Evan Mecham - After Office

After Office

Following his removal from office and acquittal in his criminal trial, Mecham remained active in politics for several years. Mecham served as an at-large delegate to the 1988 Republican National Convention and in 1990 he made an unsuccessful attempt to regain the Governor's office. In 1992, he made a run for the U.S. Senate as an independent against incumbent John McCain, receiving 145,361 votes (about 10%). In 1995, Mecham became chairman of the Constitutionalist Networking Center, a group attempting to create a grassroots organization called the Constitutionally Unified Republic for Everybody (CURE). CURE advocated political candidates supporting a strict interpretation of the United States Constitution. Mecham spent several years attempting to start a new newspaper, but was unable to secure sufficient financial backing. In 1999, Mecham wrote his third book, Wrongful Impeachment. Health issues, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, first reported in 2004, forced Mecham's withdrawal from the public arena and his commitment to the dementia unit of the Arizona State Veteran Home. Evan Mecham died on February 21, 2008. He is interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona.

The canceled Martin Luther King Day served as a point of controversy for years following Mecham's removal from office. In 1989, an Arizona law making a MLK holiday by canceling the state's Columbus Day holiday was challenged by two different groups, one opposed to the King holiday due to King's alleged communist ties and the other composed of Italian-Americans opposed to the removal of the Columbus Day holiday, and the new holiday was forced to undergo voter approval. Neither of the two competing ballot initiatives during the 1990 election—one removing the Columbus Day holiday to make way for a new MLK day holiday, the other to add an extra paid holiday—managed to obtain a required majority even though 65% of voters supported at least one form of the holiday. In response to the voters' rejection of a King holiday, Arizona tourist officials estimated that concert and convention business worth US$190 million were canceled and the National Football League moved Super Bowl XXVII, worth an estimated US $150 million from the state, to Pasadena, California. Another initiative in 1992 succeeded in creation of a statewide MLK day holiday. Afterwards, the NFL awarded Super Bowl XXX to Arizona.

Arizona's election laws were affected by Mecham's legacy. In 1988, Arizona voters passed an initiative that amended the state constitution to require a runoff election when no candidate received a majority of the votes in a general election. This runoff requirement came into play during the 1990 election of Fife Symington, who defeated Democratic candidate Terry Goddard but fell just shy of a majority due to a minor independent candidate. The amendment requiring the runoff was repealed by the voters in 1992.