Challenging The "Johnson Law"
Grover's reputation as a gadfly to the establishment surfaced again in 1995. As a private citizen, he sued the Texas Republican Party on the grounds that an elections rule, approved by the legislature in 1960, which permits a person to run for the White House and another office at the same time, is unconstitutional. He sued then party chairman, the conservative Thomas Pauken to prevent Gramm from filing for both offices in 1996.
"It violates the spirit of representative government in the Texas Constitution," Grover said in his lawsuit, filed at 126th State District Court in Travis County.
The rule, named for Lyndon B. Johnson, allows a candidate to seek the presidency or the vice presidency and another office in the same election cycle. It was written in 1960 so that then U.S. Senator Johnson could run for re-election to the Senate as well as for president or vice president if he secured a national Democratic nomination. The Johnson rule was since used by former U.S. Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., who ran for reelection in 1988 and was also the 1988 Democratic nominee for vice president. Several other states, including Connecticut with Senator Joseph Lieberman in 2000 and Delaware with Senator Joseph Biden in 2008, also permit presidential and vice presidential candidates to seek other offices at the same time, usually the U.S. Senate being the preferred choice.
Former Republican Senator Phil Gramm may have benefited from the rule as well had he won his party's presidential nomination in 1996, but he withdrew from the presidential race even before the New Hampshire primary. Grover's suit went nowhere: the Johnson rule remains in effect in Texas.
Read more about this topic: Henry Grover
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