Raúl Castro First of Nine Consecutive Arizona Governors to Enter or Leave Office Abnormally

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Photo: Raúl Castro and President Jimmy Carter
Image credit: Raúl Castro Papers, University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections
Image link: (http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/governor-castro-jimmy-carter)

Today, October 1st, 2014, President Jimmy Carter assumed the title of nonagenarian. In addition to being elected to the White House in 1976, Carter is known for being a peanut farmer, a Naval Academy graduate, a former Georgia governor, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. President Carter is not as well known for his 1977 selection of Arizona Governor Raúl Castro — himself now a nonagenarian — for the post of U.S. ambassador to Argentina. This appointment marked the beginning of a nearly four decade-long — and counting — run of Arizona governors who would either enter or leave office under circumstances other than beginning or ending a statutorily-defined gubernatorial term. Perhaps the next occupant of the 9th floor will break the streak… although, our almost forty year span of experiences to the contrary indicates otherwise.

Here’s a list of the Arizona governors, beginning with Raúl Castro, who have either entered or left the state’s highest job due to circumstances other than the beginning or end of a statutorily-defined gubernatorial term:

Raúl Castro
Democrat
In office: 1975 – 1977
Entered office under normal circumstances.
Left office after being appointed to an ambassadorship.

Wesley Bolin
Democrat
In office: 1977 – 1978
Assumed office following Raúl Castro’s ambassadorial appointment.
Died in office.

Bruce Babbitt
Democrat
In office: 1978 – 1987
Assumed office following Wesley Bolin’s death.
Served out the remainder of Bolin’s term and subsequently won two full terms.

Evan Mecham
Republican
In office: 1987 – 1988
Assumed office under normal circumstances.
Removed from office after being convicted of multiple charges in a court of impeachment (the Arizona State Senate).

Rose Mofford
Democrat
In office: 1988 – 1991
Assumed office following Evan Mecham’s impeachment and conviction.
Left office under somewhat normal circumstances (see below: Symington, Fife).

Fife Symington
Republican
In office: 1991 – 1997
Assumed office in March of 1991 after beating Terry Goddard in a February runoff election.
Resigned from office after being indicted on multiple federal charges.

Jane Dee Hull
Republican
In office: 1997 – 2003
Assumed office following Fife Symington’s resignation.
Left office under normal circumstances.

Janet Napolitano
Democrat
In office: 2003 – 2009
Assumed office under normal circumstances.
Left office after being appointed to President Obama’s cabinet.

Jan Brewer
Republican
In office: 2009 – Present
Assumed office following Janet Napolitano’s cabinet appointment.
Incumbent.

For those of you counting, that’s nine governors who have either entered or left office — both in three cases — under circumstances other than the beginning or end of a statutorily-defined gubernatorial term.

Who says politics is boring?

Who was Dr. Grady Gammage?

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Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium
Credit: Wikipedia

ASU’s Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium was dedicated on September 16th, 1964. Though many now associate the name Gammage with only the performing arts venue or attorney Grady Gammage, Jr., the auditorium stands as a monument to a man who greatly impacted Arizona’s development – Dr. Grady Gammage, Sr. Here are a handful of Dr.Gammage’s many notable accomplishments:

– Arrived in Arizona just months after statehood. Though nearly broke when he set foot on Arizona soil, he managed to earn a degree from the University of Arizona in 1916.

– Led a successful 1916 initiative campaign expanding Arizona’s 1914 Prohibition law.

– Served as a high school principal in Winslow, AZ.

– Assumed the presidency of the Flagstaff teachers college, now Northern Arizona University, in 1926. Led the institution through the early years of the Great Depression.

– Named president of the Tempe teachers college, now Arizona State University, in 1933. Briefly served as president of both the Flagstaff and Tempe colleges.

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A bust of Frank Lloyd Wright on display at Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium

– Enlarged the Tempe campus, substantially grew enrollment figures, and presided over the creation of many academic programs critical to the Valley’s incredible post-World War II growth.

– Oversaw the effort to pass Proposition 200, a 1958 ballot initiative that elevated Arizona State to full university status.

– Championed the idea of building the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed auditorium that bears his name.

Should you wish to learn more about the auditorium or take part in its anniversary celebration, please consider attending an open house scheduled for September 28th, 2014. For more information, see: http://asugammage.com/openhouse

Arizona’s State Song – No, It’s Not That One by Mark Lindsay

Text of the 1919 bill naming "The Arizona March Song" our state anthem.

Text of the 1919 bill naming “The Arizona March Song” our state anthem.

200 years ago today, Francis Scott Key penned a four-stanza poem titled “Defense of Fort M’Henry.” a four-stanza poem that would later be set to music and retitled “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The first stanza of Key’s poem was quickly set to music using the tune of an eighteenth-century British number called “The Anacreontic Song,” and was renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution designating the song our nation anthem in 1931 — thus creating a challenge for all future amateur crooners selected to sing the musically complex song at baseball games and other public events.

While you’ll hear the national anthem at many types of public gatherings, you’re less likely to hear one of our two state songs. That’s right… two; one official state song and one alternate state song — neither of which are Mark Lindsay’s 1969 single.

Margaret Rowe Clifford wrote “The Arizona March Song” in 1915. The Arizona legislature selected Clifford’s prose, accompanied by the music of Maurice Blumenthal, as our state song in 1919. Not satisfied with just one state song, a legislature more than sixty years in the future chose Rex Allen, Jr.’s “Arizona” (often known as “I Love You, Arizona”) as our alternate state song. While Allen’s song is fairly well-known today, Clifford’s 1915 piece is rarely heard. Links to renditions of both songs can be found below.

Do you have a preference?

