Floyd Fithian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIndiana's2nd district | |
| In office January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Earl Landgrebe |
| Succeeded by | Philip Sharp |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Floyd James Fithian (1928-11-03)November 3, 1928 Vesta, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | June 27, 2003(2003-06-27) (aged 74) Annandale, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Marjorie Heim |
| Children | 3[1] |
| Education | Peru State College (BA) University of Nebraska (PhD) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Navy United States Navy Reserve |
| Years of service | 1951–1955 (active duty) 1955–1971 (reserve duty) |
| Rank | commander |
Floyd James Fithian (November 3, 1928 – June 27, 2003) was an American educator and politician who served as aUnited States Representative fromIndiana as aDemocrat.[2] He was one of the forty nineWatergate Babies who won election to the House of Representatives in the wake of theWatergate scandal during the1974 House elections with Fithian himself defeatingEarl Landgrebe, who became infamous for his stalwart defense of PresidentRichard Nixon. He was one of the fourteen members of theHouse Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and believed that theKennedy assassination in 1963 wasorchestrated by members of organized crime.[3]
Floyd James Fithian was born inVesta, Nebraska on November 3, 1928, and graduated from Vesta High School in 1947.[4] In 1951, he became the first in his family to graduate from college when he received aBachelor of Arts degree fromPeru State College inPeru, Nebraska. He enlisted into theUnited States Navy in the same year and rose to the rank oflieutenant by the time he left in 1955.[5] However, he continued to serve in theUnited States Navy Reserve, retiring in 1971 as acommander.[6]
While in the navy, Fithian was able to attend theUniversity of Nebraska, where he received hisMaster of Arts in 1955 and, after teaching at a high school from 1956 to 1959, aPh.D. in American history in 1964 from the same institution.[7] He taught briefly atNebraska Wesleyan University and moved toLafayette, Indiana in 1964 to become an associate professor of history atPurdue University.[8] During his time at Purdue, he managed and operated a small farm inTippecanoe County.[9]
During the1968 presidential election he served as an associate Tippecanoe County coordinator for Robert Kennedy'spresidential campaign. Afterwards he served as an associate Tippecanoe County coordinator forBirch Bayh's reelection campaign inIndiana's Senate race.[10]
During the1970 midterm elections he served as Tippecanoe County coordinator for Philip A. Sprague's house campaign against incumbent RepublicanEarl Landgrebe and as president of the 2nd District Win-Dems organization.[11][12] Landgrebe narrowly defeated Sprague in the general election by only 1,204 votes, but he was the first Democratic congressional nominee to win Tippecanoe County since the 1930s.[13] He was also selected to be one of the Democratic nominees for Tippecanoe County's three council seats by the county Democratic Central Committee, but came in fourth place.[14][15]
Fithian ran for Indiana's Second Congressional District during the1972 elections and won the Democratic nomination. In the general election Landgrebe easily defeated him by riding off of thecoattails of Richard Nixon's landslide victory in the1972 presidential election and inIndiana where he received 66.1% of the vote statewide againstGeorge McGovern and received 72,000 more votes than Landgrebe in the second congressional district.[16]
During theWatergate scandal Landgrebe was a stalwart defender of Nixon, explaining his refusal to listen to or read the transcript of the"smoking gun" tape that was released on August 5, 1974, and documented Nixon's complicity in the Watergate coverup, by stating, "Don't confuse me with the facts. I've got a closed mind. I will not vote for impeachment. I'm going to stick with my president even if he and I have to be taken out of this building and shot."[17] Landgrebe received a massive backlash from voters in his district for his support of Nixon and was resoundingly defeated in the1974 election in a rematch with Fithian. Fithian easily defeated Landgrebe in a landslide with 101,856 votes to 64,950 votes becoming the first Democratic candidate to win in Indiana's Second Congressional district sinceGeorge R. Durgan in the1932 elections when the Democrats also saw a landslide victory nationally.
