A Beginning of Great Promise

Thomas Joseph Dodd (1907-1971) had quite an impressive background for a career in elected office. A lawyer by profession, he was a special agent for the FBI from 1933 to 1934 and in 1935 was made director of the National Youth Administration in Connecticut. He also was involved with the Justice Department’s first civil rights section, being involved with prosecutions of KKK members in South Carolina (The New York Times). Dodd also served as an assistant to five attorney generals from 1938 to 1945 and prosecuted a German spy ring during World War II.

After the war, Dodd served as executive trial counsel for the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality actively participated in the Nuremberg Trials. He drafted indictments, cross-examined leading Nazis, and presented evidence before the court of numerous Nazi atrocities including deportations for slave labor and storing personal valuables of murdered concentration camp inmates in the Reichsbank including gold teeth. His work was met with praise and awards, although he rejected one from Poland in 1949; by that time it had a communist government, and he didn’t want to receive an award from a tyrannical regime.

Dodd Goes to Congress

When Dodd got into electoral politics, Connecticut still had a bit of a history as a Republican state, although Democrats and Republicans were regularly battling it out: the 1936 and 1940 elections yielded an all Democratic House delegation, while the 1942 and 1946 elections yielded an all Republican House delegation.

When Dodd ran for Congress in 1952, it was a strong year for Republicans, with Eisenhower winning and Republicans winning both houses of Congress. He was the only Democratic winner in the state that year, succeeding Abe Ribicoff in the 1st district, based in Hartford. Dodd as a representative voted as a liberal, including in 1954 and 1956 scoring a 100% from Americans for Democratic Action.

In 1956, Dodd ran for the Senate against incumbent Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush. However, the year was solid for Republicans and Bush won all but one county in the state, winning by 10 points. However, even some of the greatest political figures in American history have lost an election, and he was determined to try again. In the interim, Dodd was a paid lobbyist for Guatemala’s military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas.

1958: Dodd Victory, Republican Collapse in Connecticut

The 1958 midterms were terrible for Republicans, especially in New England, and in no state was this more clear than in Connecticut. All six of the state’s representatives, all Republican, lost reelection that year, and Dodd defeated incumbent William Purtell by 15 points, winning all counties.

A Liberal Anti-Communist

When he first entered the Senate, Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.) promised him a spot on the influential Foreign Relations Committee if he voted against Senator Clinton Anderson’s (D-N.M.) effort at ending Rule 22, which required 2/3’s vote to end debate in the Senate (The New York Times). Although Dodd had campaigned against Rule 22, he played ball. However, Johnson wasn’t able to deliver and the spot went to Al Gore Sr. (D-Tenn.), who had seniority, and so Dodd was promised the next vacancy and offered a choice between Appropriations, Space, and Judiciary. He took Appropriations, but was frequently absent at committee meetings, with one associate of his stating that “it became a terrible embarrassment” (The New York Times). Even though Johnson got him the next vacancy on Foreign Relations, he still was frequently absent from meetings.

From his posts, Dodd developed a reputation as being a staunch anti-communist. For instance, on July 8, 1959, he voted for the Bridges-Johnston Amendment, stopping foreign aid to any nation that expropriates American-owned property without proper compensation in response to Communist Cuba’s nationalization of American property, something his normally more conservative colleague, Eisenhower Republican Prescott Bush, voted against. His anti-communist rhetoric and some of his foreign policy votes win approval from conservatives of the time. Dodd could get quite personal in his conduct, particularly if he found colleagues to be insufficiently anti-communist. One example was Dodd attacking Senator J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), when he opposed proposals to deny aid to Communist Yugoslavia and to increase aid to Francoist Spain, by suggesting that he was more willing to help Communist than non-Communist nations, to which Fulbright responded that his motives regarding aid to Guatemala perhaps should be looked into, as he had supported increasing aid to the nation as a representative in 1956 (The New York Times). However, Dodd was also on most domestic policy questions a liberal.

Senator Dodd proved a strong supporter of both the New Frontier and the Great Society; he voted for the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Medicare in 1965, public housing, and incresed unemployment compensation. He also, consistent with his Justice Department work as a young man, was a consistent vote for civil rights legislation. and on one occasion lectured a conservative audience when addressing the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade in 1961, criticizing “extremist-conservatives” for “damning all liberals as pinks and crypto-Communists” (The New York Times). Dodd was also involved with the anti-communist American Security Council, earning $6,000 a year from broadcasts for several years.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson summoned Dodd for talks about being vice president, but this was really a move to help publicize him for reelection, and the nomination went to Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Although his reelection bid initially looked like it was going to be tough as his opponent was former Congressman John Davis Lodge, the publicity plus Barry Goldwater heading up the Republican ticket dragged Lodge’s candidacy down and Dodd won reelection in a landslide.

Dodd on Crime

Despite being a staunch civil rights supporter, Dodd in 1965 tried to get MLK arrested on the Logan Act for his public statements critical of the Vietnam War, seeing them as hindering the government’s position in negotiations (Garrow). In the over 200 years of the Logan Act’s existence, no one has ever been convicted of a violation.

Dodd was a major player in the debates on addressing rising crime, pushing the Gun Control Act of 1968, with critics alleging that he borrowed from Nazi-era German gun laws in drafting this law. That year, he also supported attaching an anti-riot section to the Civil Rights Act of 1968 anti-crime legislation and legislation revising the Mallory and Miranda Supreme Court decisions regarding criminal defendants so as to improve the government’s ability to fight crime. During the Nixon Administration, Dodd backed the administration’s position in pushing “no knock” warrants in drug cases.

Scandal

In 1965, the Senate created the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics in response to the bitter partisanship that characterized the investigation into Senate senior aide Bobby Baker and created an ethics code to regulate the behavior of its members, and the first senator to run afoul of the committee was Dodd.

In January 1966, journalists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson reported a series of stories outlining Dodd’s connections to PR consultant Julius Klein, who did work on behalf of West German businesses and alleging fundraising improprieties (U.S. Senate). The committee investigated both the connection and the improprieties.

Although the Senate Ethics Committee heard testimony that Dodd had received favors from Klein, the only hard evidence presented was that he on numerous occasions used Klein’s suite at Manhattan’s Essex House Hotel, and this part of the matter was dropped. Dodd would not be so fortunate on the improprieties.

After extensive investigation into documentary evidence, the Committee found that from $450,273 gained from seven campaign fundraising events between 1961 and 1965 and contributions for his 1964 reelection campaign that he had diverted at least $116,083 for his personal use and that he had on seven occasions accepted double reimbursement for travel: from the Senate as well as from private groups (U.S. Senate). Dodd fully denied wrongdoing in the matter. He also blasted Pearson and Anderson for their push to investigate him, asserting “A question at issue is whether Pearson and Anderson are to be given a hunting license to knock off all those in Congress who advocate a hard line of resistance to communist aggression and who oppose all tendencies to appeasement” (Kurlander). Dodd claimed that he was badly in debt at the time and that his family needed the money (Bumiller). This looked bad, although he did have his defenders. Dodd’s leading defender in the Senate was Russell Long (D-La.), the son of the late flamboyant de facto dictator of Louisiana and presidential aspirant Huey Long. Long’s defense of Dodd largely consisted of loose comparisons between his family’s troubles and Dodd’s troubles, which wasn’t all too helpful (Kurlander).

The Senate passed the censure resolution against him 92-5 on June 23, 1967, with Senators Abe Ribicoff (D-Conn.), Russell Long (D-La.), Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), and John Tower (R-Tex.) joining Dodd in voting against. A censure is an official rebuke by the Senate for misconduct, and although it might sound like he was just getting lectured to, Dodd was only the seventh senator in the history of the legislative body to face this dishonor and the first strictly over personal financial conduct. A censure, certainly in 1967 (it may not in our age of partisanship turn out to mean much), served as a chain on the neck of any senator wanting to be reelected. Dodd stated, “I believe now, I shall continue to believe, that history will justify my conduct and my character”. One of his sons, Christopher Dodd, later reflected on his father’s behavior, saying that he “didn’t separate and distinguish his political and his personal life” (Bumiller).

Aftermath

With Dodd carrying the chain of censure, he nonetheless sought reelection in 1970, maintaining his innocence, and indeed his censure was the theme of the election. However, he lost renomination that year to anti-war Reverend Joseph Duffey, but he decided to run for reelection as an Independent. The three-way race was won by Republican Congressman Lowell Weicker. During the censure, Dodd had exclaimed “How many times do you want to hang me? Be done with it! Do away with me! In the twilight of my life! And that will be the end of me!” (Kurlander) Dodd’s words at the time turned out to be truer than he knew: only four months after his departure from the Senate, he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 64 years old. In 1974, his son, Christopher, ran for Congress after an old friend of Dodd had asked him to do so, and he won. In 1980, the younger Dodd won the Senate election succeeding Abe Ribicoff and would serve until 2011. In an interesting note, Dodd was one of only two Democrats to vote to confirm the embattled John Tower as Secretary of Defense in 1989, and although he denied this, it seemed like a thank you for him voting against censuring his father in 1967.

In some ways, Dodd reminds me of Joe Lieberman. Although on most domestic fundamentals he was absolutely a Democrat, he was a more hawkish one regarding the Cold War, his consideration for vice president in 1964, and his effort to run for reelection as an Independent after losing renomination in 1970 are all reminiscent of Lieberman. Although Lieberman both got the nomination for VP in 2000 and was one of the few to win reelection on an Independent platform in 2006.

References

Bumiller, E. (1983, July 13). Christopher Dodd, His Father’s Son. The Washington Post.

Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/07/13/christopher-dodd-his-fathers-son/a8fb2092-16c6-4b4a-923b-a534d980c7c7/

Ex-Senator Dodd Is Dead at 64; Censured in 1967 by Colleagues. (1971, May 25). The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/25/archives/exsenator-dodd-is-dead-at-64-censured-in-1967-by-colleagues.html

Garrow, D.J. (2017, April 4). When Martin Luther King Came Out Against Vietnam. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/opinion/when-martin-luther-king-came-out-against-vietnam.html

Kurlander, D. (2022, June 23). ‘Do Away with Me!’: Thomas J. Dodd’s Senate Censure Hearings and the Evolution of Political Accountability. CAFE.

Retrieved from

https://cafe.com/article/do-away-with-me-thomas-j-dodds-senate-censure-hearings-and-the-evolution-of-political-accountability/

S. 1451. Bridges-Johnston Amend. to Suspend Aid to Any Country Determined to Be Expropriating U.S.-Owned Property Without Adequate Compensation. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/86-1959/s116

To Pass S.Res.112, Which, As Amended, Censures Sen. Dodd for Exercising the Power of his Office to Obtain and Use Money From Public Testimonials and Campaigns Funds for His Personal Use. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/90-1967/s112

Toner, R. (1989, March 8). Dodd Decides to Back Tower In Defense Post. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Phoebe Courtney

The late 1950s and 1960s was, oddly enough, a period of growth in conservative activism, certainly amplified by the 1958 midterms, which were devastating for conservatives. When Americans for Constitutional Action released their first ratings in May 1960, many were satisfied with this comprehensive scoring system. However, not all were. Among these people were Kent and Phoebe Courtney, a radical conservative husband and wife team who headed up the Conservative Society of America and were displeased with ACA for not grading final passage of foreign aid (they would start to do so for some years starting in 1962) and including no votes regarding reciprocal trade (they would grade the Mason motion in the House to recommit the Trade Expansion Act in 1962). They saw them as too favorable to Republican moderates and liberals and were in truth so radical that they were hesitant to vote for Goldwater in 1964 – to them he was too accommodating to GOP liberals. The Courtneys, who resided in New Orleans, were also segregationists. Their organization had some notable people involved, including Salt Lake City Mayor J. Bracken Lee, retired Major General Charles Willoughby (who I previously wrote about as one of the worst intelligence officers in American history), Professor Medford Bryan Evans (father of conservative writer and activist M. Stanton Evans), and Harold Lord Varney (a writer who had radical shifts in his political thinking over his life). Kent also would join the Board of Policy of Liberty Lobby. Thanks to some searching through the Internet Archive for yet more information on Americans for Constitutional Action, I have found some information including one of their scorecards for their “CSA Voting Index” for the House and Senate, specifically 1961. The pair are incredibly strict graders and remind me a bit of Mark Levin’s (who I can’t listen to because he regularly shouts himself until he is blue in the face) “Conservative Review”.

Minority Leader Charles Halleck of Indiana, known as a leader of the Conservative Coalition, scores a 32% in 1961. ACA by contrast scored him a 100% that year while ADA scored him a 10%. Even John Bircher John Rousselot of California, praised by conservative sources as a model legislator, got two votes wrong by Courtney’s measure, thus scoring an 89%. ACA and ADA, on the other hand, had respectively no complaints and no compliments about his 87th Congress record. The same went for John Ashbrook of Ohio, also regarded as a model legislator by conservatives. However, the Courtneys found three votes to dislike from him, rendering his score an 85%. Ashbrook, whose campaign slogan in his 1972 quixotic effort against Nixon was “No Left Turns”, never scored that low by ACA. Courtney’s measure also reminds me a bit of John Birch Society’s “Freedom Index”, although not close to as ridiculous as scoring Elizabeth Warren equal to Ted Cruz and higher than McConnell in the 2015-2017 Congress (The New American).

A mere five representatives were perfect by the Courtneys that year: Congressmen James B. Utt (R-Calif.) (who I have covered before), Elmer Hoffman (R-Ill.), Clare Hoffman (R-Mich.) (whose opposition to FDR was so staunch he wanted him indicted for sedition), Clarence Kilburn (R-N.Y.) (although if they had counted legislative pairs he would have been nailed on foreign aid spending), and Bruce Alger (R-Tex.). By contrast, sixty-three representatives scored a 100% by ACA in 1961.

For the Senate, Senators Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) and John Tower (R-Tex.) also got 100%. By contrast, seven senators scored a 100% by ACA in 1961. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) scored an 88%, with the Courtneys finding him having erred in voting for an unemployment compensation bill that only four senators voted against. Numerous Republicans are found little to no better than liberal Democrats: John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.) gets hit with a big fat zero while Hiram Fong (R-Haw.) is only found to have voted right by them in opposing a feed grains bill. Prescott Bush (R-Conn.), father and grandfather to presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, at 20% barely fares better than his Democratic colleague from the state, Thomas Dodd, who scores a 13%. One thing that surprised me was that given the Courtneys’ hostility to desegregation they didn’t include a single vote regarding civil rights. The ACA, on the other hand, included a vote striking a proposal from Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) to permit the Attorney General to bring civil suits for injunctions to prevent deprivation of civil rights. Other notable exclusions include the issue of Hanford public power generation and the Ayres (R-Ohio) conservative substitute for minimum wage legislation, which both ACA and ADA covered in their ratings. For information on ACA scores for 1961, see my previous post on the subject.

I not only find ideology interesting, but also how people view others’ ideology based on voting, and the expectations of the Courtneys are, dare I say, ludicrously high from a right-wing perspective. Funny enough, the way some history YouTubers of a distinctly un-conservative perspective portray the Republican Party at the time they reinforce the views of the Courtneys in saying that they were by and large New Deal supporters, that both were big government parties.

References

Courtney, K. & Courtney, P. (1962). The CSA Voting Index. Conservative Society of America. (see pages 34 to 140)

Retrieved from

https://archive.org/details/ConservativeSocietyOfAmericaKentAndPhoebeCourtneyHQ62107722

Freedom Index Congressional Scorecard. The New American.

Retrieved from

https://thenewamerican.com/freedom-index/report/freedom-index-114-1//

The year is 1962 and Republican Congressman Edwin Dooley of Westchester County, New York, wants a fourth term. However, he isn’t the most exceptional representative, and his record from a conservative perspective is rather middling. Enter Ogden “Brownie” Rogers Reid (1925-2019).

Brownie Reid hails from a historically Republican family…it was his politically influential grandfather, Whitelaw Reid, who was picked for VP on Benjamin Harrison’s 1892 reelection effort. His father, Ogden Mills Reid, formed the New York Herald Tribune, a prominent Rockefeller Republican newspaper which had been highly influential in the party’s nomination of Wendell Willkie in 1940. Reid was also related to Ogden Mills, who served as President Hoover’s final Secretary of the Treasury. Ogden Reid himself ran the Tribune from 1955 to 1958. The Tribune, however, was facing financial troubles brought in part from some disastrous business decisions and was increasingly being overshadowed by The New York Times. Thus, the family sold the paper to Ambassador to Britain John Hay Whitney. The Tribune would shutter in 1966. Reid himself served as Ambassador to Israel under President Eisenhower from 1959 to 1961. Governor Nelson Rockefeller then appointed him to the State Commission on Discrimination. Reid was throughout his political career a staunch supporter of civil rights legislation.

Reid had the family advantage over Dooley but also an age advantage: at 37 he was 20 years younger, and most crucially managed to get the local party organization to back him. One of the ways in which he hit Dooley was on attendance, and indeed he was worse than the median on roll call attendance of 2.1% at the time for legislators at 6%, missing 37 of 613 roll calls (Govtrack). Ironically, Reid’s average would be worse than Dooley’s. This was largely in his last term in Congress, missing 836 of 3,272 roll call votes throughout his career, or 25.6%; the median at the time was 9.7% (Govtrack). Reid won the primary and as a new member of Congress he initially voted in the middle: in 1963, his Americans for Constitutional Action (ACA) score was a 61% while his Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) score was a 55%. However, in the next year, Reid came out solidly for the Great Society, voting for the Economic Opportunity Act, mass transit legislation, and other LBJ initiatives. However, Reid did vote against the Food Stamp Act of 1964, making the program permanent. His ACA and ADA scores respectively for 1964 were a 26% and a 69%. Reid’s record would get more liberal after being reelected in 1964, and conservative Republicans remarked that his initials, “O.R.”, stood for “Occasionally Republican” (Whitestone).

Reid found vanishingly few points of agreement with conservatives over the years, occasionally backing budget cuts here and there. He was one of the few House Republicans to repeatedly vote to back rent subsidies, voted for Medicare as well as against a Republican motion to recommit, Although conservative candidates tried to primary him, they never succeeded. Indeed, Reid was very popular in the general elections, winning reelection by over 40 points in 1966, 1968, and 1970. In 1969, Reid was the only Republican to vote against the “Toward Peace with Justice in Vietnam” resolution, a Congressional endorsement of President Nixon’s goals in Vietnam. However, Reid, who was closely allied to New York City Mayor John Lindsay, found himself taking the same path out of the party he did. On March 22, 1972, Reid switched party affiliation to Democrat, holding that he could not back President Nixon for reelection, that the GOP had “moved to the right”, was “not showing the compassion and sensitivity to meet the problems of the average American”, and objected to Nixon’s record on civil rights, Supreme Court nominations, and Vietnam (Lynn). Reid also acknowledged that he was facing a tough challenge from the right in the primary and that Republicans wished to block his greater political ambitions in the state. The Nixon Administration response to his switch came from Press Secretary Ronald Zeigler: “Who?” (Lynn) To show how liberal Reid was, I have below his ACA and ADA scores, modified to count pairs for and against but not to count mere absences against legislators.

Years	ACA	ADA
1963	61	55
1964	26	69
1965	11	89
1966	35	88
1967	24	80
1968	9	91
1969	12	93
1970	16	91
1971	11	94
1972	0	100
1973	4	95
1974	0	91
Average	17	86

Reid as a Democrat

In 1972, Reid faced his closest election ever, winning by 4.6 points in the long-Republican district, being the first Democrat to win an election in the district in sixty years, a district whose representative in 1935, Charles Millard, voted against Social Security. In 1973, he was one of 35 representatives to vote against confirming Gerald Ford as vice president. Although Brownie Reid switched to the Democratic Party for reasons ideological and for career advancement, his final term in Congress was marked by absenteeism due to his ambitions to run for governor, only to be overwhelmed by Democratic Congressman Hugh Carey as he could find little enthusiasm outside Westchester County and he dropped out of the race in June 1974. That year, Reid opted not to run for Congress again. In 1983, Reid one more time tried for elective office, as executive of Westchester County, but lost. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations up until his death on March 2, 2019.

Reid’s Career: A Portend for Westchester County

Since his departure from Congress in 1974, his territory was only represented by one more Republican in Joseph J. DioGuardi, who served from 1985 to 1989. It turns out that Reid’s shift was predictive for the direction of Westchester County. The Democrat who defeated DioGuardi, Nita Lowey, served until 2021. The county has not voted for a Republican for president since 1988 and in 2020 67.6% of the county’s vote went to Biden, a record for a Democrat. However, parts of Westchester County are, as of writing, represented by Republican Mike Lawler.

P.S.: RIP James Buckley. Although less known than his younger brother, William F. Buckley Jr., founder of National Review, he made his own contributions in his single term in the Senate, particularly in his efforts against campaign finance regulation. He was the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court decision, Buckley v. Valeo (1976), and is one of the few senators since 1856 to be elected to neither the Republican or Democratic Party platform. Buckley is also arguably the last conservative to be elected to the Senate from New York (to what degree Al D’Amato was, is debatable).

References

1973 ADA voting record. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

https://adaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/1973.pdf

ADA 1969 The Ninety-First Congress First Session Voting Record. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

Click to access 1969.pdf

ADA World Voting Record – 88th Congress, 2nd Session. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

Click to access 1964.pdf

ADA World Voting Record Supplement – 88th Congress, 1st Session. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

https://adaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/1963.pdf

Lynn, F. (1972, March 23). Reid Moves to Democratic Party To Seek Re-election to Congress. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/23/archives/reid-moves-to-democratic-party-to-seek-reelection-to-congress.html

Presidential Election Results 1848-2020: How Westchester, Mamaroneck Voted. Mamaroneck Historical Society.

Retrieved from

https://www.mamaroneckhistoricalsociety.org/presidential-elections

Rep. Edwin Dooley. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/edwin_dooley/403537

Rep. Ogden Reid. Govtrack.

Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/ogden_reid/409127

Whitestone, R. (2019, April 2). Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics. New York Almanack.

Retrieved from

Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics

As I had previously written, Republicans took a beating in the 1958 midterms, especially in the Senate, and that gave liberals an edge for decades. However, the socioeconomic conditions of the 1970s were wearing on the voters who were looking for something different. This came in the form of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Presidents do not always have coattails in their elections, but Reagan did, and 12 Senate seats flipped from Democrat to Republican and the Republicans won a net 36 House seats.

The presidential votes of the states in which Republicans benefited in 1980:

Alabama

1976: Carter +13.11
1980: Reagan +1.3

Alaska

1976: Ford +22.25
1980: Reagan +27.94

California

1976: Ford +1.78
1980: Reagan +16.78

Connecticut

1976: Ford +5.17
1980: Reagan +9.63

Florida

1976: Carter +5.28
1980: Reagan +17.02

Georgia

1976: Carter +33.78
1980: Carter +14.81

Idaho

1976: Ford +22.76
1980: Reagan +41.27

Indiana
1976: Ford +7.62
1980: Reagan +18.35

Iowa

1976: Ford +16.12
1980: Reagan +12.7

Michigan

1976: Ford +9
1980: Reagan +6.49

Missouri

1976: Carter +3.63
1980: Reagan +6.81

Nebraska

1976: Ford +20.74
1980: Reagan +39.49

New Hampshire

1976: Ford +11.28
1980: Reagan +29.39

New Jersey

1976: Ford +2.16
1980: Reagan +13.42

New Mexico

1976: Ford +22.02
1980: Reagan +18.18

New York

1976: Carter +4.43
1980: Reagan +2.67

North Carolina

1976: Carter +11.05
1980: Reagan +2.12

Oregon

1976: Ford +9.95
1980: Reagan +9.66

Pennsylvania

1976: Carter +2.66
1980: Reagan +7.11

Rhode Island

1976: Carter +17.47
1980: Carter +10.47

South Carolina

1976: Carter +13.04
1980: Reagan +1.53

Texas

1976: Carter +3.17
1980: Reagan +13.86

Utah

1976: Ford +12.46
1980: Reagan +52.2

Virginia

1976: Ford +1.34
1980: Reagan +12.72

Washington

1976: Ford +3.88
1980: Reagan +12.34

West Virginia

1976: Carter +16.14
1980: Carter +4.51

Wisconsin

1976: Carter +1.68
1980: Reagan +4.72

Democratic Gains:

Maryland

1976: Carter +6.07
1980: Carter +2.96

North Dakota

1976: Ford +5.85
1980: Reagan +37.97

The Senate races in which Democrats lost seats to Republicans were:

Alabama – Democratic Senator Donald W. Stewart loses renomination to Fob James, who loses the election to Republican war hero Jeremiah Denton.

Alaska – Democratic Senator Mike Gravel loses renomination to Clark Gruening, who loses the election to Republican Frank Murkowski.

Florida – Democratic Senator Richard Stone loses renomination to former Congressman Bill Gunter, who loses the election to Republican Paula Hawkins.

Georgia – Democratic Senator Herman Talmadge, who had been censured by the Senate on ethics issues, loses his bid for reelection to Republican activist Mack Mattingly.

Idaho – Democratic Senator Frank Church, who was most known for the Church Committee uncovering illegal activities by the FBI and CIA, loses his bid for a fifth term to Republican Congressman Steve Symms. Church to this day is the last Democrat to represent the state in the Senate.

Indiana – Democratic Senator Birch Bayh, who sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment and ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1972, loses reelection to Republican Congressman and future Vice President Dan Quayle.

Iowa – Democratic Senator John Culver loses reelection to Republican Congressman Chuck Grassley, who still serves today.

New Hampshire – Democratic Senator John Durkin loses reelection to Republican Warren Rudman.

North Carolina – Democratic Senator Robert B. Morgan loses reelection to Republican John Porter East.

South Dakota – Democratic Senator George McGovern, the famously liberal Democratic presidential nominee in 1972, loses reelection by 20 points to Republican Congressman James Abdnor.

Washington – Democratic Senator Warren Magnuson, the most senior senator as he had served since 1944 and had as a representative sponsored the bill ending the Chinese Exclusion Act, is defeated for reelection by Republican State Attorney General Slade Gorton.

Wisconsin – Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson, who had been a major environmentalist and promoter of Earth Day, loses reelection to Republican former Congressman Bill Kasten.

There were also some races that shifted the state’s seat to the right:

New York – Republican Al D’Amato defeated longtime liberal Jacob Javits for renomination and then narrowly won a three-way race.

Oklahoma – Republican Don Nickles succeeds retiring Republican Henry Bellmon. The former is considerably more conservative than the latter.

There was one that shifted the state’s seat to the left:

North Dakota – Republican Milton Young is succeeded by Republican Congressman Mark Andrews, who proves himself a bit of a rebel regarding the Reagan Administration in his one term.

Although the House was bad for Democrats, their majority was enough so that they kept the House.

California

Democratic Congressmen Harold Johnson, James Corman, James Lloyd, and Lionel Van Deerlin lose reelection to Republicans Eugene Chappie, Bobbi Fiedler, David Dreier, and Duncan Hunter respectively.

Connecticut

Republican Lawrence DeNardis wins in the 3rd district after the retirement of Congressman Robert Giaimo. His opponent, notably, was Joe Lieberman.

Florida

Democratic Congressman Robert Stack loses renomination in the 12th district, and Republican Clay Shaw wins the district.

Indiana

Democratic Congressman John Brademas loses reelection to Republican John P. Hiler.

Michigan

Democratic Congressman Bob Carr loses reelection to Republican James W. Dunn.

Minnesota

Democratic Congressman Rick Nolan chooses not to run again, and he is succeeded by Republican Vin Weber.

Missouri

Democratic Congressman Richard Ichord retires, and he is succeeded by Republican Wendell Bailey. Ichord was by this point quite conservative, so exchanging him for Bailey is no great loss for liberalism.

Democratic Congressman Bill Burlison is defeated for reelection by Republican Bill Emerson.

Nebraska

Democrat John Cavanaugh retires and is succeeded by Republican Hal Daub.

New Jersey

Democratic Congressmen Frank Thompson and Andrew Maguire are defeated for reelection by Republicans Chris Smith and Marge Roukema respectively. The previously popular Thompson’s loss was by 16 points on account of him being implicated in the Abscam scandal. Chris Smith still serves in Congress today.

