Wes Cooley

Wester Shadric "Wes" Cooley (March 28, 1932 – February 4, 2015) was a Republican politician and rancher from Oregon. He was a U.S. Representative from Oregon's 2nd congressional district for the 1995–1997 term.

Early life

Cooley was born in Los Angeles, California. He served in the United States Army from 1952 to 1954, and is described in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress as a rancher. He owned the vitamin supplements company Rose Laboratories. Cooley graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958.

Political career

Cooley was elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1992. In 1994, midway through his State Senate term, Cooley was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican from the 2nd District.

In the 104th Congress, Cooley was an advocate of private property rights, American military superiority, tort reform to limit recovery by plaintiffs, and other planks of the Republican Party's proclaimed Contract with America.

Wes Cooley (motorcyclist)

Wester Steven Cooley, (b. June 28, 1956 in Los Angeles, California), better known as Wes, was a motorcycle road racer in the AMA Superbike class. He won the 1979 and 1980 AMA Superbike Championships on a Yoshimura Suzuki GS1000s.

Cooley got his start on the Southern California club racing scene where his father ran a club racing organization. He honed his skills in the smaller classes before being hired by Pops Yoshimura to race a Kawasaki KZ1000 in the newly formed AMA production class. He won his first AMA superbike race in 1977. For the 1978 season, Yoshimura switched to better handling Suzuki bikes and Cooley began winning regularly. He teamed up with Mike Baldwin to win the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours race in Japan. In 1980, he teamed up with Graeme Crosby to win at Suzuka a second time. Cooley went on to win his first superbike national championship in 1979. He successfully defended his crown in 1980 by fighting off future Hall of Famers Eddie Lawson on a Kawasaki and Freddie Spencer on a Honda.