"Arizona's first native-born governor was the state's first Republican governor and the first to break George W. P. Hunt's stranglehold on the state's top elective office. Tom Campbell was an immensely popular Arizonan, and his national political stature was demonstrated when his name was placed in nomination for U.S. vice president at the 1924 Republican National Convention.
Campbell was the only Republican elected to state office (State Tax Commission) in 1914: He challenged Governor Hunt in the 1916 election and was the apparent winner, but an Arizona Supreme Court decision several months later awarded the disputed election and governorship to Hunt. However, in 1918, and again in 1920, Campbell won the governorship by wide state margins. His primary interests were in Arizona's tax structure he was called "the father of Arizona's revenue and tax laws") and in equitable distribution of Colorado River Water.
Campbell almost became a career Army officer. Rep. Marcus Smith selected him as an alternate to West Point, but another applicant won the appointment. He became Prescott's assistant postmaster in 1894 and later served as postmaster at Jerome. In 1900 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature, and in 1907 won election a Yavapai County assessor. He became known statewide for his work on the Tax Commission, and used that as a stepping stone to the governorship. A friend of President Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, Campbell helped Harding gain a resumption of diplomatic relations with Mexico in 1923. Coolidge appointed him US Representative to the 1926 International Exposition in Seville, Spain. In 1930, Hoover named him president of the US Civil Service Commission. For 20 years he worked for the formation of the Santa Fe Compact, and association of western states to allocate Colorado River Water, and he lived to see it adopted not long before his death. Campbell suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the State Capitol grounds and died March 1, 1944 at age 66."
Goff, John F. Arizona
Biographical Dictionary. Black Mountain Press. Cave Creek,
Arizona 1983.
p. 262
Thomas E. Campbell / by John S. Goff.
F811.C18
G64 1985
Compiled messages of Geo. W.P. Hunt and Thos.
E. Campbell, Gove[r]nors of Arizona.
GV
1.2:H 85 M 37
Statement prepared for the convenience of and
use by Arizona's representatives at the oral hearing to be held on December
17, 1934, before the Secretary of the Interior : in re, The proposed
contract with the State of Arizona, pending before the Secretary of the
Interior, providing for the storage and delivery of water from the Boulder
Dam Reservoir.
HD1695
.C7 A7x
The I.W.W. in Arizona, Notes of Thomas E. Campbell,
Written Between 1934 & 1939; C.1917
CM MSM-141
The 1916 Arizona Gubanatorial Election
CM MSM-203
Biography of Thomas E. Campbell, 1878-1944
FB BIO C-14
Newspaper Excerpts: Governor Campbell and the
Colorado River Compact, 1922
FE EPH QC-10
