[Deathwatch] Guy Hunt, former governor, 75

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Former Ala. Gov. Guy Hunt dies in Birmingham at 75

By PHILLIP RAWLS ? 1 day ago

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) ? Guy Hunt, who in 1987 became Alabama's first
Republican governor since Reconstruction but six years later became the
state's first chief executive removed from office for a criminal
conviction, died Friday in Birmingham. He was 75.

Family spokesman Mark McDaniel said Hunt died at Trinity Medical
Center. He was being treated the last couple years for cancer and was
frail when he had gall bladder surgery in late November and was never
able to recover.

The former Amway salesman, farmer and Primitive Baptist preacher was
dismissed as a country bumpkin by some when he entered the governor's
race in 1986. But he pulled a spectacular upset when internal feuding
split the Democratic Party, sending 56 percent of voters into Hunt's
column.

He became the first Republican elected to lead Alabama since 1872. He
is credited with filling enough committees, boards and other offices
with Republicans that he helped make Alabama a two-party state instead
of being dominated by Democrats.

"That was the beginning of the power of the Republican Party in
Alabama, and Democrats did it to themselves," said Democrat Lowell
Barron, an influential state senator and frequently Hunt's political
ally.

Hunt was re-elected in 1990, but halfway through his second term, he
was convicted of violating the state ethics law for misusing 1987
inaugural funds and was kicked out of office. He later was pardoned but
could never restart his political career.

Hunt tried to become governor for the first time in 1978. After an
unsuccessful run, he again sought the office in 1985 and won a
three-man Republican primary that drew few voters in 1986 and was
looking at another losing campaign in the general election. Then the
Democratic Party started fighting over a Democratic runoff and a
committee gave the party's gubernatorial nomination to the second-place
finisher, Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley.

The handpicking by Democrats created a voter backlash that swept Hunt
into office.

"He was absolutely what you would call 'an accidental governor.' He was
put into office by the perception the Democratic Party was taking away
the vote of the people," said Margaret Armbrester, co-editor of the
book "Alabama Governors."

Hunt took a hands-on approach to recruiting new industry to Alabama
and, in his first year in office, was named one of the nation's top
governors by U.S. News & World Report.

But in 1993, a jury convicted Hunt of violating the state ethics law by
making personal use of $200,000 donated to a tax-exempt fund for his
1987 inauguration. He was placed on five years' probation, fined
$211,000 and automatically removed from office. The state parole board
gave Hunt a full pardon in 1998 and afterward, he unsuccessfully ran
for office twice, including governor that year, when he was asked how
he wanted to be remembered.

"The thing that would thrill me the most is if every fourth-grade
student in this state who reads Alabama history someday will have the
understanding that this is an honest governor who ran an honest
administration and would not knowingly violate the letter or the spirit
of the law," he said.

Survivors include his second wife, Anne; son, Keith Hunt; and three
daughters, Pam Hunt, Sherrie Williams and Lynn Harris.


Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary