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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name = Louis Leon Griffith | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date=January 19, 1936 | birth_place Almyra, Arkansas County<br>Arkansas, Unite..."
{{Infobox person
| name = Louis Leon Griffith
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date=January 19, 1936
| birth_place Almyra, Arkansas County<br>[[Arkansas]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date =July 13, 2010 (aged 74)
| death_place=Hensley<br>Pulaski County, Arkansas
| occupation=Master [[plumber]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nominee, 1976
| residence=(1) Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas
(2) North Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas
|religion=
|spouse=Not mentioned in obituary
Children:<br>
Sherry Carlon<br>
Toni Griffith<br>
Tammy Griffith<br>
Deborah Jennings<br>
Three other daughters, Theresa, Shawna, and TiaLisa are not mentioned in the obituary.
}}
'''Louis Leon Griffith''' (January 19, 1936 – July 13, 2010) was a master [[plumber]]<ref>''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'', May 15, 1976, p. 1220</ref> from [[North Little Rock, Arkansas|North Little Rock]], who was the [[Arkansas]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[gubernatorial]] [[nominee]] in 1976, losing the election to [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[incumbent]] [[Governor]] David Hampton Pryor.
Griffith was born in Almyra, a small town in Arkansas Count in the eastern portion of the state. to the late Henry T. Griffith and the former Lennie Opal Golden, later Lennie Davis (1914–2008).<ref name=obit>Death of Leon Griffith, ''The Pine Bluff Commercial'', July 13, 2010.</ref>
==1976 gubernatorial candidacy==
Even after Griffith's entry into the gubernatorial race, reports surfaced that the GOP leadership had earlier approached former Democratic Governor Orval Eugene Faubus, who had lost to Pryor in the 1974 primary, about switching parties and running again for governor in the 1976 general election. The liberal Republican [[Ripon Society]], which had supported former Republican Governor [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], termed the suggestion, if true, "an ignominious end to the reform heritage" that the GOP had earlier championed in Arkansas. Faubus and Republican leaders denied that such talk ever even occurred.<ref>''Ripon Forum'', XII (June 15, 1976), p. 2.</ref>
To make the race against Pryor, the GOP had recruited James E. "Jim" Lindsey (born 1944), an [[insurance]] broker then from Fayetteville and a former [[football]] player for the [[University of Arkansas]] and the [[Minnesota Vikings]]. Lindsay, however, filed as a Democrat and ran as a [[conservative]] against Pryor, under whom there had been a 20 percent increase in violent crime in Arkansas during 1975. After Lindsay declined the Republican offer, the party permitted Griffith to run as an essentially placeholder nominee.<ref>CQWR, May 15, 1976, p. 1220.</ref>
Before carrying the Republican banner, however, Griffith first had to defeat maverick Republican Joseph H. Weston of Cave City, the editor of the ''Sharp Citizen'', a mimeographed [[newspaper]] that often criticized local and state officials for alleged political corruption. Weston, whose work had led to a change in Arkansas [[libel]] law,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/19/obituaries/joseph-h-weston-publisher-of-an-arkansas-newspaper.html|title=Joseph H. Weston, Publisher of an Arkansas Newspaper|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date= November 19, 1983|accessdate=May 11, 2010 | date=November 19, 1983}}</ref> embarrassed the GOP with his peculiar antics. He told a group of farmers that World War III had begun and that they should lay up provisions.<ref>''CQWR, May 15, 1976, p. 1220; May 29, 1976, p. 1393.</ref> In 1974, Weston had opposed in the primary the Republican gubernatorial nominee,Kenneth L. "Ken" Coon, whom Pryor, as a former [[U.S. representative]], had handily defeated in the general election that year. Griffith in 1976 polled 15,500 votes (59.5 percent) to Weston's 10,540 (40.5 percent).<ref>State of Arkansas, Secretary of State, Primary election returns, 1976.</ref> The Griffith-Weston race drew more than four times the participation of the Coon-Weston primary two years earlier, a factor attributed to the [[U.S. President|presidential]] [[primary]] between [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Gerald Ford]].
