Reflecting on Governor Hiram Johnson’s anti-corruption career

The Nov. 1 column by David Carrillo and Joshua Spivak reminding us of the tumultuous times in earlier California, and Governor Hiram Johnson's campaign to end political corruption, brought back fond memories of my earlier study of Johnson.

Governor Johnson's anti-corruption career began in earnest in 1908, during heady and tumultuous times. As an assistant DA in San Francisco, he stepped in to take over the prosecution of political party boss Abe Ruef when special deputy district attorney Frances Heney was shot in the head while in court. See, T.G. Barnes, Hastings College of the Law - The First Century 181 (1978). Johnson went on to have a long political career, starting as Governor in 1910. In 1916, he defeated George S. Patton, Sr. (father of WWII General George S. Patton, Jr.) to become a U.S. Senator and served California until his death in 1945. However, he was twice unsuccessful in seeking a presidential nomination.

In 1912, he ran as the vice-presidential Progressive Party candidate with Teddy Roosevelt in their third-party "Bull Moose" challenge to the two major political parties. They finished second in the Electoral College count behind Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall, but ahead of incumbent President William Howard Taft and Nicholas Butler, as well as Socialist Party candidates Eugene V. Debs and Emil Seidel.

In his time, Johnson supported Republican, Democratic and Progressive Party candidates and causes, and is kind of a hopeful role model for some of us "no party preference" voters. In the interest of full disclosure, I worked for many years as a state Deputy Attorney General in the Hiram Johnson State Office Building in San Francisco.