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Salem OR 97301
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News Release

Contact: Tanya Gross January 19, 2005
(503) 986-1605
tanya.m.gross@state.or.us

Rep. Betsy Johnson appointed to Senate

SALEM –Rep. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) today was appointed unanimously to the state Senate by Clatsop, Columbia, Multnomah, Tillamook and Washington county commissioners. Johnson will fill the unexpired term of former Sen. Joan Dukes, who resigned from the Senate last week following her appointment by Governor Kulongoski to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
“I welcome Betsy Johnson to the Senate,” said Senate President Peter Courtney
(D-Salem/Gervais/Woodburn). “Betsy’s family has a long and historic record of public service in this state. She will bring significant energy and experience to our deliberations.”
Johnson is in her third term in the state House of Representatives. Her father, the late Sam Johnson, represented Redmond in the House from 1965 to 1977. Her mother, Becky Johnson, served on numerous state boards, including the State Board of Higher Education and the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission.
Raised in Redmond, Betsy Johnson received a bachelor’s degree in history from Carleton College in Minnesota and a law degree from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. A licensed commercial pilot, Johnson founded TransWestern Helicopters, Inc., in 1978. She sold the company’s helicopter division in 1993. The resulting company, now known as TransWestern Aviation, Inc., is managed by her husband, John Helm.
From September 1993 to September 1998, Johnson served as aeronautics division manager of the Oregon Department of Transportation. She then became vice president for legislative affairs for the Oregon Pilots Association.
Johnson has served on numerous, local, regional and national boards and commissions, including the Oregon Health Sciences University Foundation, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Oregon Public Broadcasting Foundation, and the High Desert Museum and is a former director of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco.