Evan Mecham
Evan Mecham was an American businessman and the 17th governor of Arizona, serving from January 5, 1987, until his impeachment conviction on April 4, 1988. A decorated veteran of World War II, Mecham was an automotive dealership owner and occasional newspaper publisher.
Periodic runs for political office earned him a reputation as a perennial candidate along with the nickname of "The Harold Stassen of Arizona" before he was elected governor, under the Republican banner. As governor, Mecham was plagued by controversy almost immediately after his inauguration and became the first U.S. governor to simultaneously face removal from office through impeachment, a scheduled recall election, and a felony indictment. He is the only Arizona governor to be impeached, as well as one of only 15 U.S. governors to be impeached.
Mecham served one term as a state senator before beginning a string of unsuccessful runs for public office. His victory during the 1986 election began with a surprise win of the Republican nomination, followed by a split of the Democratic party during the general election, resulting in a three-way race. While Governor, Mecham made statements and actions that were widely perceived as racially charged or racist. Among these actions were the cancellation of the state's paid Martin Luther King Jr. Day and creating an unpaid King holiday on a Sunday, attributing high divorce rates to working women, and his defense of the word "pickaninny" in describing African American children. In reaction to these events, a boycott of Arizona was organized. A rift between the Governor and fellow Republicans in the Arizona Legislature developed after The Arizona Republic newspaper made accusations of questionable political appointments and cronyism.
Having served from January 5, 1987, to April 4, 1988, Mecham was removed from office following conviction in his impeachment trial on charges of obstruction of justice and misuse of government funds—funds that Mecham maintained were private. A later criminal trial acquitted Mecham of related charges. Following his removal from office, Mecham remained active in politics for nearly a decade. During this time, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention and made his final runs for the Arizona governorship and also for the U.S. Senate, in which he unsuccessfully challenged John McCain as an independent.
Early life and business career
Evan Mecham was born to parents who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mountain Home, Utah, and raised on his family's farm. The youngest of five boys, with one younger sister, he graduated as salutatorian from Altamont High School in 1942 and enrolled in Utah State Agricultural College on an agricultural scholarship. Mecham left college and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in January 1943. He was trained as a P-38 Lightning fighter pilot before being transferred to England, where he flew P-51 Mustangs. Mecham was shot down on March 7, 1945, while flying escort on a photo reconnaissance mission and was held as a prisoner of war for 22 days. Mecham returned to the United States after recovering from injuries sustained in the lead-up to his capture, and received an Air Medal and Purple Heart for his service. Mecham married Florence Lambert in May 1945 and was discharged in December of the same year. Together, the couple raised seven children: Suzanne, Dennis, Christine, Eric, Teresa, Kyle and Lance.Mecham was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He taught Sunday school and served as a bishop in the LDS church from 1957 to 1961. Part of his faith was that God would guide his actions and provide him the strength needed to endure. These beliefs were in part demonstrated during his time as governor when one staff member reported hearing a conversation in Mecham's office before entering the room to find the Governor alone. Another staff member, Donna Carlson, reported that Mecham believed he had obtained office by divine right and was thus not overly concerned about the feelings of others.
Mecham enrolled at Arizona State College in 1947 and majored in management and economics. In 1950, he left school 16 credit hours short of a degree to start Mecham Pontiac and Rambler in Ajo. Mecham relocated to Glendale in 1954 where he acquired and operated a Pontiac dealership until he sold it in March 1988. As a dealer, he appeared regularly in local television commercials and adopted his trademark motto of "If you can't deal with Mecham, you just can't deal." The Glendale dealership served as a base for other family-owned businesses, including Mecham Racing, Hauahaupan Mining Company and several auto dealerships in other states.
In addition to his auto dealership, Mecham owned several short-lived newspapers. One of his papers, the Evening American, was printed as a Phoenix daily with maximum circulation of 27,000 before becoming a weekly journal. As a newspaper publisher trying to break into the Phoenix and Tucson markets, Mecham testified before the U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly subcommittee on July 13, 1967. This testimony was in response to a bill sponsored by U.S. Senator Carl Hayden that provided partial immunity from the Sherman Antitrust Act, allowing an economically healthy newspaper and one that was failing to form a joint venture combining advertising, printing, and distribution operations while maintaining separate reporting and editorial functions. While supporters of the bill claimed it would prevent newspaper failures, Mecham opposed the bill claiming "The major reason that this bill has been presented is because of the power of the press over the decisions of voters at the polls, and the desire of politicians to court the favor of those who control these monopolistic presses." He also added that "the tools of monopoly are in the common advertising and the common circulation department."
Political career
Mecham first sought elected office in 1952, while still living in Ajo, with an unsuccessful run for the Arizona House of Representatives. After moving to Glendale, Mecham used the recognition gained from his television appearances to be elected to the Arizona Senate during the 1960 election. After one term as a state senator, in 1962 Mecham attempted to capture the U.S. Senate seat held by Carl Hayden, running on a platform demanding the United States withdraw from the United Nations and critical of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling limiting school prayer. The campaign first saw Mecham win a victory in the Republican primary over Stephen Shadegg, a former campaign manager for Barry Goldwater. Goldwater remained neutral. In the general election, Mecham received only tepid support from his party because of the value of Hayden's Senate seniority in passing legislation for the proposed Central Arizona Project. Mecham was defeated in the general election but still polled 45 percent of the vote.Following his campaign against Hayden, Mecham made an unsuccessful run for state chairman of the Republican party in 1963 and unsuccessful runs for governor of Arizona in 1964, 1974, 1978, and 1982. In these four runs, Mecham gained the Republican nomination only for the 1978 election. He developed a political doctrine supporting Jeffersonian democracy and advocating elimination of income taxes, return of federal lands to state control, removing federal involvement in education, and putting welfare under state control. In 1982, Mecham wrote his first book, Come Back America, in which he discusses his earlier life and political views.
In his fifth try for governor, Mecham ran as a political outsider using his standard platform advocating political reform and tax relief. Mecham's opponent in the Republican primary, Burton Barr, had served as the Majority Leader of the Arizona House of Representatives. Barr had the support of the state GOP leadership, including Barry Goldwater and John McCain. Mecham's core support came from fellow Mormons and the ultraconservative John Birch Society. A sizable portion of the state's retired population joined this core support with Mecham's promises of tax cuts. Because of Arizona's substantial transient population—only about half of the registered voters in 1986 were living in the state in 1980—Mecham's record of previous attempts to gain elected office was not widely known by the voters. The primary election also saw the lowest voter turnout in nearly forty years due to unusual rain. Mecham overcame a fifteen-point deficit in the polls to win the Republican nomination with 54% of the vote. Barr failed to spend much of his campaign war chest in the primary, ending his campaign with over a million dollars on hand.
The general election of 1986 saw a three-way race for governor. The Democratic Party had selected the state Superintendent of Public Education, Carolyn Warner, as its candidate. Dissatisfaction among the state's business and political leadership with both candidates allowed Bill Schulz, a real estate developer and Democrat who had withdrawn from the Democratic primary because of a family illness, to obtain enough petition signatures to run as an independent candidate. Six years earlier, Schulz had nearly defeated longtime U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was slow to endorse Mecham in this race, but did so officially at a dinner in Lake Havasu City. During the campaign, the state Automobile Dealers Association's ethics committee placed Mecham's dealership on probation for being chronically tardy in responding to complaints. The Democratic split caused by Schulz's re-entry allowed Mecham's campaign to survive.
Mecham won the election with a 40% plurality while Warner and Schulz received 34% and 26% respectively.