Norma Paulus

Norma Jean Paulus (née Petersen; March 13, 1933 – February 28, 2019) was an American lawyer and politician in the state of Oregon.

A native of Nebraska, she was raised in Eastern Oregon before becoming a lawyer.

Norma Jean Petersen was born in Belgrade, Nebraska, on March 13, 1933.

She was raised as one of seven children in Eastern Oregon, where she graduated from Burns Union High School in Burns, in 1950.

Paulus started her career as the secretary for the district attorney for Harney County in Burns, Oregon.

After recovering from poliomyelitis, she moved to Salem, Oregon (the state's capital), and worked as a legal secretary, including working for Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justices Earl C. Latourette and William M. McAllister.

Latourette recommended Paulus to attend law school, which she did at Willamette University without a college degree, enrolling in 1956.

While in law school, she met her future husband William G. Paulus.

Norma Paulus graduated with honors from Willamette University College of Law in Salem with a LL.B. in 1962.

Following law school Paulus worked in private practice until entering politics.

Paulus began her political career by winning election to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1970.

Elected as a Republican, she represented Salem and Marion County in District 11.

She won re-election in 1972 and 1974 to additional two-year terms in the House with her district changing to District 31, serving through the 1975 special legislative session.

Paulus was a founding member of the Oregon Women's Political Caucus, a bipartisan group of Oregon legislators in 1972.

Also, in 1972, she was invited to be part of the Eagleton Institute of Politics' first conference on women in politics.

She was instrumental in efforts to pass an Equal Rights Amendment in Oregon in 1973 and 1977.

Paulus was then elected as Oregon's first female Secretary of State in 1976, the first time a woman won election to a statewide office in Oregon.

A Republican, she first held political office as a representative in the Oregon House of Representatives, and then became the first woman elected to statewide public office in Oregon when she became Oregon Secretary of State in 1977.

Paulus later served as Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction for nine years.

She made unsuccessful bids to become Governor of Oregon and United States Senator.

She took office on January 3, 1977, and served through January 7, 1985, after winning re-election to a second four-year term in 1980.

Paulus kept a small statue of a lion on a desk in her downtown Portland home that was given to her in October 1981 by the northeast Portland Lions Club when she was inducted as the group's first female member.

The next day, Paulus was visited in her office at the Oregon Capitol by the president of the statewide Oregon Lions Club.

He had come to ask Paulus to return the Portland club's gift.

He did not think the statue – or membership into the club – should have been given to a woman.

A decade later, while serving as Secretary of State, she was a principal speaker at the Institute's 1982 conference.

Paulus remarked in her speech that "We have come a long way" referring to women in politics.

In 1984, followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh bused homeless people to Wasco County in an attempt to sway local elections.

As Secretary of State, Paulus recommended the county institute emergency procedures to restrict these transients from registering to vote, which the Rajneeshees challenged in federal court.

At that time Oregon allowed citizens to register to vote on the same day as an election.

Then federal district judge Edward Leavy ruled against the Rajneeshees, determining the emergency procedures were proper.

The religious sect later faced government investigations over immigration fraud, a related failed murder plot, and the first bioterrorist attack in the United States.

Following her two terms as the Secretary of State, Paulus ran for governor in 1986.

She won the Republican primary in May, but lost to Democrat Neil Goldschmidt in the November election.

While campaigning for the office she had been a critic of the new MAX Light Rail that opened that year.

During this period, Paulus was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to help oversee the 1986 Philippine presidential elections.

In 1987, she was appointed as one of two Oregon members of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

While on the council, she was a supporter of regional fish habitat protection.

She resigned her position on the Council in late 1989 to run for Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction after the retirement of Verne Duncan.

Prior to her death on February 28, 2019, Paulus lived in Portland, where she was involved with several non-profit groups and sponsored a ballot measure to create open primaries in Oregon's statewide elections.