May 31, 2006
SWITCH HITTING GOVERNORS....The back cover of With All Our Might describes Mark Warner as "former governor of Virginia, Indiana." This is obviously a typo (though Warner was born in Indiana), but it got me wondering: has anyone ever served as governor of two different states? Within, say, the last hundred years or so? I'm just curious.
UPDATE: Apparently Sam Houston is the only one (Tennessee and Texas). But no two-state governors in the last hundred years.
—Kevin Drum 9:47 PM
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google "governor of two states".
Posted by: me on May 31, 2006 at 9:49 PM | PERMALINK
Spoilsport.
Posted by: wagster on May 31, 2006 at 9:51 PM | PERMALINK
Sam Houston was the only governor of two states, Tennessee and Texas. Bill Weld is trying to be the second, I think that's where I've seen this.
Posted by: jared on May 31, 2006 at 9:52 PM | PERMALINK
Our Leader will serve as Governer of Heaven when his best pal Jesus (He gives foreign policy advice during their chats) calls him back--though that won't be until after the Rapture!
Posted by: urkel on May 31, 2006 at 9:54 PM | PERMALINK
My guess is that Bill Weld won't be the second given the freight train he's up against.
Posted by: gq on May 31, 2006 at 9:57 PM | PERMALINK
do what me says and eventually you get to here:
http://hnn.us/articles/1529.html
Yoiks
Posted by: paul on May 31, 2006 at 9:59 PM | PERMALINK
Yea Sam Houston was the only one. Though not within 100 years.
Posted by: Breaux on May 31, 2006 at 10:04 PM | PERMALINK
Hilary is a 2-state carpetbagger.
Posted by: Frequency Kenneth on May 31, 2006 at 10:06 PM | PERMALINK
Are you High?
Posted by: Bud Greenspin on May 31, 2006 at 10:09 PM | PERMALINK
A good story about Sam Houston when he was President of the Republic of Texas. In that office, he moved in higher social circles than those to which he had become accustomed, and at one state dinner with many ambassadors present with their wives, he took a mouthful of rice that was too hot. He spat it out on his plate, and remarked to the party, who looked on with some astonishment, "You know, many a damn fool would have swallowed that."
Posted by: LeisureGuy on May 31, 2006 at 10:09 PM | PERMALINK
Did Sam serve his full term in either state?
Posted by: Ron Byers on May 31, 2006 at 10:10 PM | PERMALINK
If God existed, there would be multiple instances of such individuals.
Posted by: lib on May 31, 2006 at 10:12 PM | PERMALINK
Actually, this seems to indicate that he was governor of only one state (Tennessee). He was *president* of the Republic of Texas, but when it joined the US, he became a US Senator. He was never governor of Texas. Apparently.
Posted by: LeisureGuy on May 31, 2006 at 10:13 PM | PERMALINK
"Hilary is a 2-state carpetbagger."
And, so long as we are being consistent, what is that retard in the White House? A three state carpetbagger, perhaps?
Posted by: joe gillis on May 31, 2006 at 10:14 PM | PERMALINK
Frequency nailed it!
Posted by: Snoopy on May 31, 2006 at 10:27 PM | PERMALINK
Sorry LeisureGuy, Sam was elected governor of Texas in 1859 after he served two terms in the Senate. He was a unionist so when the civil war started in 1861 he was forced to resign.
He was forced to resign as governor of Tennessee due to the pressure of his former wife's very powerful political family (the Allens) shortly after their marriage was annulled. He left Tennessee and moved to the frontier to live among the Cherokee Indians. He also served two terms as President of Texas and in the US Senate. Pretty busy life.
Posted by: Ron Byers on May 31, 2006 at 10:29 PM | PERMALINK
I forgot to mention that he served as state attorney general and two terms as congressman from Tennessee. He also fought with Andy Jackson in 1812 and later. He was wounded several times. He also commanded the Texas forces in the war of Texas independence. Not many folks on the frontier had much military experience.
Altogether not so bad for a drunk. His third wife insisted he sober up.
Posted by: Ron Byers on May 31, 2006 at 10:41 PM | PERMALINK
If God existed, there would be multiple instances of such individuals.
Am I the only one who has no idea what this means?
Posted by: American Hawk on May 31, 2006 at 11:07 PM | PERMALINK
Yeah, and New Jersey's Tom Kean doesn't count - he just *sounded* like he was governor of Massachusetts.
Posted by: LarryB on May 31, 2006 at 11:16 PM | PERMALINK
Can't compare to James Shields who served in the US Senate from 3 states: Illinois, Minnesota, and California.
Posted by: Clem Yeobright on May 31, 2006 at 11:19 PM | PERMALINK
i think the reference is to sam houston, american hawk. but that's a guess.
Posted by: mudwall jackson on May 31, 2006 at 11:20 PM | PERMALINK
To date, Sam Houston has been the only independent to be elected as Texas governor. Kinky Friedman will be the second. :-)
Posted by: WCharles on June 1, 2006 at 12:25 AM | PERMALINK
Between 1850 and 1870, John W. Geary was Mayor of San Francisco, Governor of the Kansas Territory, Civil War General, and Governor of Pennsylvania.