New Mexico

Democratic Congressman Harold Runnels died before the 1980 election, and he is succeeded by Republican Joe Skeen. Like with Ichord in Missouri, Runnels had been quite conservative by this point.

New York

Democratic Congressmen Jerome Ambro, Lester Wolff, and John Murphy lose reelection to Republicans Gregory W. Carman, John LeBoutillier, and Guy Molinari respectively.

Democrat James Hanley retires, and Republican George Wortley wins the election.

North Carolina

Democratic Congressmen L. Richardson Preyer and V. Lamar Gudger lose reelection to Republicans Walter Johnston and Bill Hendon respectively.

Ohio

Democratic Congressman Thomas Ashley loses reelection to Republican Ed Weber.

Oregon

Democratic Congressman Albert Ullman loses reelection to Republican Denny Smith.

Pennsylvania

Democratic Congressmen Peter Kostmayer and Ray Musto lose reelection to Republicans James Coyne and James Nelligan respectively.

Rhode Island

Democratic Congressman Edward Beard loses reelection to Republican Claudine Schneider.

South Carolina

Democratic Congressman Mendel Davis retires, and Republican Thomas Hartnett wins the seat.

Democratic Congressman John Jenrette, implicated in the Abscam scandal, loses reelection to Republican John Napier.

Texas

Democratic Congressman Bob Eckhardt loses reelection to Republican Jack Fields.

Utah

Democratic Congressman K. Gunn McKay loses reelection to Republican James Hansen.

Virginia

Democratic Congressman Dave Satterfield retires and Republican Thomas Bliley wins the seat. Satterfield was quite conservative so this is no great loss for liberal Democrats.

Democratic Congressmen Herb Harris and Joe Fisher lose reelection to Republicans Stan Parris and Frank Wolf respectively.

Washington

Democratic Congressman Mike McCormack loses reelection to Republican Sid Morrison.

West Virginia

Democratic Congressman Harley Staggers retires, and Republican Cleve Benedict wins the election to succeed him.

Democratic Congressman John G. Hutchinson loses reelection to Republican Mick Staton.

Wisconsin

Democratic Congressman Alvin Baldus loses reelection to Republican Steve Gunderson.

Democratic Gains:

California

Republican Congressman William Royer is defeated for reelection by Democrat Tom Lantos. Royer had won a special election after Democratic Congressman Leo Ryan was murdered on the orders of Jim Jones by followers of the People’s Temple.

Maryland

Republican Robert Bauman, hindered by a gay sex scandal, is defeated for reelection by Democrat Roy Dyson.

North Dakota

Republican Congressman Mark Andrews runs for the Senate and wins, and Democrat Byron Dorgan wins the seat.

Ohio

Republican Congressman Samuel Devine loses reelection to Democrat Bob Shamansky in a stunning upset; his district was and still is Republican.

Overall

This election constituted perhaps most of all a repudiation of President Carter. It was also a turn away from many liberal policies of the 1960s and 1970s, given the losses of some big names in liberalism, such as Indiana’s Bayh, South Dakota’s McGovern, and Wisconsin’s Nelson. The Democrats would make something of a comeback in 1982 given the recession brought on by interest rate hikes from the Fed, although the Republicans would hold the Senate until 1987. One of the biggest takeaways was that it was the first time since 1952 that the Republicans won the Senate, and heralded the end of the era of Democratic dominance of the legislative branch, which had lasted since the 1932 election, as Republicans until 1980 only won control of any House of Congress twice.

I’m going to get something out of the way about this election: the GOP stood zero chance of winning the presidency. The American public was highly sympathetic to Lyndon B. Johnson as he was seen as carrying on the legacy of the murdered JFK. Thus, for the Republicans, the real race was who was going to win party control, and this is where Barry Goldwater comes in. Goldwater was the most conservative senator in this time and regarded as a national spokesman for conservatism. The moderate to liberal Republicans by contrast put forth Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. The mood for these candidates is low among GOP primary voters, and Goldwater is nominated.

Goldwater doesn’t do himself a whole lot of favors on the campaign trail as he is brash and uncompromising. Some admire him for this, but his vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 devastates black support for the GOP, his advocacy for selling the Tennessee Valley Authority harms him in the peripheral South, and his cavalier talk on nuclear weapons scares off numerous voters. LBJ notoriously capitalized on the latter through the airing of the “Daisy” ad, implying that nuclear war would be the result of a Goldwater presidency. The Goldwater campaign’s grand strategy was to try to tick off LBJ, thus his pick of Congressman William Miller (R-N.Y.) for vice president, who was selected for his ability to get under Johnson’s skin. It didn’t work, and Miller added nothing to the ticket for the voters. Although the Goldwater run inspired generations of conservatives, his run depressed support for other Republicans as well, giving LBJ the Congress he needed to pass Great Society legislation in the next Congress.

The 1964 election brought about some permanent changes in American politics. For one, the black vote became near uniformly Democratic. Republicans from this point forward would not win more than 15% of the black vote in presidential elections. By contrast, from 1936 to 1960, although Republicans didn’t win a majority, they commanded a significant minority. Richard Nixon had won one in three of their votes in 1960. This election would be the first time in which the GOP was considered an option in the Deep South; Goldwater only won his home state of Arizona and five Southern states. This election’s biggest impact legislatively was in the House, where incumbents were dragged down by Barry Goldwater being at the top of the ticket. Republicans on the Eastern seaboard in particular took a drubbing, although it was the case in many states that those who usually voted Republican found themselves voting for Democrat LBJ, seeing Goldwater as too extreme and brash. This would be the last time Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming voted for the Democratic candidate for president. This would be the first time Georgia ever voted for the Republican candidate, a jarring result given that Kennedy had his second strongest performance (his best was Rhode Island). Others were turned off by his stances on civil rights.

I’m going to list each of the states in which Democrats gained in the House or Senate, and their presidential votes in 1960 and 1964.

California
1960: Nixon +0.55
1964: Johnson +18.32
Colorado
1960: Nixon +9.72
1964: Johnson +23.07
Connecticut
1960: Kennedy +7.46
1964: Johnson +35.72
Illinois
1960: Kennedy +0.18
1964: Johnson +18.94
Indiana
1960: Nixon +10.43
1964: Johnson +12.42
Iowa
1960: Nixon +13.49
1964: Johnson +23.97
Kentucky
1960: Nixon +7.18
1964: Johnson +28.36
Maine
1960: Nixon +14.10
1964: Johnson +37.68
Maryland
1960: Kennedy +7.22
1964: Johnson +30.94
Michigan
1960: Kennedy +2.01
1964: Johnson +33.61
Nebraska
1960: Nixon +24.14
1964: Johnson +5.22
New Hampshire
1960: Nixon +6.84
1964: Johnson +27.78
New Jersey
1960: Kennedy +0.8
1964: Johnson +31.75
New Mexico
1960: Kennedy +0.64
1964: Johnson +31.75
New York
1960: Kennedy +5.26
1964: Johnson +37.25
North Dakota
1960: Nixon +9.9
1964: Johnson +16.09
Ohio
1960: Nixon + 6.56
1964: Johnson +25.89
Pennsylvania
1960: Kennedy +2.32
1964: Johnson +30.22
Texas
1960: Kennedy +2
1964: Johnson +26.82
Utah:
1960: Nixon +9.64
1964: Johnson +9.73
Washington
1960: Nixon +2.41
1964: Johnson +24.59
Wisconsin
1960: Nixon +3.72
1964: Johnson +24.35
Wyoming
1960: Nixon +10.02
1964: Johnson +13.12

States in which Republicans gained in their presidential votes in 1960 and 1964:

Alabama
1960: Kennedy +14.23
1964: Goldwater +38.90
Georgia
1960: Kennedy +25.11
1964: Goldwater +8.25
Idaho
1960: Nixon +7.56
1964: Johnson +1.83
Mississippi
1960: Byrd (unofficial Independent candidate) +2.65
1964: Goldwater +74.28
South Carolina:
1960: Kennedy +2.48
1964: Goldwater +17.79

The Democratic Wins

California
First-term Republican Representative Patrick Martin was defeated by Democrat John Tunney, future senator and son of boxer Gene Tunney. Martin had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Colorado

Republicans Donald Brotzman and J. Edgar Chenoweth lose reelection to Democrats Roy McVicker and Frank Evans respectively. Brotzman would win back his seat in 1966.

Connecticut

Republican Abner Sibal loses reelection to former Democratic Congressman Donald Irwin.

Illinois

Republican Robert McLoskey, who voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, went down to defeat to Democrat Gale Schisler.

Indiana

Republican Earl Wilson went down to defeat to Democrat Lee Hamilton, who would have a long career in Congress. He had voted for the House version of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only to turn around and vote against the final version. Republican Donald Bruce would make an unsuccessful run for the Senate and his district would be won by Democrat Andy Jacobs Jr.

Iowa

Congressmen Fred Schwengel, James Bromwell, John Kyl, and Ben Jensen lost reelection. Republican Charles Hoeven retired and his seat was won by a Democrat. With the exception of Jensen, all had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. H.R. Gross was the only survivor among the Republicans. Representatives Fred Schwengel and John Kyl would win back their seats in the 1966 midterms, and Iowa’s 6th and 7th districts would be won back by Republicans in that election as well.

Kentucky

Down went hardcore conservative Gene Snyder of Louisville to Democrat Charles Farnsley. Snyder had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he would return in the more Republican 4th district in the 1966 midterms and Louisville would elect the more moderate Republican William Cowger that year.

Maine

Republican Clifford McIntire of Maine retired to run for the Senate against Ed Muskie, and the seat was won in a landslide by future Democratic Senator William Hathaway.

