Former lawmaker Charles Porter dies(my kinda pol!)

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Charles O. Porter
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Former lawmaker Charles Porter dies

By Jim Feehan and Diana Elliott
The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, January 3, 2006


Charles O. Porter, a firebrand activist and former congressman who fought and won a 33-year battle to have a Christian cross removed from Skinner Butte, died Sunday night at age 86 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Porter, a courtly man who opposed the Vietnam War - and had stood for a host of liberal causes since - was remembered as a champion of the little guy.
"He was willing to take on the power structure - whether it be big business or forces of money or the powerful - in an effort to preserve people's rights and civil liberties," state Sen. Floyd Prozanski said Monday.
Porter served two terms in the U.S. House from Oregon's 4th District from 1957 to 1960, and lost a re-election bid in 1960. Attempts to return to the House in 1962, 1964, 1966 and 1972 also failed. advertisement
His left-leaning stances cost him. He endorsed unpopular ideas, such as admitting China to the United Nations and trading with China in nonstrategic materials. He backed disarmament and called for a halt to nuclear testing. In 1958, after Porter was warmly welcomed in Venezuela, the Roseburg News-Review wrote that "Porter's speeches sound as if they were made by (Soviet premier Nikita) Khrushchev."
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