During his campaign, Griffith relocated from Pine Bluff to North Little Rock. He complained about his lack of media coverage and small campaign coffers. At one point, Griffith threatened to withdraw from the race unless he received more funding from the party. He ultimately spent less than $10,000 on the race and depended almost entirely on the then small staff at state headquarters in Little Rock.<ref>CQWR, October 9, 1976, p. 2756.</ref>
==Political legacy==
''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'', based in [[Washington, D.C.]], described the hopeless nature of both the Griffith and Ford campaigns in Arkansas:
"Ten years after Arkansas Republicans began their resurgence under the late Winthrop A. Rockefeller, they are back where they were before Rockefeller arrived on the scene. ... The GOP apparatus built by Rockefeller has self-destructed. Republicans have returned to their traditional role as the second party in a one-party state."<ref>CQWR, October 9, 1976, p. 2773.</ref>
In a large general election turnout in 1976, Griffith lost each of the seventy-five counties, having polled 121,716 votes (16.7 percent), more than the 3 percent minimum required for a Republican candidate to qualify automatically for the 1978 ballot.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302194106/http://arkansasnews.com/2010/02/27/jim-keet-returns-for-governor|author=John Brummett|title= "Jim Keet returns . . . for governor?|date=February 27, 2010|publisher=Arkansasnews.com|accessdate=May 12, 2010}}</ref> Pryor prevailed with 605,083 votes (83.2 percent).
Griffith's showing was the worst for an Arkansas Republican since Jefferson W. Speck, a young planter from Mississippi County in eastern Arkansas, polled only 12.6 percent in the 1952 race against Democrat Francis Cherry, Faubus' predecessor as governor.<ref name="ReferenceA">State of Arkansas, 1976 general election returns.</ref><ref>Robert A. Diamond, ed., ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections'', Washington, D.C., 1975, p. 399.</ref> President Ford received more than twice the votes polled in Arkansas by Griffith. He carried three counties and finished with 267,903 ballots (35 percent) to former [[Georgia]] Governor [[Jimmy Carter]]'s 498,604 ballots (65 percent).<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
At the time of his death at the age of seventy-four, Griffith was residing in Hensley in Pulaski County. He was survived by four daughters, Sherrie Carlon of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Toni Griffith and Tammie Griffith, both of Roseburg, [[Oregon]], and Deborah Jennings of Hensley, and a sister, Dorothy Herrod of Pine Bluff.<ref name=obit/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Leon}}
[[Category:Arkansas]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
| name = Louis Leon Griffith
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date=January 19, 1936
| birth_place Almyra, Arkansas County<br>[[Arkansas]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date =July 13, 2010 (aged 74)
| death_place=Hensley<br>Pulaski County, Arkansas
| occupation=Master [[plumber]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nominee, 1976
| residence=(1) Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas
(2) North Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas
|religion=
|spouse=Not mentioned in obituary
Children:<br>
Sherry Carlon<br>
Toni Griffith<br>
Tammy Griffith<br>
Deborah Jennings<br>
Three other daughters, Theresa, Shawna, and TiaLisa are not mentioned in the obituary.
}}
'''Louis Leon Griffith''' (January 19, 1936 – July 13, 2010) was a master [[plumber]]<ref>''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'', May 15, 1976, p. 1220</ref> from [[North Little Rock, Arkansas|North Little Rock]], who was the [[Arkansas]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[gubernatorial]] [[nominee]] in 1976, losing the election to [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[incumbent]] [[Governor]] David Hampton Pryor.