Maryland

Republican Senator J. Glenn Beall lost reelection to Democrat Joseph Tydings by a whopping 25 points. Beall had won a tough reelection in 1958, another bad year for Republicans.

Michigan

George Meader, August Johansen, and Victor Knox lost reelection to Democrats Weston Vivian, Paul Todd, and Raymond Clevenger respectively. All three had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. All of their seats would be won back by more moderate Republicans who supported civil rights legislation in the 1966 midterms.

Nebraska

Ralph Beermann of the 1st district, the state’s most conservative elected official who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and did no wrong by Americans for Constitutional Action and no right by Americans for Democratic Action, went down to defeat to Democrat Clair Callan. Incidentally, this would be the last time a Democrat won the state’s 1st district.

New Hampshire

Democrat J. Oliva Huot defeated Republican Louis Wyman for reelection. Wyman had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he would be returned to office in the 1966 midterms.

New Jersey

The 1964 election was frankly quite bad for Republicans in New Jersey, as LBJ won all the state’s counties and almost 2/3’s of the vote. By contrast, JFK had won the state by less than a point in 1960.
Republicans Milton Glenn and Frank Osmers went down to defeat to Democrat Thomas McGrath and Henry Helstoski respectively while retiring James Auchincloss and George Wallhauser were replaced by Democrats James Howard and Paul Krebs. All of them had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Glenn’s seat would be won back in the 1966 midterms and Wallhauser’s seat would be integrated into another Republican’s district.

New Mexico

Senator Ed Mechem, who had appointed himself after losing reelection as governor in 1962 to replace the late Dennis Chavez, was defeated for reelection by nearly ten points by Democratic Congressman Joseph Montoya.

New York

This election was exceptionally bad for Republicans in New York, with Republican Senator Kenneth Keating losing reelection to Democrat Robert F. Kennedy by 10 points. Representatives Steven Derounian, Robert Barry, J. Ernest Wharton, Katharine St. George, R. Walter Riehlman, and John Pillion were defeated by Democrats Lester Wolff, Richard Ottinger, John Dow, Joseph Resnick, James Hanley, and Richard McCarthy respectively. Retiring Republican Frank Becker was succeeded by Democrat Herbert Tenzer. Republicans would win back none of these seats in the 1966 midterms.

North Dakota

The state’s staunch conservative Don Short was defeated by Democrat Rolland Redlin. Short had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His seat would be won back in the 1966 midterms.

Ohio

Republican Representatives Carl Rich, Paul Schenck, and Pete Abele went down to defeat to Democrats John Gilligan (future governor), Rodney Love, and Walter Moeller. Oliver Bolton of the 11th district also went down to defeat when he ran for reelection in the state’s At-Large district to Democrat Robert Sweeney. All had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and all seats would be won back by Republicans in 1966 save the At-Large, which was eliminated.

Pennsylvania

Republicans George Goodling and James Weaver lost reelection to Democrats Nathaniel Craley and Joseph Vigorito. Both had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Goodling would win back his seat in the 1966 midterms.

South Carolina (Sort of)

After winning reelection, Democrat Albert W. Watson switches to the Republican Party, and Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond switched to Republican before the 1964 election.

Texas

Down went both of state’s House Republicans, Bruce Alger and Ed Foreman, to Democrats Earle Cabell and Richard White. Both both had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although Foreman’s district was normally Democratic, Alger’s was quite the gain as he represented Dallas and had been notoriously anti-Kennedy, as the city had been. This was a bad look post-assassination, even though Lee Harvey Oswald’s politics were the opposite of Alger’s, and he lost by 15 points. He had won reelection by over 12 points in 1962.

Utah

Republican Sherman Lloyd vacated his seat in the 2nd district to run for the Senate, with Democrat David King winning the seat.

Washington

The Democrats did quite well in Washington, and this election was quite arguably the point the state became long-term favorable to them. Of the six Republican representatives, Jack Westland, Walt Horan, Thor Tollefson, and K. William Stinson lost reelection to Democrats Lloyd Meeds, Tom Foley (future speaker), Floyd Hicks, and Brock Adams respectively in a state that had voted for Nixon in 1960. All had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Republicans would win back none of these seats in the 1966 midterms and the state would go on to vote for Humphrey over Nixon in 1968. On a personal note, the 1964 election ousted the last Republican to represent the county of my current residence (Jefferson), Jack Westland.

Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, Democrats Lynn Stalbaum and Abner Race defeated Republicans Henry Schadeberg and William Van Pelt respectively. The former had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 while the latter had voted against. Schadeberg would win back his seat in 1966 and the more moderate William Steiger would win back Van Pelt’s seat that year.

Wyoming

In Wyoming, Republican William Henry Harrison, who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, lost reelection to Democrat Teno Roncalio, but he would win his seat back in the 1966 midterms.

Republican Gains

Alabama

The most impressive showing Republicans had was in Alabama. The state’s delegation went from 8-0 Democrat to 5-3 Republican; the last time the state had elected a Republican to Congress was in 1898. Republican Jack Edwards gained a newly created district based in Mobile, Democrat George Grant was defeated by Republican Bill Dickinson, Democrat Kenneth Roberts fell to Republican Glenn Andrews, George Huddleston Jr. of Birmingham was defeated by Republican John H. Buchanan Jr., and Republican James Martin won the district held by Democrat Carl Elliott. Republicans Edwards, Dickinson, and Buchanan would be reelected in 1966, while Andrews would be defeated for reelection and Martin would run for governor.

California

Democratic Senator Pierre Salinger, who was appointed after the death of Clair Engle, would lose a bid for a full term to Republican actor, singer, and dancer George Murphy.

Republican Edwin Reinecke won the vacant 27th district, a typically Republican district. Its retiring incumbent, Democrat Everett G. Burkhalter, had defeated John Bircher incumbent Edgar Hiestand in 1962.

Georgia

Republican Bo Callaway won in the 3rd district, which had been held by retiring Democrat Tic Forrester.

Idaho

Republican George Hansen defeated Democrat Ralph Harding for reelection in the 2nd district. The district, based in the south of the state, had voted for Goldwater.

Mississippi

Republican Prentiss Walker defeated Democrat W. Arthur Winstead for reelection. Walker seems to have ridden the coattails of Barry Goldwater, who got the state’s overwhelming vote for his stance on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as opposed to President Johnson. No issue mattered more for Mississippi voters that year, and other Democrats in the state delegation may have only been spared by the fact that no Republican had bothered to challenge them. Walker’s election would be a bit of a false start for the Republicans in the state, as he would run for the Senate in 1966 and lose, and the seat would go back to the Democrats.

Overall

Although 1964 was a landslide for LBJ it was in truth a considerably less devastating election for Republicans than the 1958 midterms, as the Senate swing was only slightly to the Democrats and Republicans more than won back their losses in the House in the 1966 midterms.

When Carey Estes Kefauver (1903-1963) was elected to Congress from Tennessee’s 3rd district to succeed the late Sam McReynolds in 1939, the state was firmly in the grip of Boss Crump of Memphis. Kefauver was a populist and a foe of bossism. Although some Tennessee Democrats, even those with prior progressive records like Crump’s partner Senator Kenneth McKellar, were pushing back against some elements of the New Deal, Kefauver was sticking with it. He distinguished himself early by voting to ban the poll tax in 1942 and 1943, being among the first Tennessee Democrats to ever vote for civil rights legislation. Kefauver was also an opponent of a number of anti-communist domestic measures, including funding for the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1943, the permanent establishment of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1945, and a measure requiring loyalty investigations for all federal employees in 1947.

In 1948, the young representative felt he was ready to move up to the Senate but he was against a powerhouse in Boss Edward Hull Crump, who detested him and backed a challenger to incumbent Senator Tom Stewart over his handling over TVA matters in a little known judge named John A. Mitchell. However, Congressman Kefauver decided to tour the state and would often wear a coonskin cap on the campaign trail. Although not a good public speaker, he was second to none talking to individual voters and had a fanbase who would show up to his events. During this campaign, Crump made a fatal error for his candidate that would contribute to the iconic image of Kefauver. He posted an ad with the headline “Estes Kefauver Assumes the Role Of a Pet Coon”, and it charged Kefauver with being easy on communism and possibly even a fellow-traveler, with a comparison between his votes in the House and those of pro-communist Vito Marcantonio of New York. Kefauver responded that he may be a “coon, but not Boss Crump’s pet coon” (Hill). This approach was a winner! Kefauver’s victory in 1948 marked the beginning of the end of Crump’s statewide control, with his influence becoming completely limited to Memphis after his ally Kenneth McKellar’s defeat for renomination in 1952. Kefauver faced off against former Congressman B. Carroll Reece in the general election, and although the Republicans ran a serious campaign, Tennessee was statewide still a solidly Democratic state and he won commandingly.

Kefauver’s Senate Career: Starting with a Bang

Kefauver quickly made a splash in the Senate, and in 1950 he sponsored the Celler-Kefauver Anti-Trust Amendments, which strengthened the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 by prohibiting a company from purchasing assets from a competing firm. He also was one of the few senators, and one of only two from the South, to vote to sustain President Truman’s veto of the Internal Security Act. That year, Kefauver moved to create the Kefauver Organized Crime Committee.

