Floyd James Fithian (November 3, 1928June 27, 2003) was an American educator and politician who served as a

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th st ...

as a Democrat. He was one of the forty nine Watergate Babies who won election to the House of Representatives in the wake of the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continu ...

during the 1974 House elections with Fithian himself defeating Earl Landgrebe, who became infamous for his stalwart defense of President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. He was one of the fourteen members of the

House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The HSCA completed its ...

(HSCA) and believed that the

Kennedy assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wit ...

in 1963 was orchestrated by members of organized crime.

Early life

Floyd James Fithian was born in Vesta, Nebraska on November 3, 1928 and graduated from Vesta High School in 1947. In 1951 he became the first in his family to graduate from college when he received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska. He enlisted into the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the same year and rose to the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often su ...

by the time he left in 1955. However, he continued to serve in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sel ...

, retiring in 1971 as a

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

. While in the navy, Fithian was able to attend the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, where he received his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

in 1955 and, after teaching at a high school from 1956 to 1959, a Ph.D. in American history in 1964 from the same institution. He taught briefly at

Nebraska Wesleyan University Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) is a private Methodist-affiliated university in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2017, it has approximately 2,100 students including 1,500 full-time students and 300 ...

and moved to

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

in 1964 to become an associate professor of history at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and m ...

. During his time at Purdue, he managed and operated a small farm in Tippecanoe County.

Career

Early politics

During the 1968 presidential election he served as an associate Tippecanoe County coordinator for Robert Kennedy's

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

. Afterwards he served as an associate Tippecanoe County coordinator for

Birch Bayh Birch Evans Bayh Jr. (; January 22, 1928 – March 14, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981. He was first elected to office in 1954, when he won election to the Indi ...

's reelection campaign in Indiana's Senate race. During the 1970 midterm elections he served as Tippecanoe County coordinator for Philip A. Sprague's house campaign against incumbent Republican Earl Landgrebe and as president of the 2nd District Win-Dems organization. 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. 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.

United States House of Representatives

Fithian ran for Indiana's Second Congressional District during the 1972 elections and won the Democratic nomination. In the general election Landgrebe easily defeated him by riding off of the coattails of Richard Nixon's landslide victory in the 1972 presidential election and in

where he received 66.1% of the vote statewide against

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pr ...

and received 72,000 more votes than Landgrebe in the second congressional district. During the

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." Landgrebe received a massive backlash from voters in his district for his support of Nixon and was resoundingly defeated in the 1974 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 since George R. Durgan in the 1932 elections when the Democrats also saw a landslide victory nationally. In the 1976 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 chose Assistant Secretary of Agriculture William Erwin out of a five-man primary. However, Fithian won reelection with 54.6% of the vote against Erwin. In the 1978 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 the 1980 elections and in Indiana, Fithian was able to win reelection by 8%. In 1975 he introduced a balanced budget constitutional amendment, but it failed to gain any traction. In 1977 he supported the

Torrijos–Carter Treaties The Torrijos–Carter Treaties ( es, link=no, Tratados Torrijos-Carter) are two treaties signed by the United States and Panama in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 1977, which superseded the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903. The treaties guara ...

which would give control of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1999 despite the majority of his district being against it. In 1976 he sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking him to demand former Air Force Undersecretary James W. Plummer's resignation as executive vice president of

Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but ...

due to the conflict of interests that would be created. In 1982 he reintroduced the

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...

which had failed to be ratified by 38 states before its deadline, but it failed to pass. During his tenure, Fithian served on the House Small Business Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Government Operations where he served on the

to investigated the

assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at ...

1982 U.S. Senate election

In 1982 Indiana lost a congressional district after the

1980 Census The United States census of 1980, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4 percent over the 203,184,772 persons enumerated during the 1970 census. It was th ...

and Fithian's district was split into more conservative territory. Fithian criticized the reapportionment and brought up that according to the apportionment 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. On July 13, 1981 Fithian announced that he would retire from the House and would not seek reelection in either the

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * H ...

, 5th, or 7th congressional districts or challenge Senator

Richard Lugar Richard Green Lugar (April 4, 1932 – April 28, 2019) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party. Born in Indianapolis, Lugar graduated from De ...

and would instead run for Secretary of State. However, on February 16, 1982 he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Senator to challenge Lugar in the 1982 election. 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. 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.

Post-House career

After his defeat he served as

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

for Illinois Senator

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

from 1983 to 1992, and worked as the campaign manager for Simon's 1988 presidential campaign. Fithian also worked for Senator

Lloyd Bentsen Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. (February 11, 1921 – May 23, 2006) was an American politician who was a four-term United States Senator (1971–1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ti ...

as the finance director when he was the head of the

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Hill committee for the United States Senate. It is the only organization solely dedicated to electing Democrats to the United States Senate. ...

from 1983 to 1985. After working for Simon, he joined the Department of Agriculture working as Secretary of the

Farm Credit Administration The Farm Credit Administration is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States. Its function is to regulate the financial institutions that provide credit to farmers. Authority The Farm Credit Administration is an indep ...

. In 1991

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' S ...

JFK John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

, a political thriller based on the investigation into the Kennedy assassination by Jim 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 President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

to give more time to the United Nations inspectors in Iraq. On June 27, 2003 Fithian died at his retirement home in Annandale,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

after suffering from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms bec ...

and was interred in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

.Burial Detail: Fithian, Floyd James
– ANC Explorer

Electoral history

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fithian, Floyd James 1928 births 20th-century American politicians 2003 deaths American campaign managers American conspiracy theorists Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana John F. Kennedy conspiracy theorists Military personnel from Nebraska Peru State College alumni Purdue University faculty United States Navy officers University of Nebraska alumni People from Johnson County, Nebraska