Darlene Kay Olson Hooley is an American politician and former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon who represented the state's. A native of North Dakota, she spent eight years teaching high school before entering politics when she was elected to the West Linn, Oregon city council in 1975. Later she was elected to the Oregon State Legislature, then joined the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners before being elected to the House in 1996. In February 2008, Hooley announced that she would not seek re-election in 2008. In her post-congressional career, she remains engaged in civic life in Oregon and works as a strategic planning consultant.
Hooley became interested in politics after her son was injured on a playground in West Linn. She was appointed to a parks advisory committee, and in 1976, became the first woman to serve on the West Linn City Council. In 1980, Hooley was elected to the Oregon State Legislature and served as a State Representative until 1987. In the legislature she served in the lower chamber as a Democrat representing Clackamas County, succeeding Republican Ted Achilles. She chaired the environmental and energy committees, helping to pass energy conservation and recycling legislation and worked on rewriting land use planning laws, and in her third term, chaired the education subcommittee of the ways and means committee. Hooley left in 1987 to accept a position on the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners.
U.S. House
Elections
In 1996, Hooley ran for the U.S. House of Representatives against one-term incumbent Republican Jim Bunn, who had been voted in as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Hooley won 51% of the vote, eking out a narrow victory over Bunn and two minor party candidates. Ironically, while Bunn's loss was attributed in part to his divorce and remarriage during his only term, Hooley also divorced during her first term in 1997.
Tenure
In her first term in the U.S. House, Hooley was elected House Democratic freshman class president. Local political observers reported that she solidified support in her closely divided district, by staking out moderate positions, avoiding controversy and scandal. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks Hooley, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, advocated adapting banking laws and acting to disrupt the financial foundations of terrorist networks. She has also focused on issues surrounding identity theft prevention and increasing medical and financial privacy. In 2003, she was a key sponsor of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act, which gave Americans the ability to receive free annual credit reports. She also focused on methamphetamines and ecoterrorism legislation, and supported the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. In 2002, Hooley voted against the authorization of the use of military force in Iraq. As a member of the Veterans' Affairs committee, she focused on issues of veterans' health care and deployment of National Guard troops to the Iraq War. Hooley is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, she cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. In the 2006 election, Hooley won a sixth term, defeating Republican Mike Erickson, Green Paul Aranas, and Constitution candidate Douglas Patterson. She filed to run for a seventh term in 2008, but in February 2008 announced she would not seek an additional term, creating an unexpected open seat in the 2008 election. Erickson announced plans to run for the seat again. Erickson prevailed in a tight Republican primary against Kevin Mannix, a Democrat turned Republican party leader who previously served in the Oregon legislature and who had run unsuccessfully for both Attorney General and Governor. Democratic State Senator Kurt Schrader, co-chair of the budget writing Ways and Means Committee, won the Democratic nomination, and defeated Erickson in the general election to succeed Hooley in the House.
Hooley married fellow teacher John Hooley in 1965 and had two children, Chad and Erin. They divorced in 1997. She resides in West Linn and is a member of the Lutheran church.