Kefauver vs. Organized Crime and Runs for President

These hearings were televised throughout 1950 and 1951 and made the public aware of organized crime, with 20-30 million viewers for the first time seeing prominent mobsters testify. Kefauver took a no holds barred approach to this investigation, uncovering whatever could be uncovered regardless of political consequence. This had the effect of making numerous politicians uncomfortable, including ones from his own party. Former New York City Mayor William O’Dwyer was revealed to have connections with organized crime, Florida’s Democratic Governor Fuller Warren was revealed to have extensive ties with illicit gambling syndicates which ended his political career, and former Republican Governor Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey made an appearance before the committee. Hoffman would admit in a written confession in an envelope opened after his death four years later to having embezzled over $300,000 as governor (Blackwell). Kefauver also publicized before 1950 Election Day a Chicago police corruption scandal, which along with the generally conservative and anti-communist mood of the electorate contributed to Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas’s (D-Ill.) narrow reelection loss to former Republican Congressman Everett Dirksen. Although popular among the public, such moves, combined with his sanctimonious tone, made him unpopular with other politicians.

These hearings elevated Kefauver on the public scene and there was talk of him running for president. In 1952, he made a solid bid for the nomination, winning most of the primaries. However, the Democratic party bosses managed to use their influence to prevent him from getting the majority of delegates at the Democratic National Convention, and the nomination went to Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II. Kefauver tried again in 1956 and even had a televised debate with Stevenson in Miami, but this time Stevenson won more primary votes, although he would get the nomination for vice president. While the Southern Democrats were getting more conservative, he was staying staunchly liberal, giving him appeal among Democrats across the country.


Personal Life

Although Kefauver was a strong advocate for ethics in politics, he personally had his issues. A married man, he was both a heavy drinker and a womanizer, and an FBI source reported that he “made love in plain view” with his date at a party at the Mayflower Hotel, and then swapped dates with JFK (Cox). Kefauver didn’t sleep around in Tennessee, but in Washington and abroad, he was libertine, once escorting a famous call girl to a society ball while touring Europe. On one occasion, New York Times columnist Russell Baker overheard him say to an aide, “I gotta fuck!” (Russo, 120) His ravenous appetite was well known among the Washington insiders. William “Fishbait” Miller, the House’s longtime doorkeeper, once called him the “worst womanizer in the Senate” and this assessment was shared by Chicago Sun-Times newspaper columnist Irv Kupcinet, who added, “Whenever he came to town…he let the word out: ‘Get me a woman!’ He would have put Gary Hart to shame” (Russo, 120). Bear in mind, Kefauver served for years with stiff competition in LBJ and JFK in the Senate.

Kefauver and Civil Rights

Although without question Kefauver was one of the most pro-civil rights Southerners in the Senate, he had difficulty with the idea of racial integration and was in favor of cross-examination of black complainants in voting rights cases. Kefauver also voted against ending debate on the Fair Employment Practices Committee in 1950 as well as in favor of weakening army desegregation. He displeased his Southern colleagues by being one of three Southern senators to not sign the segregationist Southern Manifesto (the other two were LBJ and Al Gore Sr.). Although Kefauver voted for both key weakening amendments (strike 14th Amendment implementation and jury trial amendment) to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, he voted for the final bill. He also voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

The Comic Book and Switchblade Crusade

Kefauver’s campaign for public morals extended beyond organized crime and he aimed to tackle juvenile delinquency as well. In 1954, he was on the special Senate committee holding hearings on the allegedly corrupting influence of comic books, especially “horror comics” which could have gruesome covers and images. Its chairman, Senator Robert Hendrickson (R-N.J.), called them “the fifth horseman of doom” (Gonzalez). Among the people who testified was William Gaines, who would found MAD Magazine. Although the committee ruled out government censorship, they called upon the comic book industry to self-regulate, which they did with the Comics Code, which remained a substantial force in the industry into the 2000s.

In 1957, Kefauver, based on sensationalized newspaper reporting of threatening young hoodlums in leather jackets with switchblade knives, pushed for a federal ban on interstate sales and possession of them. He would categorize all sorts of knives under the umbrella term of “switchblade knives”, a bit of a precursor to the employment of the term “assault weapons” for numerous types of guns by gun control proponents. His legislation, however, was roundly rejected by his colleagues.

Final Term

In 1960, Kefauver decided instead of running for president again that he would run for a third term and won by a 2-1 margin – despite Richard Nixon’s 7-point victory over JFK in Tennessee, the Republican Party was still years away from its rise on a state level. Kefauver, like his colleague Al Gore Sr., proved a strong supporter of JFK’s New Frontier programs. He also had one last legislative accomplishment to achieve.

In the wake of the thalidomide catastrophe that mostly occurred abroad, Sen. Kefauver pushed for a new drug law, which became the Kefauver-Harris Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1962. This required drug manufacturers to prove efficacy and safety of their products before they could be approved by the FDA.

On August 8, 1963, Kefauver suffered what was diagnosed as a “mild” heart attack on the Senate floor and was taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital. However, there was something far more serious underlying and he needed surgery. However, dramatically underestimating the essence of time for this procedure, Kefauver put it off so he could see his wife and daughters before the operation – he suffered a ruptured aortic aneurysm and died before they could arrive, two days after his heart attack. Given his playboy lifestyle combined with heavy drinking, his demise at 60 certainly adds up. His adjusted average Americans for Democratic Action score, which tracks his career from 1947 and also counts his votes for part of 1963, is an 89%. His DW-Nominate score is a -0.429, which by that standard makes him more liberal than JFK, LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.

References

Blackwell, J. 1954: The governor was a thief. The Trentonian.

Retrieved from

https://www.capitalcentury.com/1954.html

Brown, T. (2017, October 8). Carey Estes Kefauver. Tennessee Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/carey-estes-kefauver/

Cox, A.M. (2010, May 23). Doing It for the People: The 25 Greatest Philanderers in American Political History. GQ.

Retrieved from

https://www.gq.com/gallery/the-twenty-five-greatest-philanderers-in-american-political-history

Gonzalez, J. (2022, October 26). The Senate Comic Book Hearings of 1954. Library of Congress.

Retrieved from

https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2022/10/the-senate-comic-book-hearings-of-1954/

Hill, R. The Greatest Campaigner Of Them All. The Knoxville Focus.

Retrieved from

https://www.knoxfocus.com/archives/the-greatest-campaigner-of-them-all-senator-estes-kefauver-part-five/

Russo, G. (2008). Supermob: how Sidney Korshak and his criminal associates became America’s hidden power brokers. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Retrieved from

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Supermob/YalWxsoWEIkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Estes+Kefauver+womanizer&pg=PA120&printsec=frontcover

Sherrill, R. (1971, November 7). A decent man, but not a big one. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/07/archives/kefauver-a-political-biography-by-joseph-bruce-gorman-illustrated.html

Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. U.S. Senate.

Retrieved from

https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/kefauver.htm

In a recent post, I covered an Illinois Republican who dramatically departed from conservative orthodoxy. Today’s post is about a figure who could be said to have been a trailblazer for Reagan conservatism: Philip Miller Crane (1930-2014) of Illinois.

The son of newspaper columnist Dr. George W. Crane, who wrote the advice column “The Worry Clinic”, Crane carried his father’s conservative beliefs with him and was a Republican not only by ideology but by family legacy. Crane recounted, “My dad made sure that we shook hands with him [his great-grandfather], because he shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. In 1858, he went over to Danville in a covered wagon and sat in Lincoln’s lap. And Lincoln patted him on the head and shook his hand and said, ‘You know, you’re a fine young Republican, boy, and you stick with it.’ So we were knee-jerk Republicans because of that inheritance” (Loerzel). Dr. Crane would bring Phil to campaign for Republicans from a young age, including Alf Landon in 1936. Dr. Crane “felt Roosevelt had destroyed the republic”, and Phil himself condemned FDR for bringing “people to the nonsense belief that somehow you can get something for nothing out of Washington” (Loerzel). Crane served in the army from 1954 to 1956 and in 1961, he earned a PhD in history and subsequently became a professor at Bradley University, where he set up University Professors for Barry Goldwater. In 1964, he worked on the Goldwater campaign conducting research and published “The Democrat’s Dilemma” alleging heavy socialist influence on the Democratic Party. Crane was from that point forward active in the conservative movement, and recounted attacks against Goldwater supporters from other professors, “They charged that anyone supporting Goldwater was an incipient fascist, racist, anti-Semite. I didn’t mind the slings and arrows…I just redoubled my efforts” (Loerzel).

Crane to Congress

In 1969, Congressman Donald Rumsfeld resigned from his seat in the Chicago suburbs to head the Office of Economic Opportunity. Crane ran for the seat on a platform of never voting to raise taxes, and although he was not favored by the party establishment, he won. State Representative Bernie Pedersen said of him in 1992, “He’s a brilliant guy. He had a lot of appeal personally. He’s very articulate. In the beginning, if you asked him a question, he’d give you a 15-minute answer, like he was still a professor” (Loerzel). In Congress, he quickly established himself as an energetic advocate of conservative causes on numerous fronts. Crane was one of the founders of and served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee from 1973 to 1989, which was created to push the GOP leadership in a more conservative direction. He also helped found the Heritage Foundation in 1973 and hosted the show Conservative Viewpoint. From 1977 to 1979, he chaired the American Conservative Union, and he was quite ideologically fit to do so; In most of his years in Congress Crane received 100% scores from the organization. Indeed, his lifetime score would be a 99%. On May 26, 1972, he was one of only seven representatives to vote against authorizing the President to approve of the interim SALT Treaty with the USSR. Crane only once voted for a foreign aid bill: in 1974 the International Development Association bill included his amendment legalizing private ownership of gold, which took effect on December 31, 1974. That year, he successfully pushed for the only public and filmed audit of the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, in which 12 members of Congress and 100 journalists participated on September 19th (Ganz). He was also involved in the successful effort to re-legalize gold clauses in contracts in 1977. Although his constituents repeatedly reelected him, Crane had critics in his district. His Democratic opponent in 1992, Sheila Smith, held that “Phil lives in an ivory tower. He entered it when he was teaching in the 1950s, and he never came out. (But) the real world doesn’t work that way” (Loerzel).

