First Term As Governor of Pennsylvania
Following the disbandment of the Progressive Party, Pinchot returned to the Republican Party, and focused on Pennsylvania state politics. Governor William Sproul appointed him state Commissioner of Forestry in 1920. Pinchot's aim, however, was to become governor. His 1922 campaign for the office concentrated on popular reforms: government economy, enforcement of Prohibition and regulation of public utilities. He won by a wide margin. In 1924, Pinchot considered challenging President Calvin Coolidge for the Republican nomination, but ultimately declined to run for the presidency.
In 1926, Governor Pinchot proposed his quasi-public "Giant Power" scheme for the state of Pennsylvania – which was very similar to Charles Steinmetz's plan to transmit electricity by high-voltage lines from power plants located adjacent to Pennsylvania coal mines – critics dismissed it as socialism. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt such a scheme materialized in the shape of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Pinchot retired at the end of his term January 18, 1927, as Pennsylvania Governors were, at the time, prohibited from seeking a second consecutive term in office.
Read more about this topic: Gifford Pinchot
Famous quotes containing the words term, governor and/or pennsylvania:
“Punks in their silly leather jackets are a cliché. I have never liked the term and have never discussed it. I just got on with it and got out of it when it became a competition.”
—John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten)
“Three years ago, also, when the Sims tragedy was acted, I said to myself, There is such an officer, if not such a man, as the Governor of Massachusetts,—what has he been about the last fortnight? Has he had as much as he could do to keep on the fence during this moral earthquake?... He could at least have resigned himself into fame.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Republican Party does not perceive how many his failure will make to vote more correctly than they would have them. They have counted the votes of Pennsylvania & Co., but they have not correctly counted Captain Brown’s vote. He has taken the wind out of their sails,—the little wind they had,—and they may as well lie to and repair.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)