Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Awards/Availabilty

Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis

First Advisor

Thomas G. Ryan

Keywords

Iowa--Politics and government--20th century; Clark, Dick, 1928-; Culver, Chet; Iowa--History--20th century;

Abstract

In January of 1975, Iowa Democratic Party activists and office holders could not have been happier. In the previous November's mid-term elections, Iowans had elected or reelected five of the six Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, including newcomers Michael Blouin, Berkley Bedell, and Tom Harkin. In addition, Democrats now controlled both branches of the state legislature. About the only thing for the state's Democrats to be unhappy about was the situation in the Iowa Executive Council, where the GOP controlled all seven offices (including that of governor). Even so, what probably excited loyal Democrats more than anything else was the election of former Second District Congressman John C. Culver to the United States Senate. The Culver election, coupled with the election two years earlier of Culver's legislative assistant Dick Clark over then-incumbent Sen. Jack Miller, marked only the second time in the state's history that two Democrats had been elected in the same decade to the highest legislative body in the nation. Iowa had finally become a competitive two-party state.

Date of Award

1993

Department

Department of History

Presidential Scholar Designation

A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation Presidential Scholar.

Date Original

3-1-1993

Object Description

1 PDF file (71 pages)

Date Digital

4-21-2017

Copyright

©1993 Clinton R. Boddicker

Type

document

Language

EN

File Format

application_pdf

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