John Lim (born December 23, 1935) is a South Korean-born American politician from the state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. He has served in both houses of the

Oregon Legislative Assembly The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the State legislature (United States), state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper house, upper and lower chamber: the Oregon State Senate, Sena ...

and was the

Oregon State Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the State legislature (United States), statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. Ther ...

Majority Leader in 1995. He has unsuccessfully run for the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

and for the Republican nomination for

Governor of Oregon The governor of Oregon is the head of government of Oregon and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. ter ...

Early life

Lim was born in

Yeoju Yeoju (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Yeoju was a county but was raised to the status of a city in September 2013. Together with the neighboring city of Icheon, it is known as a major ce ...

Korea, Empire of Japan From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by the Empire of Japan under the name Chōsen (), the Japanese reading of "Joseon". Japan first took Korea into its sphere of influence during the late 1800s. Both Korea (Joseon) and Japan had been under polic ...

(now in

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a provincial-level ''special city'' since 1946. Incheon, ...

, South Korea). As an adolescent, Lim suffered from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

for five years, from which he nearly died. He was married in 1963 and graduated from Seoul Theological College in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion. He emigrated to the United States in 1966, penniless. When he first arrived in America, he had no resources and worked as a janitor. He later had plans to become a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

. He eventually decided against this, however, as it would have required him to abandon his Protestant heritage. As an adult, Lim started several businesses, including a house painting and gardening business, a vitamin distribution company, and a real estate business with his wife. He continued his theological studies at Western Evangelical Seminary at George Fox University, where he received his

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

(M.Div.) in 1970.

Political career

Lim was elected to the 11th district of the

in 1992. He served as Majority Leader in 1995 and was re-elected in 1996. In April 1999, while serving as chairman of the Trade & Economic Development committee, Lim famously proposed installing signs at the state lines reading, "You are welcome to visit Oregon, but please don't stay." The signs were intended to discourage visitors from moving to Oregon, to preserve the state's economic and ecologic infrastructure as well as general "quality of life." Lim was the Republican nominee for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, losing to incumbent Democrat

Ron Wyden Ronald Lee Wyden ( ; born May 3, 1949) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996 United States Senate special el ...

. Oregon's term limit law was still in effect at the conclusion of his second Senate term, so he left the Senate following the 1999 Legislative session. Lim was succeeded by fellow Republican John Minnis. In 2004, Lim was elected State Representative of District 50. He was re-elected to that office in 2006, serving in the

73rd Oregon Legislative Assembly The Seventy-Third Oregon Legislative Assembly was the Oregon Legislative Assembly (OLA)'s period from 2005 to 2006. (The Legislative Assembly is the legislative body of the U.S. state of Oregon, composed of the Oregon State Senate and the Orego ...

and the 74th Oregon Legislative Assembly. John Lim lost his bid for re-election to the Oregon House in the 2008 general election. Former police officer Greg Matthews, a Democrat, took over representation of Oregon's 50th District in January 2009. Lim was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Oregon governor in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. He came in third out of nine, behind the primary winner Chris Dudley and second-place finisher Allen Alley.

Electoral history

References

External links

Main page at State Legislature1999 High Country News storyMinutes of discussion of SB404
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, John 1935 births American politicians of Korean descent Asian-American state legislators in Oregon Living people People from Yeoju Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives Republican Party Oregon state senators Politicians from Gyeonggi Province South Korean emigrants to the United States Janitors Asian conservatism in the United States 20th-century Oregon politicians 21st-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly