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Evan MechamEvan Mecham (born 1924) was the 19th governor of the U.S. state of Arizona, and served for little over a year from 1987 until his impeachment in 1988. He was a member of the Republican Party. Mecham served as an Army Air Force pilot during World War II and received an Air Medal and Purple Heart. He later started a car dealership in the town of Ajo in 1950, and relocated it to Glendale in 1954. He campaigned for the U.S. Senate in 1962, running against Carl Hayden without success, and campaigned for governor three times before winning the position. Mecham became deeply unpopular almost immediately upon assuming office. He made several insensitive and inappropriate public remarks ("I'm not a racist...I employ them blacks because they are the best people who applied for the cotton-picking job."). He further angered minorities by cancelling Martin Luther King Day in the state. The Governor also faced allegations of legal wrongdoing, including trying to conceal a $350,000 campaign loan, borrowing $60,000 of state money to prop up his struggling auto dealership, and attempting to block the investigation of a death threat made by a state official. Mecham would have faced a recall election in 1988 but was impeached by the state legislature in a 46 to 16 vote. He was the first US governor to be impeached in almost 60 years. He was replaced by Secretary of State Rose Perica Mofford. Mecham was later indicted on six felony counts of perjury and filing a false campaign report but was acquitted. He ran for governor again in 1990 and for the U.S. Senate in 1992, as an independent without success. width="30%" align="center" | Preceded by:
Bruce Babbitt | width="40%" align="center" | Governor of Arizona | width="30%" align="center" | Succeeded by:
Rose Perica Mofford | Mecham, Evan
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