| Jim Bunn | |
| State: | Oregon |
| Term Start: | January 3, 1995 |
| Term End: | January 3, 1997 |
| Predecessor: | Michael J. Kopetski |
| Successor: | Darlene Hooley |
| State Senate1: | Oregon |
| District1: | 15th |
| Term Start1: | 1987 |
| Term End1: | 1995 |
| Predecessor1: | Tony Meeker |
| Successor1: | Marylin Shannon |
| Birth Date: | 12 December 1956 |
| Birth Place: | McMinnville, Oregon, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Spouse: | Sonja Skurdal |
| Relatives: | Stan Bunn (brother) Tom Bunn (brother) |
| Education: | Chemeketa Community College Northwest Nazarene University (BA) |
James Lee Bunn (born December 12, 1956) is an American politician from Oregon. A native of Yamhill County, he served in the Oregon State Senate before election to the United States House of Representatives where he served one term. A Republican, he now works as a correctional officer for the county.
James Lee Bunn[1] was born in McMinnville and graduated from Dayton High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern Nazarene College in 1979, and remains a member of the Church of the Nazarene.
Bunn worked in agribusiness, and from 1987 until his election to Congress, served in the Oregon National Guard. A Republican, he was a member of the Oregon State Senate from 1987 to 1995, where he served as Republican whip from 1990 to 1995.
In 1994, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing . During his one term in the House from 1995 to 1997, Bunn divorced his wife of 17 years, with whom he had five children, and married Sonja Skurdal, an aide in his congressional office whom he made his chief of staff. Bunn then paid Skurdal more than any other congressional aide in Oregon at that time.[2] In the 1996 election, this scandal contributed to his loss to Democrat Darlene Hooley.[3]
After leaving Congress, Bunn became a sheriff's deputy at the Yamhill County jail.[2] [4] In 2008, he was a candidate for the Oregon House of Representatives in the state's 24th district which includes McMinnville, but was defeated in the primary by Jim Weidner.[5]
Bunn ran again for congress in 2022 but came in 5th in the primary out of 7 candidates.[6] [7]
Bunn's family includes other notable public figures, such as his brother Stan Bunn, a former Oregon superintendent of public instruction and member of both houses of the state legislature. Another brother, Tom Bunn, is a former Yamhill County commissioner and was briefly a state senator.[8] All three brothers served in the legislature for a short time in from July 1992 to January 1993.[9]