Ben Ross

Background

One of eight children, Ross was born to cattleman, John M. Ross, and his wife, Jeanette, near Parma, Idaho.

Education

He left school after grade six, but at age eighteen, he decided to continue his education and graduated from Portland Commercial College.

Career

Ross served as governor from 1931 until 1937. He moved to Bannock County and served as mayor of Pocatello from 1922 to 1930. Although he nearly tripled the Democratic vote total of his predecessor, Asher B. Wilson, thanks to the recent demise of the Idaho Progressive Party, he was defeated by the Republican incumbent H. C. Baldridge.

She was often referred to as "Governor Edna" while he held that office.

Even so, his own beliefs more closely mirrored the agrarian populism of earlier Democrats such as William Jennings Bryan. The first sales tax in Idaho was enacted in 1935 with Ross" support.

A famous line used against Ross by sales tax opponents was "A Penny for Benny." A driver"s license law was instituted and legislation was initiated which would make liquor sales regulated through state distributors. Ross ran for United States Senate in 1936 but was defeated by longtime Republican incumbent William East. BorahOpponents also used the following poem against him: "Benny got our penny/Benny got our goat/We"ll get our Benny/When we go to vote." The sales tax was repealed after a statewide referendum in 1936.

In 1938 Ross ran for governor a fifth time, defeating incumbent Barzilla West. Clark in the Democratic primary but losing to state Republican Party chairman C. A. Bottolfsen in the general election.

After losing the 1938 gubernatorial election, "Cowboy Ben" retired from public life. Ross died on March 31, 1946, and is interred at Parma Cemetery, Parma, Canyon County, Idaho United States of America.

Achievements

• He won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1928. Ross won the nomination again in 1930, winning the open seat against Republican John McMurray. He was reelected in 1932 and 1934, becoming the first person to win election as Governor of Idaho three times. He is referred to as "Founding Father" of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation and was looked to as a champion of the Idaho Democratic Party.

Politics

Ross began his political career in Canyon County, serving as county commissioner from 1915 to 1921. During his tenure as governor Ross was viewed as the chief proponent of Franklin Doctorate. Roosevelt"s New Deal policies in Idaho.