Looking into the history of Florida’s Governors, I discovered something interesting. The guy Jeb Bush defeated in 1998, actually managed to take office for 20-odd days when outgoing governor Chiles died in December of that year.
I thought this was strange, until I read about Gov. Mixson. This guy became Governor in 1987 on January 3rd when Gov. Graham resigned in order to take a position as Senator. Mixson became the 39th Governor of Florida, and served for three days until the innauguration of Martinez on January 6th.
How bizarre! The guy even got an official portrait.
My question: Did Gov. Graham have to resign in order to take a Senate seat, or could he have held both offices for the three days of overlap? And if he didn’t have to, why did he? Any long-time Florida residents know the answer to this one?
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I do not believe he could have held both offices at once. Likely there would have been calls about ‘conflict of interest’, or something like that.
(BTW, where did you find this information? I have been checking several Florida state and government websites and only get current and past legislative information, but no past senators, governors, etc. I have a copy of Atlas of Florida (copyright 1992, University Press of Florida) listing former governors, but only the years, not the actual dates of office. I need something more updated than the AoF; any websites or cites you can provide would be helpful!)
(BTW, part 2 - I just noticed that Daniel T. McCarty (1953) was a one-year wonder also, as well as A.K. Allison (1865), but he is listed as Not Recognized by the Federal Government (If THAT’S not a scary thought, then I don’t know what is!).)
(BTW, part 3 - Jeb Bush defeated Lt. Governor Buddy MacKay, who then became Governor of Florida when Governor Lawton Chiles passed away (from a heart attack in his exercise room, IIRC).)
I believe you can be elected to two offices at once, but you can’t be sworn in for both of them at the same time. A lot of sitting governors have been elected to the US Senate. Most notably, Hiram Johnson of California and Huey Long of Louisiana. Johnson waited until after the new Senate was seated to resign his office and take over as Senator. (He waited 12 days).
Long was an even more extreme case. His term was supposed to start in March 1931 and he stayed on as governor of Louisiana until January 1932.
I also assume that A.K. Allison wasn’t recognized as governor by the Federal Government because of a small matter known as the Civil War.