Former US Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell dies at 92 | EUROtoday

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the previous senator and U.S. consultant of Colorado identified for his passionate advocacy of Native American points, died Tuesday at age 92.

Campbell died of pure causes surrounded by his household, in keeping with his daughter, Shanan Campbell.

A Democrat who shocked his social gathering by becoming a member of the Republican Party, Campbell stood out in Congress as a lot for his unconventional gown — cowboy boots, bolo ties and ponytail — as his protection of kids’s rights, organized labor and financial conservatism.

A member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, Campbell mentioned his ancestors have been amongst greater than 150 Native Americans, largely girls, youngsters and aged males, killed by U.S. troopers whereas camped below a flag of truce on Nov. 29, 1864.

He served three phrases within the House, beginning in 1987. He then served two phrases within the Senate, from 1993 to 2005.

Among his accomplishments was serving to sponsor laws upgrading the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in southern Colorado to a nationwide park.

“He was a master jeweler with a reputation far beyond the boundaries of Colorado,” mentioned Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper on X. “I will not forget his acts of kindness. He will be sorely missed.”

Campbell was seen as a maverick

The motorcycle-riding lawmaker and cattle rancher was thought-about a maverick even earlier than he abruptly switched to the Republican Party in March 1995, offended with Democrats for killing a balanced-budget modification within the Senate. His swap outraged Democratic leaders and was thought-about a coup for the GOP.

“I get hammered from the extremes,” he mentioned shortly afterward. “I’m always willing to listen … but I just don’t think you can be all things to all people, no matter which party you’re in.”

Considered a shoo-in for a 3rd Senate time period, Campbell shocked supporters when he dropped out of the race in 2004 after a well being scare.

“I thought it was a heart attack. It wasn’t,” mentioned Campbell. “But when I was lying on that table in the hospital looking up at all those doctors’ faces, I decided then, ‘Do I really need to do this six more years after I’ve been gone so much from home?’ I have two children I didn’t get to see grow up, quite frankly.”

He retired to deal with the Native American jewellery that helped make him rich and was placed on show on the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. He additionally labored on a line of out of doors gear with a California-based firm, Kiva Designs, and have become a senior coverage adviser with the powerhouse legislation agency of Holland & Knight in Washington.

Campbell based Ben Nighthorse Consultants which targeted on federal coverage, together with Native American affairs and pure assets. The former senator additionally drove the Capitol Christmas Tree throughout the nation to Washington, D.C., on a number of events.

“He was truly one of a kind, and I am thinking of his family in the wake of his loss,” mentioned Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette on X.

An unintentional politician

In 1982, he was planning to ship his jewellery to California, however dangerous climate grounded his airplane. He was killing time within the southern Colorado metropolis of Durango when he went to a county Democratic assembly and wound up giving a speech for a pal operating for sheriff.

Democrats have been on the lookout for somebody to problem a GOP legislative candidate and sounded out Campbell through the assembly. “Like a fish, I was hooked,” he mentioned.

His opponent, Don Whalen, was a preferred former school president who “looked like he was out of a Brooks Brothers catalog,” Campbell recalled. “I don’t think anybody gave me any kind of a chance. … I just think I expended a whole lot of energy to prove them wrong.”

Campbell hit the streets, ripping city maps out of the Yellow Pages and strolling door to door to speak with individuals. He recalled leaving a notice at a home in Cortez the place nobody was house when he heard a automobile roar into the driveway, gravel flying and brakes squealing.

The driver jumped out, tire iron in hand, and screamed that Campbell couldn’t have his furnishings. “Aren’t you the repossession company?” the person requested.

“And I said, ‘No man, I’m just running for office.’ We got to talking, and I think the guy voted for me.”

Campbell went on to win and he by no means misplaced an election thereafter, shifting from the Colorado House to the U.S. House after which the Senate.

Born April 13, 1933, in Auburn, California, Campbell served within the Air Force in Korea from 1951 to 1953 and acquired a bachelor’s diploma from San Jose State University in 1957. He attended Meiji University in Tokyo from 1960 to 1964, was captain of the U.S. judo workforce within the 1964 Olympics and gained a gold medal within the Pan American Games.

Campbell as soon as referred to as then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt a “forked-tongued snake” for opposing a water undertaking close to the southern Colorado city of Ignacio, which Campbell promoted as a technique to honor the water rights of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes.

He clashed with environmentalists on every thing from mining legislation and grazing reforms to setting apart land for nationwide monuments.

Despite all this — or maybe due to it — voters beloved him. In 1998, Campbell gained reelection to the Senate by routing Democrat Dottie Lamm, the spouse of former Gov. Dick Lamm, regardless of his swap to the GOP. He was the one Native American within the Senate on the time.

Campbell insisted his ideas didn’t change, solely his social gathering

He mentioned he was criticized as a Democrat for voting with Republicans, after which pilloried by some newspapers for his stances after the swap.

“It didn’t change me. I didn’t change my voting record. For instance, I had a sterling voting record as a Democrat on labor. I still do as a Republican. And on minorities and women’s issues,” he mentioned.

Campbell mentioned his values — liberal on social points, conservative on fiscal ones — have been formed by his life. Children’s causes have been expensive to him as a result of he and his sister frolicked in an orphanage when his father was in jail and his mom had tuberculosis.

Organized labor gained his backing as a result of hooking up with the Teamsters and studying to drive a truck acquired him out of the California tomato fields. His time as a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy in California within the late Sixties and early ’70s made him a legislation enforcement advocate.

His choice to retire from politics, Campbell mentioned, had nothing to do with allegations that Ginnie Kontnik, his former chief of employees, solicited kickbacks from one other staffer and that his workplace lobbied for a contract for a know-how firm with ties to the previous senator.

He referred each issues to the Senate Ethics Committee. In 2007, Kontnik pleaded responsible to a federal cost of not reporting $2,000 in revenue.

“I guess there was some disappointment” with these expenses, Campbell mentioned.

“But a lot of things happen in Washington that disappoint you. You just have to get over them because every day there’s a new crisis to deal with.”