Richard Kimball | |
---|---|
Member of the Arizona Corporation Commission | |
In office January 1983 – September 1985 | |
Preceded by | Jim Weeks |
Succeeded by | Sharon Megdal |
Member of the
Arizona Senate from the 21st district | |
In office 1979–1983 | |
Preceded by | Timothy D. Hayes |
Succeeded by | Carl J. Kunasek |
Personal details | |
Born | 1946 (age 77–78) |
Political party | Democratic |
Alma mater | University of Arizona |
Profession | Activist Politician |
Richard Kimball is an American politician who is the founder and president emeritus of the nonprofit voter education organization Vote Smart.
Kimball was born in Tucson, Arizona, in 1946. [1] Kimball attended the University of Arizona where he studied political science. He was a staff assistant to Congressman Morris Udall and worked as a press secretary for Senators Walter Mondale and Daniel Moynihan. [2]
In 1978, Kimball was elected to represent an area of Phoenix in the Arizona Senate. In the 1982 general election, Kimball was elected to a six-year term on the Arizona Corporation Commission for a six-year term. In January 1984, his fellow commission members elected him the chairman of the board. [1] In September 1985, Kimball resigned from his position as a member of the commission. [3] Governor Bruce Babbitt appointed Sharon Megdal, a member of the University of Arizona's economics faculty, to the seat. [4]
After the expected Democratic candidate, Governor Bruce Babbitt, declined to run in favor of a presidential campaign, Kimball was nominated as the Democratic candidate against then-Congressman John McCain for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barry Goldwater. [5] His campaign was subject to negative press from The Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette. One Gazette columnist described him as displaying "terminal weirdness." [6] McCain ultimately won the election by a margin of over 20 percent. [7] Kimball later said: "I joke that John McCain entered the Senate over my dead political body. I think that's pretty accurate." [8]
Twenty years later, Kimball commented on the campaign to a reporter from the Arizona Daily Star: "I was enormously depressed — not because I lost. It was because I spent all my time collecting money." He said that he spent the following months after the election traveling through Mexico, and then left politics to start Project Vote Smart. [9]
He is currently the president emeritus of the organization Vote Smart, [10] formerly known as Project Vote Smart. [11]