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William Sulzer

William "Plain Bill" Sulzer (18 March 1863-6 November 1941) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NY 11) from 4 March 1895 to 4 March 1903 (succeeding Amos J. Cummings and preceding William Randolph Hearst) and from NY-10 from 4 March 1903 to 4 March 1912 (succeeding Edward Swann and preceding Herman A. Metz), and the Democratic Governor of New York from 1 January to 17 October 1913 (succeeding John Alden Dix and preceding Martin H. Glynn).

Biography[]

William Sulzer was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1863, the son of a German immigrant father and a Frisian immigrant mother; he was the brother of Charles August Sulzer. He became a lawyer in New York City in 1884 and became a popular stump speaker for the Democratic Tammany Hall political machine, and he served in the State Assembly from 1890 to 1894, in the US House of Representatives from 1895 to 1912, and as Governor in 1913, winning with the support of the liberal reformers William Jennings Bryan, William Randolph Hearst, and Woodrow Wilson. His support for direct primaries won him the backing of the progressive leader Theodore Roosevelt, and he made populist appeals to "let the people rule". His break with Tammany Hall led to Tammany revealing that Sulzer had falsified his sworn statement of campaign expenditures, and he was impeached from office that same year. Afterwards, he was elected to the State Assembly as a member of the Bull Moose Party, serving in 1914. He failed in his 1914 "American Party" bid for Governor and 1916 bid for President, and he worked as a lawyer in New York City, converted to the Baha'i faith, and died in 1941.

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