Again, Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer have done a great job bring little-known facts to this column. It is always a treat finding their column in the Sunday Chicago Tribune. Real research reporting.
7. Republican National Chairman's half-sister married MIKE TYSON after the boxer's rape conviction and later divorced him. Tyson endorsed Steele's unsuccessful run for US Senate in 2006.
8. Four cities call them the BIRTHPLACE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: Ripon, Wis.; Exeter, N.H.; and Crawfordsville, Iowa, held meetings in 1853-1854 to discuss forming a new party. The first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Michigan, in July 1854. (I'd always heard Ripon was the first place.)
9. A Republican named PINCKNEY BENTON STEWART PINCHBACK was the nation's first black governor, serving 35 days in 1872-1873 after Louisiana's governor was impeached.
10. MARGARET CHASE SMITH was a freshman senator from Maine when she denounced Joseph McCarthy on the Senate floor in 1950. One memorable quote from the speech: "I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny--Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear." (Calumny?)
Despite McCarthy's wrath, she went on to serve six more terms.
Of interest, Illinois, the home of Abraham Lincoln, has not gone for a Republican president in many years.
So, Now You Know. --DaCoot
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