Monday, June 20th, 2005...9:12 pm
Just a Short Note
Former Congressman Sam Coppersmith has added Rum, Romanism and Rebellion to his links. It actually is an honor, and that’s not just me trying to puff him up.
I worked on Rep. Coppersmith’s senate race back in 1994. Unfortunately, he got spanked by Jon Kyl, who will get spanked next year by Jim Pedersen (shh…he’s not running yet…). Coppersmith was a remarkable candidate. I never saw the man talk down to any audience. On the other hand, Kyl ran a singularly shallow race. You could have looked at all of Kyl’s ads and you would have never known that the man spent even one day as a congressman. No, I’m not still bitter.
The best line during that campaign came from Dan Brito, who volunteered for the campaign (I think I recruited him) and now works for Congressman Grijalva: “That Kyl, he is such a tool.”
We did carry Pima County though.
Sam would have been a rarity in the US Senate, a man with a mustache. Only one Arizona Senator has had a mustache: Republican Ralph Cameron, who served one ignominous term in the 1920’s. Sam and California Rep. Ed Zschau are the only two recent major party candiates with them. But, he was part of a great tradition of mustached Arizona congressmen. (Our three since statehood are pictured here. All of the congressional delegates elected before statehood had mustaches.)
Yes, a very non-substantive post. I’m entitled. I’ll get back to complaining about Jim Weiers and Fred Ronstadt later.
7 Comments
June 21st, 2005 at 10:08 am
Actually, Ralph Cameron was NOT the only Arizona Senator with a moustache. Cameron’s chief political nemesis, Democrat Marcus A. “Mark” Smith was also famous for his facial hair. Smith served as U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1912 to 1920 when he was defeated by Cameron (it was Cameron’s fifth match-up against Smith, and the second one he had won). Smith was a very important political figure in Arizona, having served in one elected office or another for most of the period between 1884 and 1920, and being the spiritual leader of the more conservative “Cleveland Faction” of Arizona’s Democrats. You should know that.
You did get it right that Cameron was a bozo, however. On his last day in the Senate, his fellow Senators dissed him by roundly applauding his departure. He was replaced by Democrat Carl Hayden and would the last Republican to Represent Arizona in the Senate until Barry Goldwater was elected in 1952.
June 21st, 2005 at 11:34 am
Point taken…I put Mark Smith down as a mustached house member, but failed to note his service in the Senate.
Big bozo…
June 21st, 2005 at 11:44 am
Did you just call you brother a big bozo?
June 21st, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Did I do that? Hmm…
June 22nd, 2005 at 11:24 am
I think he was talking about Cameron again.
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Sam Coppersmith is a good guy. I remember him quite well from his run for the Senate and his time in Congress. We’d have been a lot better off if he’d beaten Kyl.
I feel quite fortunate to live in the extreme north end of Raul Grijalva’s district (which ends about 4 blocks north of me in Avondale. Congressman Grijalva gives me great hope for the future of the Arizona Democratic Party. A true progressive voice in the House for us.
June 27th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
I cant believe you mentioned Brito!
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