Griffith was born in Almyra, a small town in Arkansas Count in the eastern portion of the state. to the late Henry T. Griffith and the former Lennie Opal Golden, later Lennie Davis (1914–2008).<ref name=obit>Death of Leon Griffith, ''The Pine Bluff Commercial'', July 13, 2010.</ref>
==1976 gubernatorial candidacy==
Even after Griffith's entry into the gubernatorial race, reports surfaced that the GOP leadership had earlier approached former Democratic Governor Orval Eugene Faubus, who had lost to Pryor in the 1974 primary, about switching parties and running again for governor in the 1976 general election. The liberal Republican [[Ripon Society]], which had supported former Republican Governor [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], termed the suggestion, if true, "an ignominious end to the reform heritage" that the GOP had earlier championed in Arkansas. Faubus and Republican leaders denied that such talk ever even occurred.<ref>''Ripon Forum'', XII (June 15, 1976), p. 2.</ref>
To make the race against Pryor, the GOP had recruited James E. "Jim" Lindsey (born 1944), an [[insurance]] broker then from Fayetteville and a former [[football]] player for the [[University of Arkansas]] and the [[Minnesota Vikings]]. Lindsay, however, filed as a Democrat and ran as a [[conservative]] against Pryor, under whom there had been a 20 percent increase in violent crime in Arkansas during 1975. After Lindsay declined the Republican offer, the party permitted Griffith to run as an essentially placeholder nominee.<ref>CQWR, May 15, 1976, p. 1220.</ref>
Before carrying the Republican banner, however, Griffith first had to defeat maverick Republican Joseph H. Weston of Cave City, the editor of the ''Sharp Citizen'', a mimeographed [[newspaper]] that often criticized local and state officials for alleged political corruption. Weston, whose work had led to a change in Arkansas [[libel]] law,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/19/obituaries/joseph-h-weston-publisher-of-an-arkansas-newspaper.html|title=Joseph H. Weston, Publisher of an Arkansas Newspaper|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date= November 19, 1983|accessdate=May 11, 2010 | date=November 19, 1983}}</ref> embarrassed the GOP with his peculiar antics. He told a group of farmers that World War III had begun and that they should lay up provisions.<ref>''CQWR, May 15, 1976, p. 1220; May 29, 1976, p. 1393.</ref> In 1974, Weston had opposed in the primary the Republican gubernatorial nominee,Kenneth L. "Ken" Coon, whom Pryor, as a former [[U.S. representative]], had handily defeated in the general election that year. Griffith in 1976 polled 15,500 votes (59.5 percent) to Weston's 10,540 (40.5 percent).<ref>State of Arkansas, Secretary of State, Primary election returns, 1976.</ref> The Griffith-Weston race drew more than four times the participation of the Coon-Weston primary two years earlier, a factor attributed to the [[U.S. President|presidential]] [[primary]] between [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Gerald Ford]].
During his campaign, Griffith relocated from Pine Bluff to North Little Rock. He complained about his lack of media coverage and small campaign coffers. At one point, Griffith threatened to withdraw from the race unless he received more funding from the party. He ultimately spent less than $10,000 on the race and depended almost entirely on the then small staff at state headquarters in Little Rock.<ref>CQWR, October 9, 1976, p. 2756.</ref>
==Political legacy==
''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'', based in [[Washington, D.C.]], described the hopeless nature of both the Griffith and Ford campaigns in Arkansas:
"Ten years after Arkansas Republicans began their resurgence under the late Winthrop A. Rockefeller, they are back where they were before Rockefeller arrived on the scene. ... The GOP apparatus built by Rockefeller has self-destructed. Republicans have returned to their traditional role as the second party in a one-party state."<ref>CQWR, October 9, 1976, p. 2773.</ref>
In a large general election turnout in 1976, Griffith lost each of the seventy-five counties, having polled 121,716 votes (16.7 percent), more than the 3 percent minimum required for a Republican candidate to qualify automatically for the 1978 ballot.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302194106/http://arkansasnews.com/2010/02/27/jim-keet-returns-for-governor|author=John Brummett|title= "Jim Keet returns . . . for governor?|date=February 27, 2010|publisher=Arkansasnews.com|accessdate=May 12, 2010}}</ref> Pryor prevailed with 605,083 votes (83.2 percent).
Griffith's showing was the worst for an Arkansas Republican since Jefferson W. Speck, a young planter from Mississippi County in eastern Arkansas, polled only 12.6 percent in the 1952 race against Democrat Francis Cherry, Faubus' predecessor as governor.<ref name="ReferenceA">State of Arkansas, 1976 general election returns.</ref><ref>Robert A. Diamond, ed., ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections'', Washington, D.C., 1975, p. 399.</ref> President Ford received more than twice the votes polled in Arkansas by Griffith. He carried three counties and finished with 267,903 ballots (35 percent) to former [[Georgia]] Governor [[Jimmy Carter]]'s 498,604 ballots (65 percent).<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
At the time of his death at the age of seventy-four, Griffith was residing in Hensley in Pulaski County. He was survived by four daughters, Sherrie Carlon of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Toni Griffith and Tammie Griffith, both of Roseburg, [[Oregon]], and Deborah Jennings of Hensley, and a sister, Dorothy Herrod of Pine Bluff.<ref name=obit/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Leon}}
[[Category:Arkansas]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]