QUESTIONS:
1. Prior to John Ashcroft, who was the last U.S. attorney general who previously had served as a U.S. senator?
2. Again, prior to Ashcroft, who was the last U.S. attorney general who previously had served as a governor?
3. Linda Lingle has just been sworn in as the first Republican governor of Hawaii in 40 years. What is the only state that has gone longer than Hawaii without a Republican governor?
4. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu faced Republican Suzanne Terrill on December 7. How many other Senate races have there been in which both major party nominees have been women?
5. Democrat Ed Case on November 30 won a special election over John Mink, widower of the late Rep. Patsy Mink (D.-Hawaii), to fill out the remaining month of her term. When was the last time a husband of a former House member was beaten in the race to succeed her?
ANSWERS:
1. William Saxbe, attorney general from 1973-74, was a Republican senator from Ohio from 1968-73.
2. Richard Thornburgh, attorney general from 1987-91, was the Republican governor of Pennsylvania from 1978-86.
3. Georgia, which last month elected Sonny Perdue as its first Republican governor since Reconstruction.
4. Four: Maine in 1960 (Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith vs. Democrat Lucia Cormier), Maryland in 1986 (Republican Linda Chavez vs. Democrat Barbara Mikulski), Washington State in 1998 (Republican Linda Smith vs. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray), and Maine in 2002 (Republican Sen. Susan Collins vs. Democrat Cheryl Pingree).
5. In 1981, when Democratic Rep. Gladys Noon Spellman fell in a coma and her Maryland House district was declared. Her husband, Ira Spellman, ran for it but lost the Democratic primary to present Rep. Steny Hoyer.
A LEGG UP: Thanks to veteran Michigan Republican activist and longtime subscriber Michael Legg for correcting an error in our August 19 "Political I.Q." We had asked which Michigan governor was the last to subsequently run for another office and gave as the answer Democrat G. Mennon (Soapy) Williams, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1966. Not so, says Legg, who correctly pointed out that Williams’ successor and fellow Democrat, John Swainson, was defeated for re-election in 1962 and was later elected to the state Supreme Court.
