Why Idaho’s 16th governor is deemed one of the Gem State’s ‘most fascinating political figures’
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Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories about former Gem State Governors from eastern Idaho.
IDAHO FALLS – When Charles Benjamin Ross was elected Idaho’s 16th governor in 1930, he was different from his predecessors in several ways.
The 54-year-old Pocatello man had a 16,000 vote lead over his Republican opponent John McMurray and was the state’s first Democratic Governor in more than a decade. He was also the first native Idahoan to hold the position.
An essay from Michael Malone in the book, “Idaho’s Governors,” indicates Ross was born in Parma and was an influential farmer and rancher in the Gem State. Known as “Cowboy Ben” to friends and voters, his love of agriculture was the bedrock of his political platform throughout his life.
“He was raised a Republican, but on the eve of his 21st birthday in 1896, he converted to the populist-dominated Democratic Party. For the rest of his long life, he remained a Democrat in politics … celebrating the farmer as the pillar of American society,” Malone writes.
Campaigning as the “farmer’s friend” earned Ross a seat on the Canyon County Commission in 1915. He is credited as one of the founding fathers of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, though a written history from the Farm Bureau does not mention his name.
Noting the change in Ross’s party affiliation, Idaho State University History professor Kevin Marsh says Ross might’ve been influenced by the national political climate.
“Issues around silver coinage (was a conversation on the national level) and was certainly very popular in Idaho. It was a central issue for the Democratic party and the policy they were following in 1896 was to try and increase the money supply (in the wake of an economic depression),” Marsh explains.
The Labor movement of the 1920s, while prosperous for most of the nation, was a time of depression for the state’s agriculture industry. Falling farm prices and the need to purchase expensive machinery made the 1920s “a continual cycle of debt” for farmers, according to USHistory.org.
So it makes sense to Marsh that Ross would’ve run as a Democratic candidate for mayor in Pocatello. Voters at the time were less concerned about party labels and more concerned with specific issues, Marsh says. Ross was a big proponent of relief for farmers and most people could rally around that idea.
But the agricultural depression issue had little to do with Ross’s victory in the gubernatorial election of 1930. The reason for Ross’s success, according to Malone, was his promise to reinstitute the direct primary system of party nominations instead of using party conventions.
“This issue brought Ross thousands of independent Progressive votes and made him the Democratic victor, flanked by a Republican dominated legislature, official family, and congressional delegation. He thus entered office an independent, a lone wolf in politics, not a party man. Such he would always remain,” Malone writes.
He’d served as the mayor of Pocatello for three consecutive terms when he was elected governor and would go on to serve three terms as governor, the Gem State’s first chief executive to do so.
Ross’s personality and accomplishments
It’s evident from the information about Ross’s life that he was a polarizing figure with a dynamic personality. Malone describes him as “a colorful and flamboyant campaigner who enlivened and eventually polarized the Idaho political order.”
Ross served as governor at the height of the Great Depression. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal program created sweeping government programs to provide work and relief payments for struggling Americans. Ross’s greatest political accomplishment, according to Marsh, was his distribution of infrastructure and relief dollars on the state level.
“Under Ross’s administration, Idaho gained more in New Deal federal spending, per capita, than any other state in the country. Or at least, pretty close to the most,” he says.
But the implementation of a federal policy creates an obligation for states to help pay for it. Ross raised state taxes at one point to pay for FDR’s New Deal program, a move that Marsh says was controversial for voters and ultimately led to his demise.
His critics mockingly coined the phrase “a penny for Benny.”
“The egotistical Idaho Governor was no orthodox new dealer,” Malone writes. “Keenly aware that he did not owe his office to FDR’s coattails, he would freely voice his constituents’ resentment of the federal bureaucracy, even while grabbing every New Deal job and dollar he could get.”
Ross’s seemingly inconsistent view and sporadic criticism of the New Deal caused him to slowly lose favor with the Democrat Party. Some pundits attacked him in print for his “domineering, Hitler-like attitude towards members of his own party.”
The creation of the Works Progress Administration created a lot of road and bridge projects in Idaho, but eventually led to a “complete federal takeover” of state relief efforts, Malone reports. Funded entirely by state sales tax funds, the Idaho Cooperative Relief Agency was created to help fund the social security program in the Gem State.
Voters blamed Ross for the federal overreach. Democrat Barzilla Clark succeeded him as governor and Ross led an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Idaho’s U.S. Senator William Borah.
Ross made a comeback bid for governor the following election in 1938, but lost to Republican C.A. Bottolfsen from Arco.
“Returning to his Canyon County ranch, Ben Ross continued to harbor hopes for a political rebirth until his death at age 69 in 1946. Such hopes were illusory, though, for neither his failing health nor his numerous Democratic foes would ever have permitted it,” writes Malone.
Ross apparently died from a heart attack at St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, a life sketch from the University of Idaho says. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage the year before and was mostly incapacitated.
Characterizing Ross today
Today, as voters gear up for an election in an increasingly polarized political climate, historians, like Marsh and Malone, offer a noteworthy look into Idaho’s past.
Reflecting on Ross’s time in office, Marsh says it’s hard to say if anyone else at that time could have or would have done a better job. Despite his lack of support among voters after three terms as Governor, Marsh notes his time as a public servant early on when he was revered. Marsh is reluctant to be overly judgmental.
“Would someone else have been successful at distributing those monies? I don’t know. But (Ross) did it pretty well. And he did it in a way that Idahoans felt like he was standing up for their interests. He was never fully onboard with the New Deal. He’d always pushback when he felt (federal involvement) was inappropriate,” says Marsh.
Malone points out that some observers like to characterize Ross as a demagogue and a radical, but Malone characterizes him as a moderate who, overall, “behaved quite responsibly once he was in power.”
“Governor Ross inherited a Democratic Party bitterly torn by factionalism. This fact, combined with his own determination to control the government without party restraint, made for turbulent politics all through the New Deal era in Idaho,” Malone writes. “He emerged as a reasonably moderate, practical and successful reformer. He remains one of Idaho’s most fascinating and historical political figures.”
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