 1991, and Stan did not remarry, but maintained joint-custody of the children. As of 2002, Bunn lived in Newberg. There he taught law and government at George Fox University for five years.