Thursday, March 8th, 2007...7:44 am
Fighting Doug?
A fellow political history geek attended a field hearing a couple of weeks back on the mine that is planned for the Santa Rita mountains that was convened by Raúl Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. As it turns out, one of the folks that showed up to testify was Doug LaFollette.
LaFollette is the Secretary of State of Wisconsin, and he just happened to be in town because he’s a hiking enthusiast (his campaign website features sections on the environment and energy). He heard about the hearing and felt the need to testify against the mine proposal.
What was interesting to me and the person that talked to me was the man’s last name. It turns out that Doug LaFollette is a cousin of Robert LaFollette, a senator and progressive icon in the early part of this century. The LaFollettes had a sort of dynasty in Wisconsin in the middle of this century. LaFollette served as a Republican but ran for president as the standard bearer of the Progressive Party in 1924. 
His wife, Belle Case LaFollette, was a prominent suffrage activist. His son, Robert LaFollette, Jr., also served as senator. Another son, Phillip LaFollette, won the governorship as a Progressive. Junior’s son, Bronson Cutting LaFollette, was Attorney General of Wisconsin and made a run for Governor.
Like Doug, Bronson ran as a Democrat rather than a Republican. I imagine this was because his father’s defeat in a Republican primary by Joseph McCarthy (and the well worn story that McCarthy may have driven his father to suicide) gave him an idea that this “Progressive/Republican” thing was probably not going to fly anymore.
2 Comments
March 8th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Look at the older of the pictures….. remind you of anyone?
Look at the hair and forehead….
Kind of reminds me of David Bradley…
March 8th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Actually, I was thinking it looked like our ex-Treasurer, Mr. Petersen.
PS - I love the history lessons!
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