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Senator Borah Opposes Oil Money in
Politics
In March of
1928, incensed that the Republican National Committee had accepted a large
contribution from the oil industry in the wake of the Teapot Dome scandal, Senator William E. Borah
(R-Idaho), demanded that the contribution be returned. When the
party chairman declined, Borah, a progressive Republican often at odds
with his party's leadership, began a public campaign to raise the money to "refund" the contribution himself. Though his effort
received widespread publicity, he ultimately was unable to raise enough
money to make the refund. According to his biographer Claudius Johnson, Borah returned
the money he raised to his donors. One of the contributors to Borah's
refund campaign was the muckraking journalist C.P. Connolly. His
receipt is part of the C.P. Connolly collection (MSS 208) in the Special
Collections Department of Albertsons Library.
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