Ben Cannon is an American teacher and politician from Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. He was elected in 2006 to the Oregon House of Representatives

Oregon House of Representatives

The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 57,000. The House meets at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem....

, representing the state's 46th District, which covers portions of southeast and northeast Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. He was unopposed for re-election in 2008. In 2011, he resigned to become the education advisor to Governor John Kitzhaber

John Kitzhaber

John Albert Kitzhaber is the 37th 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...

.

Early life

A graduate of West Linn High School

West Linn High School

West Linn High School is a public high school in West Linn, Oregon, United States. It is one of two high schools in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the other being Wilsonville High School.-Academics:...

 in West Linn, Oregon

West Linn, Oregon

West Linn is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. Now a prosperous southern suburb of Portland, West Linn has a history of early development, prompted by the opportunity to harvest energy from nearby Willamette Falls. It was named after Senator Dr. Lewis Fields Linn of Ste...

, Cannon was educated at Washington University

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

 in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, where he edited the campus newspaper and co-authored Walking Historic Downtown St. Louis (2000). He won a Rhodes Scholarship

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

 to Oxford University in 1999, and went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...

. There he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Philosophy, politics, and economics is a popular interdisciplinary undergraduate/graduate degree which combines study from the three disciplines...

 before taking a graduate degree in Comparative and International Education. Cannon returned to Oregon to become a middle school teacher at the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences in Tualatin

Tualatin, Oregon

Tualatin is a city located primarily in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon. A small portion of the city is also located in neighboring Clackamas County. It is a southwestern suburb in the Portland Metropolitan Area that is located south of Tigard...

.

Political career

He was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2007. Cannon was the main sponsor for House Bill 2461 a controversial bill that called for a 1900% increase in the Oregon beer tax, then among the nation's lowest. The proposed hike would have made the tax the nation's highest and would have been the single largest tax increase on the brewing industry in the United States history. The bill came under fire from supporters of an industry that in Oregon provides 5,200 direct jobs and an estimated 10,000 indirect jobs. and did not get out of committee by the end of the session.

In August 2011, Cannon was appointed by Governor John Kitzhaber

John Kitzhaber

John Albert Kitzhaber is the 37th 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...

as the governor's top education adviser and resigned from the Oregon House on September 1.

External links

• Legislative website
• Project Vote Smart – Representative Ben Cannon (OR) profile
• Follow the Money – Ben Cannon
  • 2006 campaign contributions
• Campaign website