A state in economic crisis, job growth nonexistent, land values dropping, state population in decline for the first time and a narrowly-elected governor was being challenged to a recall election by the Republican Party. Sounds like those crazy Californians, right? Try North Dakota, circa 1921. California, the trend-setting state, will not be able to make the claim as having the first governor recalled if indeed Gray Davis is removed from office in October.
Governor Lynn Frazer, a moderate Republican, was the last governor to be recalled by a special election in the United States. At that time North Dakota was in a throws of a severe economic downturn. The end of the First World War resulted in a steep drop in the price of wheat and beef, North Dakota’s two largest industries. Over- mortgaged farmers could not pay loans, banks failed and land values dropped. An agrarian movement closely linked to Frazer advocated a controversial agenda. Frazer’s popularity fell with the state’s economic fortunes and growing disillusionment over a farm relief program that included a state-owned bank and flourmill. Anger festered among the electorate, and political rivals saw an opportunity to attack Frazer and the controversial agrarian political group with which he was associated. A newly added state constitutional provision made the recall process of elected officials possible in an effort to give the citizens more of a say in the political process. Salacious charges in the media levied at Governor Frazer accused him of being everything from a Socialist to an Anarchist to being part of a free love movement. In fact Lynn Frazer was nothing of the sort; he was a devout Methodist who never drank or smoked and refused to have an inauguration ball because he did not like parties or dancing. The atmosphere in North Dakota at the time however was very chaotic and unstable, and the Governor succumbed to the recall election process and was removed from office.
The organizers of the California recall election should take note of what happened following Governor Frazer’s ouster in 1921. The North Dakota recall election proved to be a pyrrhic victory for the recall promoters. While Frazer was forced from office, ultimately the voters decided to throw out the three members of the Republican Party who initiated the recall bid, keep Governor Frazer’s farm programs in place and eventually elect Lynn Frazer to three six-year terms as a Unites States Senator.
Given his current popularity, it is hard to imagine Gray Davis ever being elected to the U.S. Senate; however, U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, the man who funded the $1.7 million petition drive, with hopes of seizing on the voter’s discontent to grab the governor’s mansion, withdrew his bid due to lack of support in statewide opinion polls. Perhaps the old saying “those who refuse to look at history are condemned to repeat it” will hold true in California.
— J.K. Butera