Posted by: Gwailo on June 1, 2006 at 2:47 AM | PERMALINK
Houston was not an independent in 1859. After the Whig Party decayed, many southern Whigs, and some southern Democrats (including Houston) joined the new Know Nothing Party, which became the main competition to the Democrats in the South (the Republicans remaining a sectional party only present in the north, and, to a slight extent, the border states). Although the Know Nothings collapsed as a national party after the 1856 presidential election, the former members of the party formed state level parties, called things like "the Opposition Party" or "American Party" or what not, and continued to function as the opposition to the Democrats at the state level, and indeed, in congress. In 1860, these people formed the Constitutional Union Party, which ran its own candidate for president in that year (John Bell of Tennessee).
So Houston was not an independent, he was a member of the main-non-Democratic party in the state of Texas, which happened to not really have a name.
Posted by: John on June 1, 2006 at 6:39 AM | PERMALINK
I thought the "Know Nothings" were the Republican'ts' base.
Posted by: merlallen on June 1, 2006 at 7:37 AM | PERMALINK
Wow! An item titled "Switch Hitting Governors" and no one made the obvious McGreevey reference.
Until now.
Posted by: anon on June 1, 2006 at 8:50 AM | PERMALINK
"Former governor of Virginia, Indiana"?
Not to be confused with the former mayor of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Posted by: RT on June 1, 2006 at 9:41 AM | PERMALINK
Wow! An item titled "Switch Hitting Governors" and no one made the obvious McGreevey reference.
Until now.
I was thinkin' it. I'm not proud of that, but I was.
Posted by: shortstop on June 1, 2006 at 10:29 AM | PERMALINK
Well, Gwailo beat me to the punch on John W Geary (after whom the street and theatre in San Francisco are named). I can add, however, that he also served as mayor of Savannah GA (at the behest of General Sherman, who had just taken it). I have heard that he was considered a success at all these positions except Governor of Kansas, which may tell us a thing or two about the 1850's.
Posted by: Gene O'Grady on June 1, 2006 at 11:56 AM | PERMALINK
Gwailo on June 1, 2006 at 2:47 AM:
"...John W. Geary was...Governor of the Kansas Territory...and Governor of Pennsylvania."
Also, John Henry Kinkead (December 10, 1826August 15, 1904) was an American Republican politician who was the Governor of Nevada from 1879 to 1883, and the first Governor of the District of Alaska from 1884 to 1885. Tecnically not two states, but interesting nonetheless.
Posted by: Dean W. Austin on June 1, 2006 at 12:13 PM | PERMALINK
I don't want to go way off on a tangent, but thanks to John for the history info. However, I have to ask if Houston was ever an actual member of the Know-Nothings or any of the related groups. I know he supported many of their positions, and the Know-Nothings considered him as a nominee for President in 1856, but was he ever a member of these organizations? Not trying to start a dispute--just want to know.
Posted by: WCharles on June 1, 2006 at 12:46 PM | PERMALINK
Then there was Harold Stassen. Republican Governor of Minnesota at age 30. Moved to Pennsylvania. Ran for governor. Buried. Became perennial joke candidate for president.
Posted by: sf on June 1, 2006 at 1:46 PM | PERMALINK
I'm not sure if Houston was ever a member of any Know Nothing organizations, but I do think he was considered to be a member of the "American Party," which was the political wing of the Know Nothing organizations, if that makes sense. The Texas state level "American Party" or "Opposition Party", or whatever it would have been called in 1858/59, would then have nominated him for the Governorship.
But my knowledge of the specific circumstances aren't very clear. I think that if one is nominated to major office by a political party, one is considered to be a "member" of that party, and in that sense Houston was a American/Oppositionist, or whatever. After all, Zachary Taylor is considered a Whig, and he never even voted. But obviously the Know Nothing societies were something else again.
Posted by: John on June 1, 2006 at 2:39 PM | PERMALINK
What about William Weld?
Whoops, he got his butt kicked today by NYGOP....
Posted by: Charles Stanton on June 1, 2006 at 6:13 PM | PERMALINK
Thanks for the additional info, John.
Posted by: WCharles on June 1, 2006 at 6:45 PM | PERMALINK
Thomas McKean, the final signer of the Declaration of Independence was a 2 term governor of Pennsylvania and during the revolutionary war was the acting President of Delaware. I believe he was elected as Vice-President, and the actual President was arrested by the British.
From Wikipedia:
Thomas McKean (March 19, 1734 June 24, 1817) was an American lawyer and politician from New Castle, in New Castle County, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, and the second President of the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation. He was at various times a member of the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republican Party, and an Independent, who served as Acting President of Delaware, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and Governor of Pennsylvania. McKean is usually pronounced McKane.
Posted by: jdmckean on June 2, 2006 at 12:29 PM | PERMALINK
