Frank Leslie Smith (November 24, 1867 – August 30, 1950) was an Illinois politician.
Biography
Smith was born in
Dwight, Illinois
Dwight is a village located mainly in Livingston County, Illinois, with a small portion in Grundy County. The population was 4,032 at the 2020 census. Dwight contains an original stretch of U.S. Route 66, and from 1892 until 2016 continuously ...
, in
Livingston County He served as a
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
man from 1919 to 1921.
Career
Smith first ran for the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
primary nomination for the U.S. Senate
in 1920. In that first year of
suffrage, women's votes were counted separately from men's in Illinois. He was beating
William B. McKinley by 27,000 votes after the male votes were counted, but once the female votes were counted, McKinley had won by 11,000 votes. McKinley went on to win the general election as well.
In 1921, Smith became the chairman of the
Illinois Commerce Commission
The Illinois Commerce Commission is a quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates public utility services in the U.S. state of Illinois. The mission of the ICC is "to pursue an appropriate balance between the interest of consumers and existing and emer ...
, which oversaw utilities in the state. He prepared to run again for the Senate
in 1926. At the time, Illinois had no
campaign finance
Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political a ...
laws and Smith collected the unprecedented amount of $400,000 from several wealthy executives who ran public utilities, including $125,000 from
Samuel Insull.
In 1926 he defeated McKinley in the Republican primary for the Senate. Smith went on to win the general election held in November of that year, although
Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald (August 12, 1862 – January 6, 1932) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for establishing the Rosenwald Fund, which donated millions in ...
of
Sears, Roebuck & Company
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as ...
had offered him $550,000 stock to withdraw.
McKinley, whose
lame duck term would normally have extended until March 1927, died in December 1926, so Illinois Governor
Len Small
Lennington "Len" Small (June 16, 1862 – May 17, 1936) was an American politician who served as the 26th Governor of Illinois from 1921 to 1929. He previously was a member of the Illinois state senate from the 16th District from 1901 to 1903 a ...
(R) appointed Smith to fulfill the rest of McKinley's term, a fairly common practice when the incumbent senator has died or otherwise ceased to serve. But when Smith presented his credentials as the newly appointed Senator, the U.S. Senate voted to not allow him to qualify as a senator, based upon alleged
fraud and
corruption in his campaign for the full term. In a new
special election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
he tried again to qualify as the elected Senator in March 1927, but was again denied. He finally resigned his seat on February 9, 1928.
See also
*
Frank L. Smith Bank
Frank L. Smith , Society for American Baseball Research Biography*
Unseated members of the United States Congress
References
* "Frank L. Smith, 82, Lost Senate Seat," ''New York Times'', August 31, 1950, p 22.
* Carroll Hill Wooddy, ''The Case of Frank L. Smith: A Study in Representative Government'', University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1931.
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Frank L.
1867 births
1950 deaths
Members of the United States Senate declared not entitled to their seat
People from Dwight, Illinois
Politicians from Chicago
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois
Republican Party United States senators from Illinois