Oregon’s Governors and Bigfoot: Video Update
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 3rd, 2012
Ten years ago, in 2002, Bigfoot, it appeared, seemed on the way to getting a lot of political support from Oregon’s new governor Ted Kulongoski.
The Democrat had been a longtime Sasquatch supporter, who, in June 1977, sponsored a bill to protect the hairy creature from harassment by penalizing assaulters with two days of picking up trash on state highways.
Kulongoski will always be known as the Oregon Governor who proposed Bigfoot protective legislation as a junior representative in the Oregon House. In 1977, then-state Rep. Ted Kulongoski, wearing a gorilla suit, stood on the floor of the Oregon House of Representatives to introduce a resolution to prohibit “harassing, annoying or intimidating” Bigfoot, Sasquatch or a similar creature by any other name. Violators would be required to pick up roadside garbage. Kulongoski then became Oregon’s governor, guaranteeing that Bigfoot had friends in high places.
Theodore R. “Ted” Kulongoski (born November 5, 1940) is an American politician who ended up serving as the 36th Governor of Oregon from 2003 to 2011. A Democrat, he served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and also served as the state Insurance Commissioner. He was the Attorney General of Oregon from 1993 to 1997 and an Associate Justice on the Oregon Supreme Court from 1997 to 2001.
Kulongoski appeared to not have moved the political landscape forward for Bigfoot. But he clearly paved the way for the present governor who is rather comfortable being out of the closet about his cryptozoology interests.
John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is the 37th and current Governor of Oregon. He served as the 35th Governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003 and became the first person to be elected to the office three times when he was re-elected to a non-consecutive third term in 2010. Prior to becoming a politician in Oregon, he was a practicing physician.
Kitzaber, will always be known as the first Oregon Governor to acknowledge in front of TV cameras, and while in office during his second term that Bigfoot is real, and still got reelected.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Somewhere, Jesse Ventura is smiling……
Next in the series: Garden State Aldermen and the Jersey Devil, followed by Florida State Solons and the Skunk Ape. Stay tuned for more breaking Cryptopolitico news!
Hey, real or not, The Big Guy is a big tourist draw for the state. Can’t have people making trouble for the unofficial state mascot.
I assume the still from the “Messin’ With Sasquatch” ad campaign was chosen deliberately, as an example of the kind of activity that Oregon won’t stand for?