Meet Arthur Samish. Known as the most influential and powerful lobbyist in the history of California. Samish represented movie studios, racetracks, lawyers, insurance companies, fishing industry, liquor, and brewing interests. His technique was to have his clients first form a "trade association" with Samish as president. Membership fees went into a war chest out of which Samish made targeted political donations. He used his position as secretary of an association of saloon owners and liquor outlets to fight prohibition. He wielded great power for decades through distribution of campaign funds that he referred to as a “select and elect” policy. He must have been quite the pioneer. Earl Warren stated that he had more power than the governor on many issues. He may have been brought down by a tendency to be a braggart. Samish was known to publicly refer to himself as the “governor of the legislature” and was seen in a September 20th 1949 Collier's magazine photo with a puppet that he named “Mr. Legislature.” By September he was under investigation by incensed State Legislators. In time he was permanently banned from lobbying, convicted of tax evasion, imprisoned, and retired from politics upon release. I guess politicians never did have a sense of humor.
Sources: https://cal170.library.ca.gov/a-dummy-brings-down-an-empire/
Read the book The Secret Boss of California https://archive.org/details/secretbossofcali00sami
Meet Arthur Samish. Known as the most influential and powerful lobbyist in the history of California. Samish represented movie studios, racetracks, lawyers, insurance companies, fishing industry, liquor, and brewing interests. His technique was to have his clients first form a "trade association" with Samish as president. Membership fees went into a war chest out of which Samish made targeted political donations. He used his position as secretary of an association of saloon owners and liquor outlets to fight prohibition. He wielded great power for decades through distribution of campaign funds that he referred to as a “select and elect” policy. He must have been quite the pioneer. Earl Warren stated that he had more power than the governor on many issues. He may have been brought down by a tendency to be a braggart. Samish was known to publicly refer to himself as the “governor of the legislature” and was seen in a September 20th 1949 Collier's magazine photo with a puppet that he named “Mr. Legislature.” By September he was under investigation by incensed State Legislators. In time he was permanently banned from lobbying, convicted of tax evasion, imprisoned, and retired from politics upon release. I guess politicians have never did have a sense of humor.