Wendell Ford
Wendell Hampton Ford was an American politician from Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 53rd governor of Kentucky from 1971 to 1974, and as a member of the United States Senate from 1974 to 1999. He was the first person to be successively elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky, governor, and United States Senate member in Kentucky history. He was the Senate Democratic whip from 1991 to 1999, and was considered the leader of the state's Democratic Party from his election as governor in 1971 until he retired from the Senate in 1999. At the time of his retirement he was the longest-serving senator in Kentucky's history, a mark which was then surpassed by Mitch McConnell, in 2009. Ford is the last Democrat to have served as a U.S. Senate member from the state of Kentucky.
Born in Daviess County, Kentucky, Ford attended the University of Kentucky, but his studies were interrupted by his service in World War II. After the war, he graduated from the Maryland School of Insurance and returned to Kentucky to help his father with the family insurance business. He also continued his military service in the Kentucky Army National Guard. He worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Bert Combs in 1959 and became Combs's executive assistant when Combs was elected governor. Encouraged to run for the Kentucky Senate by Combs's ally and successor, Ned Breathitt, Ford won the seat and served one four-year term before running for lieutenant governor in 1967. He was elected on a split ticket with Republican Louie Nunn. Four years later, Ford defeated Combs in an upset in the Democratic primary election en route to the governorship.
As governor, Ford made the government more efficient by reorganizing and consolidating some departments in the executive branch. He raised revenue for the state through a severance tax on coal and enacted reforms to the educational system. He purged most of the Republicans from statewide office, including helping Walter Dee Huddleston win the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Republican stalwart John Sherman Cooper. In 1974, Ford himself ousted the other incumbent senator, Republican Marlow Cook. Following the rapid rise of Ford and many of his political allies, he and his lieutenant governor, Julian Carroll, were investigated on charges of political corruption, but a grand jury refused to indict them. As a senator, Ford was a staunch defender of Kentucky's tobacco industry. He also formed the Senate National Guard Caucus with Republican U.S. Senator Kit Bond from Missouri. Chosen as Democratic party whip in 1991, Ford considered running for floor leader in 1994 before throwing his support to U.S. Senate member Chris Dodd of Connecticut. He retired from the Senate in 1999 and returned to Owensboro, where he taught politics to youth at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History.
Early life
Wendell Ford was born near Owensboro, in Daviess County, Kentucky, on September 8, 1924. He was the son of Ernest M. and Irene Woolfork Ford. His father was a member of the Kentucky Senate and ally of Governor of Kentucky Earle Clements. Ford obtained his early education in the public schools of Daviess County and graduated from Daviess County High School. From 1942 to 1943, he attended the University of Kentucky.On September 18, 1943, Ford married Ruby Jean Neel of Owensboro at the home of the bride's parents. The couple had two children. Daughter Shirley Dexter was born in 1950 and son Steven Ford was born in 1954. The family attended First Baptist Church in Owensboro.
In 1944, Ford left the University of Kentucky to join the United States Army, enlisting for service in World War II on July 22, 1944. He was trained as an administrative non-commissioned officer and promoted to the rank of technical sergeant on November 17, 1945. Over the course of his service, he received the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal and earned the Expert Infantryman Badge and Good Conduct Medal. He was honorably discharged on June 18, 1946.
Following the war, Ford returned home to work with his father in the family insurance business, and graduated from the Maryland School of Insurance in 1947. On June 7, 1949, he enlisted in the Kentucky Army National Guard and was assigned to Company I of the 149th Infantry Regimental Combat Team in Owensboro. On August 7, 1949, he was promoted to Second lieutenant of Infantry. In 1949, Ford's company was converted from infantry to tanks, and Ford served as a Company Commander in the 240th Tank Battalion. Promoted to First lieutenant of Armor, he transferred to the inactive Guard in 1956, before being discharged in 1962.
Political career
Ford was very active in civic affairs, becoming the first Kentuckian to serve as president of the Junior Chamber International in 1954. He was a youth chairman of Bert Combs' 1959 gubernatorial campaign. After Combs's election, Ford served as Combs's executive assistant from 1959 to 1963. When his mother died in 1963, Ford returned to Owensboro to help his father with the family insurance agency. Although it was speculated he would run for lieutenant governor that year, Ford later insisted he had decided not to re-enter politics until Governor Ned Breathitt asked him to run against Casper "Cap" Gardner, the state senate's majority leader and a major obstacle to Breathitt's progressive legislative agenda. Ford won the 1965 election by only 305 votes but quickly became a key player in the state senate. Representing the Eighth District, including Daviess and Hancock counties, Ford introduced 22 major pieces of legislation that became law during his single term in the senate.In 1967, Ford ran for Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, this time against the wishes of Breathitt and Combs, whose pick was Robert F. Matthews Jr., who was Attorney General of Kentucky. Ford defeated Matthews by 631 votes, 0.2% of the total vote count in the primary. He ran an independent campaign and won in the general election even as Combs-Breathitt pick Henry Ward lost the race for governor to Republican Louie Nunn. Republicans and Democrats split the state offices, with five going to Republicans and four going to Democrats.
