Whitaker & Baxter Campaigns, Inc.

Administrative History

Whitaker & Baxter Campaigns Inc., the country's first political campaign management firm, was founded in 1933 by business partners (later husband and wife) Clem Whitaker, Sr. and Leone Baxter. Although operating under the name Campaigns Inc., the company was not actually incorporated until 1950. Corporate filings at that time show Clem Whitaker, Sr., Leone Baxter and Howard Hassard (the firm's attorney) as Directors of the company. The company's principal office was located in San Francisco but temporary offices were opened in other cities as required including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

While the company's primary activity was managing campaigns for candidates and ballot measures, they also handled public relations for various corporate clients such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Western Pacific Railroad, and Utah Construction Co. among others. Whitaker & Baxter Campaigns Inc. also included under its umbrella the California Feature Service and the Whitaker & Baxter Advertising Agency. The Feature Service was a newspaper wire service and public relations vehicle providing articles, editorials and cartoons to about 300 California newspapers.

With Clem Whitaker, Sr. in failing health, he and Leone Baxter sold the firm to son Clem Whitaker, Jr. and partners James Dorais and Newton Stearns in 1958. The elder Whitaker and his wife then founded Whitaker & Baxter International, a public relations consulting firm headquartered in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Leone Baxter continued to run this company after her husband's death in 1961.

Whitaker & Baxter Campaigns Inc. was most closely associated with Republican candidates and conservative political issues. A few measures like their very first campaign against P.G.& E. (Prop. 1, 1933), a ballot measure to establish the civil service system (Prop. 1, 1936), and a measure to increase teacher salaries (Prop. 3, 1946) are among the few exceptions.

The firm handled many ballot measure campaigns (most of them initiatives) including the well-known Ham and Eggs pension plans from the 1930s through the 1950s, efforts to redraw State Senate district boundaries on the basis of population, anti-labor union measures such as those prohibiting picketing and "featherbedding", and several propositions favoring large oil companies.

Among the candidates whose political campaigns were managed by Whitaker & Baxter, Earl Warren, Goodwin Knight and Richard Nixon are probably the most significant. The firm helped elect Earl Warren to his first term as Governor but had a falling out with him late in the campaign and never worked with him again. They ran Goodwin Knight's successful campaigns for Lieutenant Governor and Governor, and were involved in his failed run for the U.S. Senate. Whitaker & Baxter were also in charge of Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in his home state of California where he prevailed despite losing the overall election to Kennedy.

Whitaker & Baxter were well established and successful at the state level when they were tapped in 1949 for their first national campaign representing the American Medical Association in their fight against President Harry Truman's national health insurance plan. Later in 1965, the firm again became involved in a campaign at the national level, this one in support of efforts to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution in response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring that state legislative districts be based on population ("one man, one vote").

Throughout all this, the firm was continuously involved with local politics in San Francisco - both candidates and ballot measures. Mayoral campaigns included those of Roger Lapham, Elmer Robinson, and Harold Dobbs. Their ballot measure work included an anti-picketing ordinance (for), efforts by the city to create a public power system (against), a bond measure to fund expansion of the de Young Museum (for), and numerous measures relating to city garbage collection (for). They also represented the interests of local developers - in particular, the Utah Construction Company in their campaigns to develop tideland areas of the San Francisco Bay.

Clem Whitaker, Sr.

Born in Tempe, Arizona on May 1, 1899, Clement Sherman Whitaker was the son of a Baptist minister. His uncle, Robert Whitaker, was also a Baptist minister as well as a well-known socialist who was active in the American Civil Liberties Union and a friend of Upton Sinclair.

Clem Whitaker's career as a journalist began with a brief stint at the Willits News at age 13. Later he moved to Sacramento and began writing for the Sacramento Union before he reached 18. He spent a short period serving in the Army during World War I and returned to journalism at the Sacramento Union where at 19 he became city editor. By age 21 he was a political writer for the San Francisco Examiner . In 1921, he founded the Capitol News Bureau providing political news to about 80 newspapers statewide. By 1930, he had sold this business to United Press.

His experience as a political reporter led to his involvement in lobbying activities; he lobbied successfully for legislation to establish the State Board of Barber Examiners and unsuccessfully to pass legislation banning capital punishment. His lobbying efforts brought him to the attention of lawyer Sheridan Downey (later U.S. Senator from California) who was organizing a campaign to defeat a referendum concerning the Central Valley Project. Downey invited both Whitaker and Leone Baxter to take part, which led to the creation of their campaign management firm in 1933.

Clem Whitaker was married twice - first to Harriet Reynolds in Sacramento with whom he had three children, Clem, Jr., Milton and Patricia. He was separated from his first wife in 1935 and married his second wife, Leone Baxter, in 1938. In 1961, he died in San Francisco of a respiratory ailment at age 62.

Leone Baxter

Much less is known about Leone Baxter. She was born November 20, 1906, in Kelso, Washington according to her Social Security application. She wrote for the Portland Oregonian and was married and widowed before the age of 28. At some point, she moved to Redding, California, where she got a job promoting a water carnival for the Chamber of Commerce. She became manager of the Chamber in 1929, and it was in this capacity that she became involved in the Central Valley Project referendum campaign. Because of its proximity and potential economic impact, the CVP (including the Shasta Dam) was of particular interest to the City of Redding and its Chamber of Commerce. Baxter was co-founder of Whitaker & Baxter Campaigns Inc. in 1933; she and Clem Whitaker were married in 1938. She died near San Francisco in 2001 at the age of 95.

Clem Whitaker, Jr.

Clem Whitaker, Jr. was born Aug. 30, 1922, in Sacramento. He was Clem Whitaker, Sr.'s oldest son by his first wife, Harriet Reynolds Whitaker and grew up in Sacramento attending local public schools. His parents separated when he was 13. While still in high school, he worked for both the Sacramento Union and Sacramento Bee .

He attended the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Economics but did not graduate. In 1943, his education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army Air Corp as a fighter pilot. He joined his father's firm in 1946 after he was discharged becoming a partner in the business by 1950. He purchased the company from his father in 1958.

Later he was chairman of the board of the Wye Energy Group, president of the San Francisco Opera Foundation, a wine connoisseur, and active in many charitable causes. He was married twice and had a daughter and stepdaughter. He died at age 77 in 1999.

From the guide to the Whitaker & Baxter Campaigns, Inc. Records, 1933-1974, (California State Archives)