J. F. Brown

John Fred Brown was a politician from Arizona who served in the

Brown was born on June 9, 1877,

In 1911, the Republicans of Pinal County urged Brown to run for the state senate. He refused to campaign for the position, saying that he was working for the Water User's Association, and while they were paying his salary, he would not take time to campaign. However, if he did receive the nomination, he would accept it.[18] He was unopposed in the Republican primary, and won the general election in December 1911, becoming Arizona's first state senator from Pinal County.^[19]

During his time in the Senate he focused on water rights issues. He authored a bill establishing a $20,000,000 bond fund to purchase the bonds issued by state irrigation districts. This bill was deemed in violation of the state constitution by the state attorney general, stating that the constitution prohibited bond issues greater than $350,000. In response, he authored S. B 191, which reorganized state irrigation districts, and establishing the reclamation service.^[20][21] In the legislature's second special session, he authored S. B. 48, which proposed an amendment to the state constitution, allowing the $20,000,000 bond for the reclamation project.^[22] When this bill failed to pass the legislature, Brown began working on preparing a referendum on the issue.^[23] Eventually, the referendum was put on the ballot for the November 1914 election, reconfigured as a $5,000,000 bond, however, the measure was defeated in the general election.^[24][25][26]

In 1926, Brown ran on the Republican ticket for Pinal County supervisor.^[27] He lost by two votes in the November election,^[28] and demanded a recount, which came to the same result, but there were 50 contested ballots, 33 of which had been cast for Denton. Due to the contested ballots, the outcome of the election was given over to the Superior Court.^[29] However, in January 1927 Brown withdrew his challenge, which allowed Denton to be re-elected.^[30]

After his retirement from his Southern Pacific post, Brown decided to once again try his hand at politics. Arizona was strongly under Democrat control at that time, and Brown got the Republican nomination for state senator. However, he lost to L. E. Canfil in the November election by a margin of greater than 4-1: 941–219.^[31][32]

Life outside politics

In 1912, Brown founded, and was the first editor of the