During his time as lieutenant governor, Ford rebuilt the state's Democratic political machine, which would help elect him and others, including U.S. Senate member Walter Dee Huddleston and Governor of Kentucky Martha Layne Collins. When Governor of Kentucky Louie Nunn asked the legislature to increase the state sales tax in 1968 from 3 percent to 5 percent, Ford opposed the measure, saying it should only pass if food and medicine were exempted. Ford lost this battle; the increase passed without exemptions. From 1970 to 1971, Ford was a member of the executive committee of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors. While lieutenant governor, he became an honorary member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in 1969.
Governor of Kentucky
At the expiration of his term as lieutenant governor, Ford was one of eight candidates to enter the 1971 Democratic gubernatorial primary. The favorite of the field was Ford's mentor, Combs. During the campaign, Ford attacked Combs on the grounds of age and the sales tax enacted during Combs's administration. He also questioned why Combs would leave his better-paying federal judgeship to run for a second term as governor. Ford garnered more votes than Combs and the other six candidates combined, and attributed his unlikely win over Combs in the primary to superior strategy and Combs's underestimation of his candidacy. Following the election, Combs correctly predicted "This is the end of the road for me politically."Ford went on to win the governorship in a four-way general election that included another former Democratic governor, Happy Chandler, who ran as an Independent. Ford finished more than 58,000 votes ahead of his closest rival, Republican Tom Emberton. With Combs and Chandler both out of politics, factionalism in the Kentucky Democratic Party began to wane.
As governor, Ford raised revenue from a severance tax on coal, a two-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline, and an increased corporate tax. He balanced these increases by exempting food from the state sales tax. The resulting large budget surplus allowed him to propose several construction projects. His victory in the primary had been largely due to Jefferson County, Kentucky, and he returned the favor by approving funds to build the Kentucky International Convention Center and expand the Kentucky Exposition Center. He also shepherded a package of reforms to the state's criminal justice system through the first legislative session of his term.
Ford oversaw the transition of the University of Louisville from municipal to state funding. He pushed for reforms to the state's education system, giving up his own chairmanship of the University of Kentucky board of trustees and extending voting rights to student and faculty members of university boards. These changes generally shifted administration positions in the state's colleges from political rewards to professional appointments. He increased funding to the state's education budget and gave expanded powers to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. He vetoed a measure that would have allowed collective bargaining for teachers.
Ford drew praise for his attention to the mundane task of improving the efficiency and organization of executive departments, creating several "super cabinets" under which many departments were consolidated. During the 1972 legislative session, he created the Department of Finance and Administration, combining the functions of the Kentucky Program Development Office and the Department of Finance. Constitutional limits sometimes prevented him from combining like functions, but Ford made the reorganization a top priority and realized some savings to the state.
On March 21, 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its ruling in the case of Dunn v. Blumstein that found that a citizen who had lived in a state for 30 days was resident in that state and thus eligible to vote there. Kentucky's Constitution required residency of one year in the state, six months in the county and sixty days in the precinct to establish voting eligibility. This issue had to be resolved before the 1972 presidential election in November, so Ford called a special legislative session to enact the necessary corrections. In addition, Ford added to the General Assembly's agenda the creation of a state environmental protection agency, a refinement of congressional districts in line with the latest census figures and ratification of the recently passed Equal Rights Amendment. All of these measures passed.
Despite surgery for a brain aneurysm in June 1972, Ford attended the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida. He supported Edmund Muskie for president, but later greeted nominee George McGovern when he visited Kentucky. The convention was the beginning of Ford's role in national politics. Offended by the McGovern campaign's treatment of Democratic finance chairman Robert S. Strauss, he helped Strauss get elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee following McGovern's defeat. As a result of his involvement in Strauss's election, Ford was elected chair of the Democratic Governors' Conference from 1973 to 1974. He also served as vice-chair of the Conference's Natural Resources and Environmental Management Committee.
During the 1974 legislative session, Ford proposed a six-year study of coal liquefaction and gasification in response to the 1973 oil crisis. He also increased funding to human resources and continued his reorganization of the executive branch, creating cabinets for transportation, development, education and the arts, human resources, consumer protection and regulation, safety and justice. He was considered less ruthless than previous governors in firing state officials hired by the previous administration, and expanded the state merit system to cover some previously exempt state workers. Despite the expansion, he was criticized for the replacements he made, particularly that of the state personnel commissioner appointed during the Nunn administration. Critics also cited the fact that employees found qualified by the merit examination were still required to obtain political clearance before they were hired.