Full Financial Disclosure

Back in the old days, when politicians still felt obliged to reveal their finances...

October 1952: Mike Murphy, 12-year-old candidate for secretary of the student body at Madison high school in Phoenix, AZ, felt it would be the honest thing to do to release a full financial statement. He revealed that he earned a dollar a week allowance, and a dollar for every gopher he caught in the yard. Gophers from neighbors' yards didn't count. He won the election.

Kansas City Times - Oct 13, 1952

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Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 13, 2017
Category: Politics | 1950s

Comments

So if he gets fined out of his allowance, can't catch gophers, and never got a campaign contribution, where did he the money for printing the cards come from?

Posted by Phideaux on 09/13/17 at 12:16 PM

I was paid a penny for each slug I dispatched in the side yard with a weeding tool (slug sticker). Some evenings I made close to a buck!

Posted by Muddyvalley on 09/13/17 at 01:24 PM

I wonder if he had a little dog?

Posted by KDP on 09/13/17 at 01:48 PM

I think the kid was referencing allegations against Nixon for him having a slush fund when we was trying to become vice president with Eisenhower. Nixon dispelled it with his Checkers speech. No reports as to if the kid had a dog though, KDP.

Posted by Fluffy Bunny Slippers on 09/14/17 at 07:25 PM

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