1916–1920,1939
Hodgdon Charles Buzzell (1878 –September 12,1948) was an American lawyer and politician from Maine. Buzzell,a Republican from Belfast,was elected to six terms in the Maine Legislature,including four in the Maine House of Representatives and two in the Maine Senate. Backed by the Ku Klux Klan,Buzzell unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for United States Senate in a special election in 1926. [1]
Buzzell was first elected to the House in 1916,and was re-elected in 1918 and 1920. In 1922,he successfully sought a seat in the Senate. Following re-election to that body in 1924,Buzzell was chosen as the Senate President from 1925 to 1926. [2] Buzzell left the Senate in 1926 and unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination for United States Senate to replace the recently deceased Bert M. Fernald. The New York Times described him as "avowedly" the Ku Klux Klan's candidate in the primary. He was defeated in that bid by the anti-Klan Arthur R. Gould of Presque Isle. [1]
In 1939,he returned to the House for his fourth and final term. In 1942,he was elected mayor of Belfast. He also served a Waldo County Judge of Probate. [3]
He died on September 12,1948,at Saint Mary's Hospital in Lewiston,Maine after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while at the Lewiston Fairgrounds after watching two of his horses race earlier in the day. [4]
Theodore Christianson was an American politician who served as the 21st Governor of Minnesota from January 6,1925,until January 6,1931.
Percival Proctor Baxter was an American politician and philanthropist from Maine. The son of canning magnate and Portland,Maine mayor James Phinney Baxter,he served as the 53rd Governor of the U.S. state of Maine from 1921 to 1925. A noted philanthropist,he donated several pieces of land to the public domain including Baxter Woods (Portland),Mackworth Island State Park (Falmouth),and Baxter State Park.
The 1922 United States Senate elections were elections that occurred in the middle of Republican President Warren G. Harding's term. The 32 seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections,and special elections were held to fill vacancies. With the Republicans divided between conservative and progressive factions,the Democrats gained six net seats from the Republicans while the Farmer–Labor party gained one. The Republicans retained their Senate majority.
This is a partial list of notable historical figures in U.S. national politics who were members of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office. Membership of the Klan is secret. Political opponents sometimes allege that a person was a member of the Klan,or was supported at the polls by Klan members.
Earle Bradford Mayfield was a Texas lawyer who,from 1907 to 1913,was a Texas State Senator. In 1922,he was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. He was the first U.S. Senator to be widely considered by the voters to be a member of the revived Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Mayfield quietly accepted KKK support but never said he had joined. He was defeated for reelection in 1928 when his opponent attacked his links to the KKK.
Frederick Hale was the United States senator from Maine from 1917 to 1941. He was the son of Eugene Hale and the grandson of Zachariah Chandler,both also U.S. senators. He was the brother of diplomat Chandler Hale,and the cousin of U.S. Representative Robert Hale.
Rice William Means was an American soldier,lawyer,and Ku Klux Klan leader. For three years,he was a Republican United States Senator from Colorado - serving the remainder of his predecessor's term. He was defeated in the 1928 Republican primary by Charles W. Waterman on a wave of anti-KIan sentiment in the state.
Charles Winfield Waterman was a Colorado attorney and politician. He is most notable for his service as a United States senator from Colorado.
Arthur Robinson Gould was an American industrialist involved in lumber,railroads,hydroelectricity,and other large scale industry in Aroostook County,Maine and the neighboring Canadian province of New Brunswick from the 1880s until his death in 1946. From 1926 to 1931,he served as a Republican United States senator from Maine. Prior to being elected to the Senate,he had stated that he was in favor of maintaining the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which banned the manufacture,sale,or transportation of alcohol. However,once in office,he became nationally known for writing in favor of the legalization of wine and beer.
Harry Emerson Rowbottom was an American businessman and Republican politician. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Indiana in 1924 and served three terms from 1925 to 1931. He was defeated for re-election in 1930 and subsequently convicted of accepting bribes,abruptly terminating his political career.
Robert Hale was a U.S. Representative from Maine,and first cousin of U.S. Senator Frederick Hale,also of Maine. A conservative,internationalist,and self-described reactionary,he was known for his unwavering advocacy of civil rights and opposition against the Ku Klux Klan.
William Robinson Pattangall was an American politician from Maine. He was particularly known for his support of public schools and opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. He was later the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court retiring on July 16,1935.
Mark Alton Barwise was one of the only publicly practicing member of the Spiritualist religion known to have been elected to a state office in the United States. Born in Chester,Maine of a mediumistic mother,Barwise became an attorney and nationally prominent member of the National Spiritualist Association (N.S.A.). He wrote extensively on spiritualism,represented the church in court cases,served on its board of trustees,and became Curator of its Bureau of Phenomenal Evidence. Despite his leadership position in a religion outside the American mainstream,he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives from Bangor in 1921-24,and in 1925-26 to the Maine State Senate.
Although the Ku Klux Klan is most often associated with white supremacy,the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In U.S. states such as Maine,which had a very small black population but a burgeoning number of Acadian,French-Canadian and Irish immigrants,the Klan manifested primarily as a Protestant nativist movement directed against the Catholic minority as well as African-Americans. For a period in the mid-1920s,the Klan captured elements of the Maine Republican Party,even helping to elect a governor,Ralph Owen Brewster.
DeForest Henry Perkins was an American educator,real estate developer,and political activist who was the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Maine from 1925 to 1928. Perkins served as Superintendent of Portland Public Schools from 1911 –1918. He was then hired as secretary of the Portland Chamber of Commerce from 1918 –1921. During his time as Grand Dragon,the Klan experienced both its peak in political strength before dramatically declining. of the Klan's ascendency nationally,and in Maine. He resigned in 1928 after a Klan-backed Republican candidate for U.S. Senator,Ralph Owen Brewster,lost his primary contest to Sen. Frederick Hale,signaling the eclipse of the Klan as a force in Maine politics.
Ralph Owen Brewster was an American politician from Maine. Brewster,a Republican,served as the 54th Governor of Maine from 1925 to 1929,in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1941 and in the U.S. Senate from 1941 to 1952. Brewster was a close confidant of Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and an antagonist of Howard Hughes. He was defeated by Frederick G. Payne,whose campaign was heavily funded by Hughes,in the 1952 Republican primary.
Frank George Farrington was an American lawyer and politician from Maine. Farrington,a Republican from Augusta,severed four terms in the Maine Legislature,including two in the Maine House of Representatives and two in the Maine Senate. He lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in 1924 to Ku Klux Klan-backed Ralph Owen Brewster by just 581 votes.
Frederick Wheeler Hinckley was an American politician,lawyer,and real estate developer from Maine. He served as mayor of South Portland,Maine and four terms in the Maine Legislature (1919-1926). He also owned more than 100 acres of land in South Portland,which he developed into a unique housing subdivision called the Sylvan Site.
The 1922 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 7,1922. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Charles Culberson ran for re-election to a fifth term,but lost the Democratic primary. A runoff was held between former Governor Pa Ferguson and Railroads Commissioner Earle Bradford Mayfield.
John Gilpatric Smith was an American politician from Maine. Smith was elected mayor of Saco,Maine in 1924 during the peak of electoral success for the Ku Klux Klan in Maine politics. He was appointed Commissioner of Banking by Governor Owen Brewster in 1927. He,along with Governor Owen Brewster,State Senator Hodgdon Buzzell were among the most prominent of the state's politicians who were supported by the Klan.