Earl Landgrebe

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On March 21, 1958, Landgrebe filed to run in the Republican primary to succeed retiring incumbent John Wilson Van Ness for the Indiana Senate seat from Jasper County, Newton County, Porter County and Pulaski County and defeated Mayor John E. Wiggins and William A. Woodworth. In the general election he defeated Democratic nominee Maurice Mason. During his tenure he served on the Elections, Financial Institutions, Transportation, and Benevolent and Penal Institutions committees. In 1961, he introduced the bill to create the Indiana Port Authority to oversee the creation of seaports along Lake Michigan. During the 1960 presidential election he supported vice president Richard Nixon and on April 21, 1960, he was appointed as the Porter County chairman in the Indiana Committee for Nixon by Porter County Republican Chairman Bill Conover.

In 1962, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Baker v. Carr that the 14th Amendment applies to state apportionment and that federal courts are open to lawsuits challenging state legislative districts leading to further lawsuits over redistricting. After Reynolds v. Sims the Indiana state legislature created a bill to reappropriate the districts and Landgrebe was the only Republican to vote against it alongside twenty-two Democrats, causing the bill to not pass.

Later in 1962, he announced that he would seek reelection and won the Republican nomination without opposition. He later defeated Democratic nominee Ted Savich in the general election. On March 4, 1966, he announced that he would seek reelection to a third term. State representative Robert D. Anderson mounted a primary challenge against him, but Landgrebe narrowly won the Republican nomination with 4,617 votes to Anderson's 4,232 votes. In the general election he easily defeated Democratic nominee Richard Glen Percifield with 22,070 votes to 13,300 votes.

On March 6, 1964, he announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana, but was overshadowed by other candidates in the race that included Lieutenant Governor Richard O. Ristine, State Treasurer Robert E. Hughes, and Secretary of State Charles O. Hendricks and during balloting at the Republican state convention he came in last place out of seven candidates with only one delegate compared to Richard O. Ristine's 1,212 delegates.

In 1965, he was reassigned Senate committee positions and was placed onto the Judiciary B, Legislative Apportionment, Public Safety, and Transportation senate committees, but Landgrebe had little power on the apportionment committee due to eight of the eleven members being Democrats. In 1967, he was reassigned to the Labor, Roads, and Transportation senate committees.

Landgrebe's service in the state senate ended in 1968 when he won election to the United States House of Representatives. On March 1, 1968, he announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for Indiana's Second Congressional District to succeed Charles A. Halleck who was retiring. Landgrebe won the Republican nomination following a primary recount with a plurality of 21.76% and only eighty votes more than Olyer U. Sullivan. He represented Indiana's 2nd congressional district during the 91st, 92nd and 93rd sessions of congress and was a member of the Education and Labor Committee and a ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Subcommittee on Agricultural Labor.

In 1970, Albert Harrigan, who was a candidate in the 1968 primary, and Donald W. Blue, the mayor of Lafayette, announced that they would challenge Landgrebe for the Republican nomination. Landgrebe was criticized by Blue and Harrigan for missing multiple votes and not being supportive enough of Nixon. He received his largest amount of support throughout his House career in the 1970 primary with 56.48% of the vote with the rest being divided between Harrigan and Blue. The Democratic Party fared well nationally during the 1970 House elections and Landgrebe narrowly held onto his seat by only 1,204 votes against Phillip Sprague. During the campaign Landgrebe spent $39,334 and Sprague spent $57,918.

On March 23, 1971, the House of Representatives voted on the proposed Twenty-sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen years old, which easily passed with 401 in favor and 19 against. Landgrebe did not participate in the vote on the amendment, but in the past he stated he was against lowering the voting age as the votes of 18 year olds would dilute the votes of older voters.

On November 9, 1971, Richard Boehning, the House Majority Leader of the Indiana House of Representatives, announced that he would challenge Landgrebe for the Republican nomination later citing his narrow victory in 1970 and for not joining the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. During the primary Landgrebe received the endorsement of fifty-one members of the House of Representatives. However, David W. Dennis was the only member of the Indiana state delegation to endorse him and Charles A. Halleck, who had served in the district before Landgrebe and House Majority and Minority Leader, gave his endorsement to Boehning. He narrowly defeated Boehning with 34,813 votes for 54.20% against his 29,417 votes for 45.80% of the vote. In the general election he easily defeated Purdue University professor Floyd Fithian by riding off of the coattails of Richard Nixon's landslide victory in the 1972 presidential election and in Indiana where Nixon received 66.11% of the vote statewide against George McGovern and received 76,000 more votes than Landgrebe in the second congressional district.

Landgrebe gained a reputation in Congress as a "colorful loner" with a unique brand of conservatism. He criticized Lyndon B. Johnson for reducing bombardment of North Vietnam in 1968 and initially supported the United States' invasion of Cambodia ordered by Nixon, but later came out against it and would rather have the United States invade North Vietnam. In 1972, he was arrested during an official visit to the Soviet Union to observe their education facilities due to him distributing Bibles which he did as he was a devout Lutheran. In 1973, he became ill and was treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for ten days during which Nixon visited him.

Landgrebe was a stalwart defender of President Nixon throughout the Watergate scandal and during the Nixon impeachment hearings. When the House of Representatives voted to begin the impeachment hearings, 410 voted in favor and Landgrebe was one of the four who voted against. Even after the transcript of the "smoking gun" tape was released on August 5, 1974, documenting Nixon's complicity in the Watergate coverup, Landgrebe remained loyal and refused to listen to the tapes or read the transcripts. When asked about the damning tape transcript and the resultant rapid collapse of support for the president among Republicans in Congress and the likelihood that Nixon would be impeached, he said: "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." On August 8, 1974, when Nixon gave his televised resignation speech Landgrebe was one of 42 people in the White House during it. When the House of Representatives voted to accept the committee's report following Nixon's resignation it was 412 in favor and 3 against; the three opposed were Landgrebe, Otto Passman, and Sonny Montgomery. When the House voted on former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller's confirmation as vice president to President Gerald Ford, he was one of 30 Republicans to vote against him due to his "extreme liberalism".

He was named as one of the top "Ten Dumbest Congressmen" by New Times alongside Senators William L. Scott and Roman Hruska and Representatives William A. Barrett, Harold Donohue, Floyd Spence, Harold L. Runnels, John Rarick, and Joseph J. Maraziti. Landgrebe received a massive backlash from voters in his district for his support of Nixon and was resoundingly defeated in the 1974 election although this was the only time in his House career that he did not face a primary challenge. In the election he lost to Democratic nominee Floyd Fithian and only received 64,950 votes to Fithian's 101,856 votes (38.94% vs. 61.06% respectively). Fithian was 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.

Landgrebe continued to support Nixon in the following decade with him stating "Show me an impeachable offense ... Compare it to the wonderful things for this country this man had done." during an interview in 1984.

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