Arizona’s State Songs

“Arizona March Song,” sung by Hannes Kvaran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws5dbNx3EVU

“Arizona,” sung by Rex Allen, Jr.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7xedmvJTzk

Barry Goldwater – Mr. Conservative – Wins the 1964 Republican Presidential Nod

The front page of the July 16th, 1964 Arizona Republic featured a headline exclaiming, "Barry Wins," referring to Goldwater having captured the 1964 Republican presidential nomination the day prior.

The front page of the July 16th, 1964 Arizona Republic featured a headline exclaiming, “Barry Wins,” referring to Goldwater having captured the 1964 Republican presidential nomination the day prior.

Barry Goldwater accepted the Republican presidential nomination fifty years ago this evening. Goldwater, a Phoenix businessman who had served on the Phoenix City Council and, at the time of his nomination, was completing his second term in the United States Senate, secured his party’s nod after having prevailed over Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton, two well-funded moderate Republicans from populous East Coast states. However, Goldwater’s convention victory would prove to be the pinnacle of his 1964 electoral success.

The 1964 election occurred less than one year after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and American voters were disinclined to support yet another leadership transition. Goldwater’s strong conservatism and recent vote against the Civil Rights Act did little to endear him to voters in many parts of the nation. President Johnson’s campaign capitalized on widespread perceptions of Goldwater being a war hawk, an effort best represented by the infamous “Daisy Ad,” a controversial television advertisement that ran just one time but nonetheless managed to strongly reinforce the narrative of Goldwater being willing to recklessly over-escalate military conflicts such as the U.S. effort in Vietnam. These factors, paired with other issues such as the tepid support Goldwater received from moderate “Rockefeller Republicans,” resulted in a resounding general election defeat in which the Arizonan won only his home state and a handful of others. However, Goldwater’s campaign, supported by articulate political conservatives such as Ronald Reagan, helped to redefine conservatism and drastically alter the American political landscape. Goldwater, known by many as “Mr. Conservative,” went on to represent Arizona in the Senate for three more terms before retiring to his Paradise Valley home in 1987. An iconoclast to the end, Goldwater continued to speak his mind and gleefully rankle feathers — including those of his fellow GOPers — for the remainder of his life, which ended in May of 1998.

To view of one Senator Goldwater’s ads featuring the candidate, please visit http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/we-will-bury-you.

To view President Johnson’s “Daisy Ad,” please visit http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/media/daisyspot/.

To view a Goldwater ad featuring Ronald Reagan responding to claims of Goldwater’s hawkish nature, please visit  http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/ronald-reagan.

Please note that the webpages on which the above links can be found are not operated by or endorsed by John Larsen Southard. Links are provided for educational purposes only.

Arizona Petrified Wood in the Walls of the Washington Monument

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The assembled crowd of dignitaries and spectators present at the April 15th, 1924 dedication ceremony included President Coolidge, Senators Ralph Cameron and Henry Fountain Ashurst, Congressman Carl Hayden, and former Arizona Governor Thomas Campbell.
Image credit: Library of Congress

Senators Ralph Cameron and Henry Fountain Ashurst, Congressman Carl Hayden, and former Governor Thomas Campbell dedicated the Washington Monument’s Arizona stone ninety years ago this month. President Calvin Coolidge also spoke at the event, as did Nina Smith, the state Daughters of the American Revolution regent attending the ceremony as Governor Hunt’s official representative. Fittingly, our stone differs from those of all other states as it consists not of granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, or gneiss, but three slabs of petrified wood. The specimens displayed in the monument to President Washington were collected from the Chalcedony Forest near Holbrook, not far from the stunning and somewhat otherworldly landscapes of Petrified Forest National Park.

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April 15th, 1925 Prescott Evening Courier coverage of the dedication ceremony.

Each state of the Union boasts a stone of its own in the Washington Monument, as do many cities, organizations, companies, individuals, and foreign governments. If the choice to embed three pieces of Arizona petrified wood into the walls of the Washington Monument was made out of a desire to draw attention to Arizona’s uniqueness, those in charge of the selection achieved their purpose. President Calvin Coolidge’s dedicatory remarks included reference to the state’s grand agricultural potential and significant mineral resources. Likely to the great pleasure of farmers throughout the Grand Canyon State, Silent Cal asked the assembled crowd, “Do we fully realize that the Valley of the Nile, producing sustenance for the mother civilizations, and long afterward serving as the granary of Imperial Rome, was not to be compared for area of productive possibilities to the great valleys of semi-tropic Arizona when they shall presently have been watered by the works of engineering, as the Nile was watered by the works of nature?” More closely related to the petrified wood forests from which the newly placed Arizona stone originated, Coolidge praised the state’s overall importance, saying, “its riches in forests, in metals and minerals, in the inviting glories of the world’s most wonderful scenery will make it one of the wealthiest states.”

While still in place, the various commemorative stones are no longer as accessible as they once were. Visitors to the monument were formerly able to choose between riding an elevator or climbing stairs to reach the 500-foot level observation deck. Those who chose the stairs were rewarded with up-close views of the many stones worked into the walls of the monument, none of which could be seen from inside the elevator car. Now, however, visitors must plan ahead if they wish to view the state stones as the obelisk’s elevator is the standard mode of passage to the top. Visitors hoping to take the more scenic — and cardio-friendly — route to the top of what was once the world’s tallest structure must reserve a special tour in advance of their visit (plan ahead – the Washington Monument is slated to reopen on May 12th of this year). Thankfully, those choosing to ascend to the top in a more expeditious manner can now view selected stones through the special gas-filled elevator doors that clear several times over the course of the ride to allow passengers a fleeting glance at the most notable stones.

For more information on the Arizona stone and other stones donated over the years, please visit http://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=1EFD723B-1DD8-B71C-07E7EC2F30C1E167.