Don Samuelson, left, and Robert Smylie, were gubernatorial candidates during what historians call the wildest and most chaotic election in state history. | Courtesy Wikipedia IDAHO FALLS – It was the largest shift in political power in Idaho’s history and the state’s wildest and most chaotic election year. That’s what happened in two separate elections — the first in 1932 and the latter in 1966. An exhibit at the Idaho Capitol building in Boise lists these as seven of the state’s most decisive elections to date. During the presidential election of 1932, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt earned a landslide victory over his Republican opponent, Herbert Hoover. FDR carried 42 states and had 57% of the popular vote, according to voting records. Results were similar in Idaho, with FDR receiving more than 58% of the popular vote. Democrat C. Ben Ross, the state’s first three-term governor, had also secured a re-election victory for a second term. Voting records show he beat his Republican opponent, Byron Defenbach, with 62% of the popular vote. That same year, the Idaho Legislature underwent a massive transformation. From 66 Republicans and 48 Democrats prior to 1932, it shifted to 13 Republicans and 94 Democrats after the election — the largest shift in political power in Idaho history. Historical placard in the Idaho Capitol building about the 1932 election. | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com Idaho historian David Leroy tells EastIdahoNews.com this sweeping transformation is likely a reflection of the onset of the Great Depression four years earlier during Hoover’s first year in office. RELATED | How a Rexburg man became the first Latter-day Saint to serve as Idaho’s governor Democratic governors led the state for the next six years. The appointment of Arnold Williams as governor in 1945, whose predecessor resigned to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat, would be the last time a Democrat would lead the state for 23 years. RELATED | Idaho’s last Democratic governor left office 30 years ago. A look at left-wing leadership in a red state The election of Cecil Andrus in 1970 kicked off a 24-year period of Democratic leadership in the Gem State. Four years earlier, an election which ended an era of Republican Party dominance is the one historians refer to as the state’s wildest and most chaotic to date. Charles Herndon, Idaho’s Democratic nominee for governor in 1966, was killed in a Piper Apache airplane like the one pictured above. | Courtesy Wikipedia Idaho’s most chaotic election Donald Samuelson had served three terms in the state Senate when he decided to enter the gubernatorial race. It was 1966 and the 53-year-old Sandpoint man had become unsettled with what he deemed left-leaning policies in the current Republican administration. Republican Robert Smylie had already served as governor for three terms and was seeking a fourth term. The hot-button issue that year revolved around a 3% sales tax that was enacted the year before. Gov. Smylie had signed the legislation, an action Samuelson disapproved. Smylie was also a nationally recognized figure in the Republican Party. He was known as a moderate Republican and was mentioned as a possible running mate for Nelson Rockefeller, former vice president to Gerald Ford. Smylie’s support of the sales tax was the last in a series of issues that prompted Samuelson to try and prevent him from winning a fourth term. “After a hotly contested campaign, Samuelson defeated Smylie in the Republican primary by a landslide — he received 61% of the vote,” University of Idaho professor emeritus Katherine Aiken writes in an essay about Samuelson. Historical placard in the Idaho Capitol building about the 1966 election. | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com Charles Herndon from Salmon became the Democratic nominee. On Sept. 14, 1966, Herndon was at what was then the Pocatello Municipal Airport. He had an afternoon campaign stop in Coeur d’Alene and was looking for a flight. “Nothing commercial was flying because the Pocatello and Idaho Falls airports were socked in with fog,” Rick Just reports in a recent blog post. Despite hazardous flying conditions, Herndon reportedly chartered a Piper Apache airplane to Twin Falls with two other men from Oklahoma City. About 10 miles west of Stanley, the Apache “came out of the clouds and plowed into a forested hillside.” Herndon and the two other men were killed. Only the pilot survived. This tragedy came in the wake of another plane crash earlier that year involving another political candidate. John Matmiller, an experienced pilot from northern Idaho, was hoping to represent Idaho in Congress. He crashed his Piper Comanche airplane on his way to a campaign stop. “According to witnesses, the Comanche dropped out of the overcast into the narrow valley, apparently looking for a place to land. Mattmiller narrowly missed the KWAL radio tower in Osburn. The plane seemed to be headed for a landing on U.S. 10, about five miles from his destination at the Smelterville airport,” Just explains. While trying to avoid hitting a tanker truck, he veered away and hit a power line. He and his passenger died instantly. Idaho Congressional candidate John Matmiller was killed in a plane crash in 1966. He was piloting a Piper Comanche airplane at the time, similar to the one pictured above. | Courtesy Wikipedia Herndon’s death opened the door for Andrus, the runner-up in the Democratic Primary, to replace Herndon on the ticket. James McClure entered the Congressional race following Matmiller’s death. Though McClure ended up serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Andrus was not successful. Samuelson narrowly defeated Andrus with 41% of the vote. Despite Samuelson’s objection to the sales tax, voters approved it “by the largest majority of any candidate or ballot issue in Idaho history.” Leroy attributes Samuelson’s victory to several factors. “The votes that elected Samuelson were almost entirely anti-Smylie votes,” Leroy says. “Smylie was perceived as leaning too much toward the liberal wing of the Republican Party, having outgrown carefully tending to the interests of Idahoans. A fourth term was one too many.” Leroy describes Smylie as a polished speaker whose personality was ideally suited to politics and the national stage. Samuelson, on the other hand, was a “clumsy campaigner” and a “shy, awkward governor” who Leroy says communicated poorly. It’s those differences in personality that Leroy says may explain the ironic outcome with the sales tax.The post Remembering two of Idaho’s most decisive elections and how they changed the political landscape appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com