George Docking

George Docking ( born February 23, 1904 in Clay Center, Kansas; † January 20, 1964 in Kansas City, Kansas ) was an American politician and from 1957 to 1961 the 35th Governor of the state of Kansas.

Early years and political rise

George Docking studied until 1925 at the University of Kansas. After the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. President, he joined the Democratic Party. In 1952 he supported the unsuccessful campaign of Democratic presidential candidate and former governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson. 1954 docking applied unsuccessfully for the post of governor of Kansas. Two years later he succeeded then but to win both the nomination of his party as well as the actual gubernatorial elections. Shortly before he took office there was an affront to the occupation of the Office of the Chief Justice of Kansas.

Gubernatorial election, 1956

In the Republican primary for the gubernatorial election, Governor Fred Hall by Warren Shaw was beaten. This lost the actual election against George Docking. At this time, the Chief Justice of Kansas, Bill Smith, seriously ill and thought about resigning after. Smith was a supporter and friend of Governor Hall. Smith worried that the new governor could appoint a Democrat as Chief Justice after his resignation. Well developed Governor Hall and his deputy John McCuish a plan for how you could prevent this. Following the plan joined Smith on December 31, 1956 back by the Office of the Chief Justice. He was followed on January 3, 1957 Governor Hall with his resignation, which occurred just eleven days before the expiration of his term of office. According to the constitution in 1957 McCuish now governor of Kansas for the remaining eleven days until the 14th of January. Its first and only official act was the appointment of his predecessor Hall as the new Chief Justice. This procedure was legally and politically probably correct, but it had a negative connotation. Many critics condemned this practice as immoral and unethical. The new governor docking was thus slowed down literally on the question of the occupation of judicial office.

Governor of Kansas

George Docking took up his new post on January 14, 1957. According to a re-election in 1958, he was the first Democratic governor of Kansas, who managed to re-election. In his four-year tenure, he had to deal with a Republican majority in the legislature. Main points of contention were tax increases and rising expenses. Docking and the Chancellor of the University of Kansas, Franklin Murphy led, three years a political guerrilla war against each other, which eventually ended with Murphy's resignation. In 1960, docking participated as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, was nominated on the John F. Kennedy as a presidential candidate. George Docking occurred against the death penalty and thus made ​​himself even more unpopular among Republicans.

Another Journey

After the end of his term on January 9, 1961, he became director of the Export-Import Bank in Washington DC He remained in this position until his death in 1964. Docking George was married to Mary Virginia Blackwell. The couple had two children, including the son of Robert Docking, who spent eight years should be governor of Kansas also 1967-1975. His grandson Thomas was 1983-1987 Vice- governor of Kansas. The docking family has remained one of the most prominent politicians families from Kansas.

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