Earl Landgrebe

Earl Fredrick Landgrebe (January 21, 1916 – June 29, 1986) was an American politician and businessman who served as a Republican senator in the Indiana Senate and member of the United States House of Representatives.

Earl Fredrick Landgrebe was born on January 21, 1916, in Valparaiso, Indiana, to Benna Marie Broderman and Edward William Landgrebe, a grocery store owner who later served as Porter County's assessor.

Landgrebe attended Wheeler High School near Valparaiso.

He married Helen Lucille Field on July 12, 1936, and had two sons with her.

On June 9, 1943, he founded a transportation business, Landgrebe Motor Transport, with one truck using $ in savings and would go on to grow his business to one hundred employees.

In 1957, he was elected as president of Valparaiso's Chamber of commerce and was succeeded by Al Williamson following his election to the state senate in 1958.

On March 21, 1958, Landgrebe filed to run in the Republican primary to succeed retiring incumbent John Wilson Van Ness for the Indiana Senate seat from Jasper County, Newton County, Porter County and Pulaski County and defeated Mayor John E. Wiggins and William A. Woodworth.

In the general election, he defeated Democratic nominee Maurice Mason.

During his tenure Landgrebe served on the Elections, Financial Institutions, Transportation, and Benevolent and Penal Institutions committees.

During the 1960 presidential election, Landgrebe supported vice president Richard Nixon and on April 21, 1960, he was appointed as the Porter County chairman in the Indiana Committee for Nixon by Porter County Republican Chairman Bill Conover.

In 1961, he introduced the bill to create the Indiana Port Authority to oversee the creation of seaports along Lake Michigan.

In 1962, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Baker v. Carr that the 14th Amendment applied to state apportionment and that federal courts are open to lawsuits challenging state legislative districts leading to further lawsuits over redistricting.

After Reynolds v. Sims the Indiana state legislature created a bill to reappropriate the districts and Landgrebe was the only Republican to vote against it alongside twenty-two Democrats, causing the bill to not pass.

Later in 1962, Landgrebe announced that he would seek reelection and won the Republican nomination without opposition.

He later defeated Democratic nominee Ted Savich in the general election.

On March 6, 1964, he announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana, but was overshadowed by other candidates in the race that included Lieutenant Governor Richard O. Ristine, State Treasurer Robert E. Hughes, and Secretary of State Charles O. Hendricks and during balloting at the Republican state convention, he came in last place out of seven candidates, with only one delegate compared to Richard O. Ristine's 1,212 delegates.

In 1965, he was reassigned Senate committee positions and was placed onto the Judiciary B, Legislative Apportionment, Public Safety, and Transportation senate committees, but Landgrebe had little power on the apportionment committee due to eight of the eleven members being Democrats.

On March 4, 1966, he announced that he would seek reelection to a third term.

State representative Robert D. Anderson mounted a primary challenge against him, but Landgrebe narrowly won the Republican nomination with 4,617 votes to Anderson's 4,232 votes.

In the general election, Landgrebe easily defeated Democratic nominee Richard Glen Percifield with 22,070 votes to 13,300 votes.

In 1967, Landgrebe was reassigned to the Labor, Roads, and Transportation senate committees.

Landgrebe's service in the state senate ended in 1968 when he won election to the United States House of Representatives.

On March 1, 1968, he announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for Indiana's Second Congressional District to succeed Charles A. Halleck who was retiring.

Landgrebe won the Republican nomination following a primary recount with a plurality of 21.76% and only eighty votes more than Olyer U. Sullivan.

In 1970, Albert Harrigan, who was a candidate in the 1968 primary, and Donald W. Blue, the mayor of Lafayette, announced that they would challenge Landgrebe for the Republican nomination.

Landgrebe was criticized by Blue and Harrigan for missing multiple votes and not being supportive enough of Nixon.

He received his largest amount of support throughout his House career in the 1970 primary with 56.48% of the vote with the rest being divided between Harrigan and Blue.

The Democratic Party fared well nationally during the 1970 House elections and Landgrebe narrowly held onto his seat, by only 1,204 votes against Phillip Sprague.

During the campaign, Landgrebe spent $39,334 and Sprague spent $57,918.

On March 23, 1971, the House of Representatives voted on the proposed Twenty-sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen years old, which easily passed with 401 in favor and 19 against.

Landgrebe did not participate in the vote on the amendment, but in the past he had stated he was against lowering the voting age, as the votes of 18 year olds would dilute the votes of older voters.

On November 9, 1971, Richard Boehning, the House Majority Leader of the Indiana House of Representatives, announced that he would challenge Landgrebe for the Republican nomination, later citing his narrow victory in 1970 and for not joining the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.

During the primary, Landgrebe received the endorsement of fifty-one members of the House of Representatives.

However, David W. Dennis was the only member of the Indiana state delegation to endorse him and Charles A. Halleck, who had served in the district before Landgrebe and House Majority and Minority Leader, gave his endorsement to Boehning.

Landgrebe narrowly defeated Boehning, with 34,813 votes for 54.20% against his adversary's 29,417 votes for 45.80% of the vote.

In the general election, he easily defeated Purdue University professor Floyd Fithian by riding off the coattails of Richard Nixon's landslide victory in the 1972 presidential election and in Indiana, where Nixon received 66.11% of the vote statewide against George McGovern and received 76,000 more votes than Landgrebe in the second congressional district.

Landgrebe gained a reputation in Congress as a "colorful loner" with a unique brand of conservatism.

During the Watergate scandal he defended President Richard Nixon, which cost him his seat in the 1974 congressional election.

In spite of his defense of Nixon during Watergate, Landgrebe was criticized throughout his House career by his primary opponents for not being supportive enough of Nixon, only voting with other Republicans slightly over 50% of the time, and for his frequent absences and nay votes in the state senate and House of Representatives.

He represented Indiana's 2nd congressional district during the 91st, 92nd and 93rd sessions of congress and was a member of the Education and Labor Committee and a ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Subcommittee on Agricultural Labor.