Although Crane had voted for the Equal Rights Amendment in 1971, he turned against it after Roe v. Wade and with the rise of the Stop ERA movement. Indeed, he was a staunch opponent of abortion throughout his career. During the Carter Administration, Crane was one of the leading figures against the Panama Canal treaties and the proposed SALT II Treaty. In 1978, his brother, Daniel, joined him in Congress. Dan Crane would vote almost identically to Phil, however he would lose reelection in 1984 due to him having an affair with a 17-year-old female page.

Running for President

In 1976, Crane endorsed Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Gerald Ford and chaired Illinois Citizens for Reagan. However, this didn’t stop this rising Republican star from announcing a presidential run in 1979. Unfortunately for Crane, he had made a powerful enemy who was supporting Ronald Reagan: William Loeb. Loeb’s newspaper, the Manchester Union-Leader, began publishing numerous anonymous accusations about Crane’s personal life and these dogged his already underdog campaign (Loerzel). Crane would endorse Reagan after dropping out. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) would tell in a tribute to Crane in 2004 why he ran, “I will never forget the evening sitting on the House floor when Congressman Crane told me the story of that night. He said, “We all just figured that one day Governor Reagan would look at Nancy and say, ‘I think, Mommy, we should just go and retire to the ranch.’ Ronald Reagan and history had different intentions, but as he has always been throughout his career, Phil Crane was ready to stand in the gap,” Pence said. “And when Ronald Reagan made his candidacy a reality, Phil Crane stayed in the race to honor his delegates from Illinois who had supported their favorite son, but he was one of the strongest supporters of President Reagan in 1980, enabling and assisting in his election and also being one of the great champions of the Reagan revolution from the minority here on Capitol Hill” (Sweet).

Subsequent Time in Congress

After the 1980 election, Crane, although as rigidly conservative as ever and his views becoming more in vogue, he was becoming eclipsed by other conservative advocates, such as Newt Gingrich. This was noted in the 1992 edition of “The Almanac of American Politics”, “There is an anomaly to his career. At the same time as his beliefs — in free-market economics, in a strong national defense, in traditional American ideals have been sweeping the country and the world, his own influence has been woefully meager and he continues to languish mostly unnoticed, despite 20-plus years of seniority, on back benches” (Loerzel). He remained a fighter for conservatism and if there was conservative opposition to be had to legislation, even if only a small group was opposing, he could usually be found among that minority. Although Crane had voted for the Balanced Budget Amendment in 1982 as well as repeated budget reduction proposals, he voted against the Gramm-Hollings-Rudman Balanced Budget Act in 1985. In some instances, he proved relevant, such as winning a repeal on the ban on chewing gum with the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement in 2003.

Personal Issues

In 1982, Crane was arrested for drunk driving in California but was found not guilty in June 1983. By the 1990s, his drinking had been on an upswing, which he attributed to the death of his 17-year-old daughter from cancer and his quitting of smoking cold turkey after 50 years (Sweet). In 2000, he admitted to being an alcoholic, drinking up to ten beers in a night, and successfully sought treatment. Although being senior to California’s Bill Thomas, he was passed over for the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, instead getting the vice chairmanship.

The End of the Road

In 2002, Crane faced a surprisingly strong challenge from Democrat Melissa Bean, who ran on him being out of touch with his constituents. Indeed, he had no public email address and numerous Republican voters said that they hadn’t seen him in decades. Although Crane won reelection, Bean had gotten 43% of the vote. In 2004, she tried again, and although President Bush carried the district by 12 points that year, Bean defeated him by about four points. The district, which has since been redistricted to favor Democrats considerably, has remained represented by Democrats for all except Joe Walsh’s term from 2011 to 2013. Crane died of lung cancer on November 8, 2014.

Overall

Crane was one of those conservatives who was instrumental in building up the conservative organizations that helped bring about the rise of conservatism in the United States. This, plus his stalwart record, his restoring the legality of gold ownership, and length of service, have earned him a place among the great conservatives of American history. Crane incidentally also scores a 99% on the MC-Index.

P.S.: My father has told me that my grandmother, who lived for some time in Crane’s district, had quite an argument with him. The subject of the argument is unknown to me.

References

Ganz, D.L. (2014, November 20). Right to own gold due to Phil Crane. Numismatic News.

Retrieved from

https://www.numismaticnews.net/archive/right-to-own-gold-due-to-phil-crane

Loerzel, R. (1992, September 17). A profile of conservative Congressman Philip Crane. Pioneer Press.

Retrieved from

https://www.robertloerzel.com/1992/09/17/a-profile-of-conservative-congressman-philip-crane/

Skiba, K. (2014, November 9). Longtime congressman Philip Crane dies at 84. Chicago Tribune.

Retrieved from

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-philip-crane-obit-met-20141109-story.html

Sweet, L. (2014, November 9). Rep. Phil Crane was a pioneer in spreading conservative gospel. Chicago Sun Times.

Retrieved from

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2014/11/9/18473113/rep-phil-crane-was-a-pioneer-in-spreading-conservative-gospel

Tarm, M. (2014, November 9). Former Illinois congressman Phil Crane dies at 84. Associated Press.

Retrieved from

https://apnews.com/article/3a329df5e47d4b45b1c03fac18c7b96c

The 88th Congress was the product of a midterm that was about as good as President Kennedy could have had. The Democrats lost only a single seat in the House and the Republicans lost three in the Senate. During this Congress, the tragedy that was the JFK assassination occurred. However, perhaps motivated to cooperate with the new administration, they passed a lot of significant measures, including mass transportation legislation, food stamp legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. However, liberals did face some setbacks, with a vote on extending the Area Redevelopment Act failing, the foreign aid bill being recommitted for further cuts, and an additional appropriation for the International Development Association being recommitted before a second version successfully passed. Notably, this was also the Congress that passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1963 100%

Clausen, R-Calif.

Talcott, R-Calif.

Smith, R-Calif.

Clawson, R-Calif.

Haley, D-Fla.

Gurney, R-Fla.

Collier, R-Ill.

McClory, R-Ill.

Rumsfeld, R-Ill.

Hoffman, R-Ill.

Reid, R-Ill.

Anderson, R-Ill.

Michel, R-Ill.

McLoskey, R-Ill.

Findley, R-Ill.

Bruce, R-Ind.

Gross, R-Iowa

Hoeven, R-Iowa

Jensen, R-Iowa

Dole, R-Kan.

Snyder, R-Ky.

Johansen, R-Mich.

Hutchinson, R-Mich.

Curtis, R-Mo.

Hall, R-Mo.

Beermann, R-Neb.

Cunningham, R-Neb.

Martin, R-Neb.

St. George, R-N.Y.

Andrews, R-N.D.

Short, R-N.D.

Clancy, R-Ohio

Betts, R-Ohio

Abele, R-Ohio

Devine, R-Ohio

Ashbrook, R-Ohio

Minshall, R-Ohio

Belcher, R-Okla.

Dague, R-Penn.

Goodling, R-Penn.

Johnson, R-Penn.

Berry, R-S.D.

Alger, R-Tex.

Foreman, R-Tex.

Stinson, R-Wash.

Schadeberg, R-Wis.

1964 100%:

Utt, R-Calif.

Martin, R-Calif.

Gurney, R-Fla.

Reid, R-Ill.

Wilson, R-Ind.

Gross, R-Iowa

Jensen, R-Iowa

Johansen, R-Mich.

Hall, R-Mo.

Beermann, R-Neb.

Baring, D-Nev.

Short, R-N.D.

Ashbrook, R-Ohio

Berry, R-S.D.

Quillen, R-Tenn.

Alger, R-Tex.

Foreman, R-Tex.

Poff, R-Va.

1963 Americans for Constitutional Action Index, House:

1964 Americans for Constitutional Action Index, House:

I get the sense from reporting on the subject that 2023’s new party, No Labels, is for people who both want a break from Trump and the social justice obsessives and are roughly center to center right in orientation. Liberals and that parade of has-been Biden sycophants known as The Lincoln Project are alarmed by this development and they should be. Third parties tend to be detrimental to the party holding the White House, although the 1948 election was arguably an exception, as the perception of Truman’s distance from the nationally unpopular pro-Soviet Progressive Party and the segregationist State’s Rights (Dixiecrat) Party may have won him votes that would have otherwise gone to Dewey. This exception certainly did not apply to the 1980 election, and a contributing factor to Carter’s loss was a “tell it as it is” style independent candidate in Congressman John B. Anderson (1922-2017) of Illinois.

Anderson in 1965.

When Anderson was first elected to Congress in 1960 from a staunchly conservative rural Illinois district, succeeding longtime conservative Leo Allen, there was little thought that his record would be any different. And indeed, for a time, it wasn’t and if anything, more conservative. From 1961 to 1964, Americans for Democratic Action counted only one selected vote of his favorably: the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the 87th Congress (1961-1962) Anderson only disagreed with John Birchers John Rousselot and Edgar Hiestand of California on one issue on Americans for Constitutional Action’s 23 selected votes. Indeed, they wrote on him, “He stands firm against the liberal pressures of Washington, the wild spending schemes, and the permissive society offered by the proponents of the Great Society” (Mason, 14). Anderson stood as an intellectual and articulate voice for conservatism in the 1960s, and if we were to look only at his record during the Kennedy and Johnson years, he stands as an easy candidate for a great conservative from American history. Indeed, his record was so impressive to the Republican leadership at the time that they made him number #3 in party leadership in the House as chairman of the House Republican Conference in 1969, the post that Elise Stefanik now occupies and figures such as Gerald Ford, Mike Pence, and Dick Cheney occupied in the past. However, by this point Anderson was already starting to turn away from conservatism.

