Wade Church (May 4, 1908 – December 4, 2002) was an American politician who served as the Attorney General of Arizona from 1959 to 1961. Church is the most recent incumbent attorney general to lose a general election in Arizona.[1]
Wade Church | |
|---|---|
| 14th Attorney General of Arizona | |
| In office January 1, 1959 – January 2, 1961 | |
| Governor | Paul Fannin |
| Preceded by | Robert Morrison |
| Succeeded by | Robert Pickrell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 4, 1908 Helena, Montana |
| Died | December 4, 2002 (aged 94) Phoenix, Arizona |
| Political party | Democratic |
Church graduated Valedictorian from UCLA in 1933 and from Harvard Law School in 1938. In 1941 he became an assistant city attorney for the City of Phoenix. He was elected Arizona Attorney General in 1958.[2][3] He was defeated the following year by republican Robert Pickrell.[4][5]
AFL-CIO speech
editOn May 7, 1959, Mr. Church delivered a speech in Flagstaff, Arizona to the delegates of an AFL-CIO convention. Four days later, an editorial, prominently placed on the front page, rather than on the editorial pages, appeared in the Arizona Republic in 84-point font.[6] The editorial accused Church of being a communist. Church sued the newspaper, won, and in 1968 the jury's award was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court.[7] In 1976, Church finally received almost $650,000 in libel damages.[8]
References
edit- ^ Dem challengers fight 50-year trend in general elections
- ^ Obituary, The Arizona Republic on Dec. 11, 2002.
- ^ Rice, Ross R. (1959). "The 1958 Election in Arizona". The Western Political Quarterly. 12 (1): 266–275. doi:10.2307/444054. JSTOR 444054 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Meet The Candidates, Arizona Republic, 6. November 1960
- ^ Arizona Republic Wednesday, November 9, 1960
- ^ Williams, Robert H. (October 18, 1998). "A View From the Top. And the Bottom" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
- ^ Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. v. Church, 103 Ariz. 582 (1968)
- ^ Court, United States Tax (July 13, 1983). "Reports of the United States Tax Court". United States Tax Court – via Google Books.