Former Az Gov. Evan Mecham dies

“Former Az Gov. Evan Mecham dies at age 83”

A former aide says Evan Mecham, a millionaire automobile dealer who briefly served as Arizona’s governor before being removed from office by impeachment conviction in 1988, died Thursday. He was 83 . . .

Gov. Mecham’s brief tenure was marred by a quick series of PR gaffes, ethical problems, and a long fostering of political enemies.

“I don’t think [impeachment] should have happened,” [succeeding governor] Mofford says now, remembering Mecham as a “wonderful” if misunderstood man who treated her with dignity at the most difficult time in both their lives.

Some members of the state’s political tribes remain less forgiving, though time and the former governor’s long illness have softened views of the man denounced in 1986 as “an ethical pygmy” by fellow Mormon and onetime state Senate President Stan Turley, who took exception to Mecham’s rough-and-tumble campaign style.

Even some leaders of the impeachment effort now say they harbored reservations about unseating Mecham but were powerless to stop it as his own combative nature and his unwillingness to make peace with political rivals fanned the flames. But one of his chief prosecutors in the 1988 Senate impeachment trial is resolute in his estimation that the historic act was necessary.

He was probably best known nationally for temporarily revoking the MLK holiday in Arizona.

Then Mecham rescinded the state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying his predecessor, Democrat Bruce Babbitt, had illegally enacted it and that the issue deserved a public vote. The King holiday imbroglio prompted public protests and, eventually, a national convention boycott. By March 1987, a recall campaign began taking shape against Mecham.

I had not heard of this:

Republic editorial cartoonist Steve Benson’s gibes so angered Mecham and his supporters that some local Mormons sought the intervention of Benson’s grandfather, then the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The cartoonist eventually left the church, in part over differences he’d had with it over Mecham’s coverage.

Rest in peace.