Charles Starr (born c. 1933) is an American politician and farmer in Oregon. He served as a Republican member of the Oregon Legislature for 14 years, serving in both houses. A native of Texas, Starr served in the Oregon State Senate with his son Bruce Starr, the first time in Oregon's history a father and son served in the Senate together.

Early life

Charles Starr was born around 1933 and raised in the central part of Texas.^[1] The son of an oil driller, he attended 19 different schools between first grade and sixth grade.^[1] Starr married Kathy and they would have four children, all boys; Bryan, West, Alan, and Bruce.^[2][3] Charles earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1955 from the University of Idaho and then worked for a year as an agricultural teacher.^[2] He would serve in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958.^[2] He earned a master's degree from the University of California, Davis in 1960 in agribusiness management.^[2]

Starr moved to Oregon in 1962 and began working at Farmers Oil Cooperative in McMinnville, followed by a job at Pacific Farmers Cooperative in Hillsboro.^[2][3] He left Pacific in 1969 and spent ten years working for Flavorland Foods before becoming a general contractor in 1979.^[2] Living in Hillsboro, he remained a contractor and also farmed until retirement in 2002.^[2] He had operated Starr Boys Garden Center.^[1]

Political career

Starr started his political career serving on the school board of Groner Elementary School south of Hillsboro, and now part of the Hillsboro School District.^[1] He then joined the Hillsboro Union High School Board, spending a total of 12 years on the two boards.^[1] He made an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Washington County Board of Commissioners in 1986.^[2] A conservative Christian politician,^[4] Starr was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Republican representing Hillsboro and Washington County in 1992.^[5] Entering state politics at age 59, he defeated Democrat Pat Kliewer to represent the area surrounding most of Hillsboro, Forest Grove, and Cornelius.^[1]

He was re-elected to the same seat in 1994^[6] and 1996.^[7] Both times he defeated Democrat Marcus Simantel in the November elections.^[8] Son Bruce served as his legislative assistant during these terms.^[3]

After three terms in the House, he was elected to the State Senate in 1998, while his son Bruce Starr was elected to his former House seat.^[9] Starr was prohibited at the time by Oregon's term limits from another term in the House, pushing towards a run at the state senate.^[10] A pro-life advocate, he had defeated incumbent and pro-choice Republican state senator Jeannette Hamby in the Republican primary.^[11] In 1999, he helped to pass Oregon's charter school bill.^[12]

In the legislature he was a proponent of home schooling and charter schools, while opposing same-sex unions.^[13] Starr ran for Oregon's 1st Congressional District in 2000, defeating Alice Schlenker in the May primary with 62% of the vote compared to 38%.^[14][15] He lost to incumbent Democrat David Wu in the November general election.^[16] He had received support in his bid from Oregon business interests including Intel due to Wu's vote against free trade with China.^[4]

In 2002, the Oregon Supreme Court stuck down Oregon's 1992 law imposing term limits for state legislators.^[17] Prior to the ruling, Starr would not have been able to run for re-election to the state senate as he had served 10 years in the legislature, and the law limited people to 12 years maximum.^[18] He had been a proponent of term limits.^[12] In 2002, he was re-elected to a second four-year term in the Senate where son Bruce was also elected to serve.^[19] Charles' district now included parts of Marion, Clackamas, Yamhill, and Washington counties.^[19]

Charles and Bruce were the first father-son tandem to serve at the same time in the history of the Oregon State Senate.^[20][21] In 2003, Charles Starr created some controversy when he told a constituent in a letter to "run - not walk - to remove their children from public schools" in response to the constituent's opposition to charter schools.^[22] At the time, Starr was chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and in June 2003 his lawn was filled with plastic pink flamingos paid for by a fundraising campaign at a local elementary school.^[22] Democrats called for Starr to be replaced as chairman of the education committee.^[23] During the 2005 legislative session he served as vice chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, and as vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate.^[24]

In the May 2006 Republican primary, Charles lost to Larry George who would then win the general election in November, and joined his own father in the Senate.^[20][25] The loss was attributed in part to Starr's voting record that included raising taxes, with an anti-tax group contributing $50,000 to his opponent during the election.^[13] With the loss in the primary, Charles' time in the Oregon Legislative Assembly ended after 14 years.^[20][25]

Later years

After leaving the legislature Starr began working as a lobbyist at the state capitol in 2007.^[26] He publicly opposed a bill that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation that same year.^[27] He also came out against dual-language immersion programs over concerns that teachers were not properly trained and students would not be able to learn to read at an early age.^[28]