Clinton Clauson

Clinton Amos Clauson (March 28, 1895, in Mitchell, Iowa – December 30, 1959, in Maine) was a Democratic Party politician and the 66th Governor of Maine.

Life and career

Clauson grew up in Iowa and served in World War I in early adulthood. He later became a member of many organizations including Freemasonry, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Newcomen Society of the United States.^[1] In 1919 he graduated from the Palmer College of Chiropractic and later set up a practice in Waterville, Maine. He entered politics in 1928 as a member of the Democratic State Committee. After that he rose in Waterville's politics and in 1956 became mayor. He served for a year as mayor before being elected Governor, dying while in office in 1959.^[2]

As a politician, he was deemed to be a conservative Democrat. His election victory surprised many in Maine, as Edmund Muskie's favorite had been expected to win and the Republican challenger was the better known Horace A. Hildreth. In an obituary, Clauson's career had been termed "unorthodox."^[3] This is because he immigrated to Maine from Iowa as a young man, rose from obscurity to win the 1958 Democratic gubernatorial nomination as a conservative Democrat over the favorite of Maine liberals led by Governor Edmund Muskie, and went on to defeat a Republican opponent who was a heavy favorite. His death led to State Senate President Republican John H. Reed's becoming governor.

References

1. ^ Political Graveyard's section on Chiropractors in politics
2. ^ National Governor's Association
3. ^ Time Magazine

External links

Biography portal

• "Clinton Clauson". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9775663. Retrieved 2009-02-20.

v t e Governors of Maine W. King Williamson Ames Rose Parris Lincoln Cutler Hall Hunton Smith Dunlap Kent Fairfield Kent Fairfield Kavanagh Dunn Anderson Dana Hubbard Crosby A. Morrill Wells Hamlin Williams L. Morrill Washburn Coburn Cony Chamberlain Perham Dingley Connor Garcelon Davis Plaisted Robie Bodwell Marble Burleigh Cleaves Powers Hill Cobb Fernald F. Plaisted Haines O. Curtis Milliken Parkhurst Baxter Brewster Gardiner Brann Barrows Sewall Hildreth Payne N. Haskell Cross Muskie R. Haskell Clauson Reed K. Curtis Longley Brennan McKernan A. King Baldacci LePage

This article about a mayor in Maine is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e