with about 52% of the vote to AuCoin's 48%. In his victory press conference, Packwood endorsed AuCoin for Secretary of the Interior in the Clinton administration. When told of Packwood's comments, AuCoin responded by saying "I think that's real special." Magnifying the controversy of the race was a decision by the Washington Post to delay until after the election coverage of its year-long investigation into detailed claims of sexual abuse and assault made by 10 women against Packwood. The paper published the story two months after election day. Oregon's largest daily newspaper, The Oregonian, did not break the story either, despite its own investigation and its congressional correspondent being subjected to Packwood's advances. This led to a joke, "If it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Washington Post (a twist on the Oregonian's slogan, "If it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Oregonian.") The paper's editor would later admit to having been less than aggressive in pursuing the story due to concerns about "…ruining a man's career." A group of Oregon voters battled Packwood lawyers in briefs before the Senate Rules Committee in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the panel to refuse to seat the senator on the grounds of election fraud for lying about the abuses. The senator admitted to the acts in 1994 and was forced to resign after the Senate Ethics Committee censured him for his conduct in 1995. AuCoin was considered for Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of the Army in the new Clinton administration, though he was not offered either post. When news of Packwood's resignation broke, AuCoin stated that he would not come out of retirement to run for the seat. He also stated that he would not engage in professional lobbying, but was criticized the next year for becoming the chairman of the government relations practice group in the law firm Bogle & Gates. A decade later, Governor Ted Kulongoski nominated AuCoin for the Oregon Board of Forestry, reportedly to balance out the perceived dominance of the timber industry on that board. But the industry mounted an extensive lobbying campaign against the former congressman, accusing him of environmental extremism, and his appointment was derailed in the Oregon State Senate. Life after political office AuCoin went into higher education five years after leaving the Congress, joining the faculty at Southern Oregon University in Ashland as a visiting professor of political science and business