A Turn to the Left

The classic story is that people who run for Congress pledging to change Washington become more changed by Washington than they change it. This was certainly the case for Anderson. In 1968, he flipped on a highly controversial issue: open housing. As former Congressman Don Manzullo recalls, “He was on the Rules Committee and under a lot of pressure to vote against bringing open housing to the House floor. But he was very touched by the plight of black Americans facing discrimination. At one point, he read a letter from a black husband and wife in Rockford who were teachers and had answered more than 100 advertisements for an apartment. They were turned away from all. That really moved him” (Gizzi). In 1966, Anderson had voted against that year’s civil rights bill over the open housing provisions, regarding it as a homeowner’s right to sell to who they want to sell to, whether their criterion was racially discriminatory or not. However, on April 9, 1968, only five days after MLK’s assassination, he cast the deciding vote for the bill to leave the Rules Committee and move to the floor and from that point forward his record would be consistently in support of civil rights measures. Anderson would repeatedly vote for busing and in 1978 he voted against curbing racial quotas. He also in 1968 voted for the Housing and Urban Development Act, providing extensive housing aid to low-income families along with other provisions. His turn to the left on social issues was also pronounced, as in 1971 he voted against the Wylie School Prayer Amendment; Anderson had previously sponsored multiple amendments for school prayer. Anderson proved supportive of environmental legislation as well, supporting environmental protection of Alaska lands and opposing compliance deadline for vehicle emission standards to 1977 in 1973, voting for a comprehensive land use bill in 1974, and voting to override President Ford’s veto of a strip-mining control bill in 1975. He did, however, regard the Reuss (D-Wis.) proposal in 1972 to require firms to have the latest water pollution control technology by 1980 to be excessive. By contrast, in 1961 Anderson had voted for the Cramer (R-Fla.) proposal to cut grants for water pollution facilities and in 1963 he had voted against the Clean Air Act.

Anderson also went liberal on foreign policy, opposing importing Rhodesian chrome, easing up on opposition to Export-Import Bank loans for communist nations in 1971 (he had voted multiple times against Ex-Im Bank funding for grain purchases for communist nations in 1963), and voted supportively of the Panama Canal treaties in 1976. As opposed to his early-mid 1960s record, he also voted for foreign aid measures. What’s more, he proved supportive of the creation of the Legal Services Corporation and supported a version of a proposed Consumer Protection Agency. To add to the laundry list of key issues Anderson backed that elicited hearty conservative complaints was his votes for New York City bailouts in 1975 and 1978. He bears a good deal of similarity to his Illinois colleague also elected in 1960, Paul Findley, but Anderson’s change was more dramatic.

His 1978 primary opponent, Rev. Don Lyon, came to believe that Anderson’s change was “Like a lot of ambitious Republicans, he wanted The Washington Post and The New York Times to like him. And, he wanted the money of the Rockefellers behind him. So he moved liberal” (Gizzi).

Where Anderson Kept Conservatism

Anderson hadn’t gone full to the left, of course, he voted to sustain many of President Nixon’s spending vetoes and remained a bit wary of anti-poverty and food stamp expenditures; in 1974 he proposed an amendment prohibiting food stamps for college students who were claimed as dependents by their parents. However, Anderson did vote for Nixon’s Family Assistance Plan in 1970. He supported Nixon on the subject of impoundments, a practice his critics regarded as being abused for political reasons and after Watergate Congress passed a severe curb on impoundments. Anderson also backed his 1973 veto a bill increasing the minimum wage and proved an opponent of price controls on oil, voting against the Emergency Energy Act in 1974 and voting for deregulation proposals in 1975 and 1977.

Increasing Dissatisfaction with the GOP

One source of constant support for Anderson despite his turns was the affable Gerald Ford, both as minority leader and as president, but Ford’s loss in 1976 to Carter took him out of the picture. By this point, conservatives were moving forward on primarying moderates and liberals, and they would prove successful in ousting Senators Clifford Case of New Jersey and Jacob Javits of New York in 1978 and 1980 respectively. Although Anderson bested his conservative primary challenger in 1978 by almost 10,000 votes, he was feeling done with Congress.

Anderson for President

Anderson in 1980

Anderson was getting a rather tired of the House and he had in 1979 been moved out of leadership in favor of arch-conservative Samuel Devine of Ohio. He resolved to either win the Republican nomination for president or be out of political office after 1980.

Anderson was often the odd man out in the Republican primary, bucking numerous conservative shibboleths in the primary debates. He supported raising the gas tax and supported the licensing of firearms (Neuman). Anderson also opposed lowering income taxes and supported the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which at this point had become associated with abortion. And yes, Anderson did support government funding of abortions. However, Anderson, like other Republicans, focused against inflation. He hit both Carter and Reagan, for the former calling him a “mean and evasive” campaigner who was using recession to fight inflation, and he regarded Reagan as a dispenser of “slick and simplistic” campaign one-liners (Neuman). Anderson presented an alternative for the Republican Party’s weakening liberal wing. As the Washington Post noted at the time, “Anderson has built his success so far around what he calls “the Anderson Difference” — a willingness to take firm, sharp stands on such controversial questions as gasoline taxes and gun control (which he favors) and the MX missile system (which he opposes). Paradoxically, his position on the economy is not as distinct, because it consists of a complex mixture of orthodox Republican conservatism and liberal activism” (The Washington Post). After losing the primary, Anderson couldn’t back Reagan, but he wasn’t giving up yet.

Instead of backing Reagan, he runs as an Independent, focusing on his liberal positions to bleed support from Carter. However, he is no match in a debate with him. Anderson also selects a rather odd choice for running mate in Wisconsin’s former Democratic Governor Patrick Lucey. Ultimately, the Anderson-Lucey ticket only nets 6.6% of the popular vote in the general election. His ticket, does, however, have an interesting impact. It puts Reagan over the top in some states that he may not otherwise have won. In the following states Reagan’s margin of victory was less than the Anderson vote:

Arkansas

Connecticut

Delaware

Maine

Massachusetts (Reagan barely won the state while Anderson got 15% of the vote)

Michigan

Mississippi

New York

North Carolina

South Carolina

Tennessee

Vermont (Reagan won by six but Anderson got 15% of the vote)

Anderson would later sue the state of Ohio for their early filing deadline for independent candidates, and the statute was struck down by the Supreme Court in Anderson v. Celebrezze (1983) as unconstitutional. His foremost regret in Congress was his vote for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964.

By 1984, Anderson had left the Republican Party and endorsed Democratic nominee Walter Mondale. He remained a political independent albeit a left-leaning one: in 2000, he endorsed Ralph Nader and in 2008 he supported Barack Obama for president. In 2012, Anderson played a minor role in the creation of the left-wing Justice Party, which ran former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson for president. In 1992, he had founded Citizens for Proportional Representation, which has since changed its name to FairVote. This organization calls for instant run-off voting and proportional representation as well as universal voter registration. Anderson also voiced opposition to the Tea Party movement in 2010, stating, “I break out in a cold sweat at the thought that any of those people might prevail” (Clymer). Anderson died on December 3, 2017.

Just as a note of curiosity. The 1979 and 1980 ACA scores I have not mapped out, although information available on Voteview’s legacy website indicates Anderson’s 1979 and 1980 official ACA-Index scores.

	ACA (Modified)	ADA (Modified)
Kennedy-Johnson Era
1961	100	0
1962	91	0
1963	100	0
1964	79	8
1965	91	12
1966	88	0
1967	81	13
1968	68	17
Average	87	6
Nixon-Carter Era
1969	38	36
1970	68	29
1971	63	36
1972	43	54
1973	42	38
1974	33	38
1975	58	61
1976	33	53
1977	38	47
1978	44	65
1979	37 (Official)	80
1980	0 (Official)	100
Average	42	53

References

For my citations of votes, check my posted ACA-Indexes of the years I mention.

Voting Record Supplement (1964). ADA World 19(1).

Retrieved from

Click to access 1963.pdf

Clymer, A. (2017, December 4). John Anderson, Who Ran Against Reagan and Carter in 1980, Is Dead at 95. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/politics/john-anderson-who-ran-against-reagan-and-carter-in-1980-is-dead-at-95.html

Gehrke, R. (2011, November 30). Rocky Anderson returns – this time shooting for president. The Salt Lake Tribune.

Retrieved from

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=53014248&itype=CMSID

Gizzi, J. (2017, December 24). Remembering Ex-Rep. John B. Anderson: Why Did He Move From Hard Right to Strong Left? NewsMax.

Retrieved from

https://www.newsmax.com/johngizzi/john-b-anderson-independent-republicans-democrats/2017/12/24/id/833591/

Greenfield, J. (2017, December 28). John B. Anderson: The Great Independent Hope. Politico.

Retrieved from

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/28/john-b-anderson-illinois-republican-party-obituary-216176/

Mason, J. (2011). No holding back: the 1980 John B. Anderson presidential campaign. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Neuman, S. (2017, December 5). John Anderson, Independent For President In 1980, Dies At 95. NPR.

Retrieved from

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/05/568489924/john-anderson-independent-for-president-in-1980-dies-at-95