In the1976 elections the Indiana Republican Party ran a slate of candidates to defeat Fithian in the general election and retake the formerly strong Republican seat and choseAssistant Secretary of Agriculture William Erwin out of a five-man primary.[18] However, Fithian won reelection with 54.6% of the vote against Erwin. In the1978 elections Fithian saw his second largest margin of victory, behind his victory against Landgrebe in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal hurting Republicans, due to Republicans running Jay Philip Oppenheim, a failed primary candidate in the district from the 1976 attempt to unseat Fithian, who had little name recognition and with William Costas, a Republican turned independent, taking votes from Oppenhiem gave Fithian a 20.3% margin of victory. Despite the Republicans performing well nationally in the1980 elections and in Indiana, Fithian was able to win reelection by 8%.[19]
In 1975 he introduced abalanced budget constitutional amendment, but it failed to gain any traction. In 1977 he supported theTorrijos–Carter Treaties which would give control of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1999 despite the majority of his district being against it.[20] In 1976 he sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking him to demand former Air Force UndersecretaryJames W. Plummer's resignation as executive vice president ofLockheed Corporation due to the conflict of interests that would be created.[21] In 1982 he reintroduced theEqual Rights Amendment which had failed to be ratified by 38 states before its deadline, but it failed to pass.[22]
During his tenure, Fithian served on theHouse Small Business Committee, theHouse Committee on Foreign Affairs, theHouse Committee on Agriculture and theHouse Committee on Government Operations where he served on theHouse Select Committee on Assassinations to investigate theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[23]
In 1982 Indiana lost a congressional district after the1980 Census. Fithian's district was split between three more conservative districts. Fithian criticized the reapportionment and brought up that according to theapportionment formula Indiana was entitled to 10.574 congressional districts and New Mexico was entitled to 2.505 congressional districts yet despite the Indianan figure being higher Indiana was losing a district and New Mexico was gaining a district.[24]
On July 13, 1981, Fithian announced that he would retire from the House and would not seek reelection in either the3rd,5th, or7th congressional districts or challenge SenatorRichard Lugar and would instead run forSecretary of State.[25] However, on February 16, 1982, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Senator to challenge Lugar in the1982 election.[26] In the Democratic primary he faced Indiana State Senator Michael Kendall, who he earlier encouraged to run for the Senate who he defeated with 59% of the vote.[27]
On November 2, 1982, he was defeated by Lugar who won with 54% of the vote against Fithian's 46% and won by 149,901 votes.
After his defeat he served asChief of Staff for Illinois SenatorPaul Simon from 1983 to 1992, and worked as the campaign manager for Simon's1988 presidential campaign. Fithian also worked for SenatorLloyd Bentsen as the finance director when he was the head of theDemocratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1983 to 1985.[28] After working for Simon, he joined theDepartment of Agriculture working as Secretary of theFarm Credit Administration.[29] In 1991Oliver Stone'sJFK, a political thriller based on the investigation into the Kennedy assassination byJim Garrison, to critical acclaim although it was criticized for its historical inaccuracies and Floyd criticized the film for its manipulation of the past. On March 14, 2003, he joined seventy two other former congressmembers and signed a letter asking PresidentGeorge W. Bush and Prime MinisterTony Blair to give more time to the United Nations inspectors in Iraq.[30]
On June 27, 2003, Fithian died at his retirement home inAnnandale,Virginia after suffering fromParkinson's disease and was interred inArlington National Cemetery.[31][32][33]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Earl Landgrebe (incumbent) | 110,406 | 54.7% | +4.3% | |
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian | 91,533 | 45.3% | −4.3% | |
| Total votes | 201,939 | 100.0% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian | 101,856 | 61.1% | +15.7% | |
| Republican | Earl Landgrebe (incumbent) | 64,950 | 38.9% | −15.3% | |
| Total votes | 166,806 | 100.0% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian (incumbent) | 117,617 | 54.6% | −6.3% | |
| Republican | William Erwin | 95,605 | 44.5% | +5.6% | |
| American | James Hensley Logan | 1,623 | 0.8% | +0.8% | |
| Total votes | 214,845 | 100.0% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian (incumbent) | 82,402 | 56.5% | +1.8% | |
| Republican | Jay Philip Oppenheim | 52,842 | 36.3% | −8.3% | |
| Independent | William Costas | 9,368 | 6.4% | +6.4% | |
| American | James Hensley Logan | 1,166 | 0.8% | +0.0% | |
| Total votes | 145,778 | 100.0% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian (incumbent) | 122,326 | 54.1% | −2.5% | |
| Republican | Ernest Niemeyer | 103,957 | 45.9% | +9.7% | |
| Total votes | 226,283 | 100.0% | |||
| Primary election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian | 262,644 | 59.5% | |
| Democratic | Michael Kendall | 178,702 | 40.5% | |
| Total votes | 441,346 | 100.0% | ||
| General election | ||||
| Republican | Richard Lugar (incumbent) | 978,301 | 53.8% | |
| Democratic | Floyd Fithian | 828,400 | 45.6% | |
| American | Raymond James | 10,586 | 0.6% | |
| Total votes | 1,817,287 | 100.0% | ||
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromIndiana (Class 1) 1982 | Succeeded by Jack Wickes |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Representative of Indiana's 2nd Congressional District 1975–1983 | Succeeded by |
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBiographical Directory of the United States Congress.Federal government of the United States.
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
