Byron Looper

"Lowtax" redirects here. For the founder of the comedy website Something Awful, see Something Awful.

Byron (Low Tax) Looper (born Byron Anthony Looper on September 15, 1964), is a former Republican politician in Tennessee. In order to advance his political career, he legally changed his middle name from "Anthony" to "(Low Tax)". After being convicted for the October 1998 murder of his election opponent, incumbent Tennessee State Senator Tommy Burks, he is now serving a life sentence in Morgan County Correctional Complex.

Early life

Looper was born Byron Anthony Looper in Putnam County, Tennessee, on September 15, 1964.

He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1983–1985, but was given an honorable discharge following a serious knee injury. After being discharged, he moved to Georgia.^[1][2]

In 1987, Looper lost a race for the Georgia House of Representatives as a Democrat. Following this loss, he took a job as a legislative aide for an uncle and fellow Democrat, Max Looper.

Tax assessor

In 1992, Looper returned to Tennessee and became a Republican because he believed that he stood a better chance of beating Senator Tommy Burks in the general election than the primary. He lost a race for the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1994. In 1996, he legally changed his middle name from Anthony to "Low Tax", in a race for the technically nonpartisan post of Putnam County Tax Assessor, which he won.

As tax assessor, Looper used his office's equipment to flood state news media with bizarre and self-congratulatory press releases, though he failed repeatedly to file property tax valuations with the state government on time. It was alleged that Looper offered reduced tax assessments to local businesses in exchange for political contributions. Later, an ex-girlfriend sued him for child support and fraud, charging he had used his official position to steal her house.

In March 1998, following an investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Looper was indicted on 14 counts of official misconduct, theft of services and official oppression. He claimed the charges were politically motivated due to Democratic control of Putnam County politics and the Tennessee General Assembly. The Cookeville Herald-Citizen newspaper regularly reported the Republican Tax Assessor's bizarre antics and public verbal assaults of Putnam County elected officials. The Tennessee Republican Party soon claimed no connection with Looper, though campaign contributions and lists of paid political consultants proved otherwise.

On January 26, 1999, Mr. Looper was officially ousted from the office of Putnam County, Tennessee Tax Assessor.

The ouster petitions included, among other things, (1) arbitrarily reassessing the property of an individual who refused to contribute to Mr. Looper's political campaign fund; (2) allowing certain parcels of land to remain unassessed; (3) removing from the tax roll a parcel of property with the intent to impede the owner's right to serve as a public official or run for public office in the county; (4) failing to deliver the property tax roll to the County Trustee in violation of Tenn.Code Ann. § 8-47-101; (5) erroneously classifying certain property under the Agricultural, Forest, and Open Space Land Act of 1997 to obtain a benefit; (6) diverting over ninety (90) hours of paid County employee time to his own use; (7) using County funds to procure a computer program for his personal use and benefit; and (8) using County resources to promote his political aspirations. ^[3]

1998 primary campaigns

In 1998, Looper sought the Republican nominations for the Tennessee's 6th congressional district and the Tennessee State Senate in the same primary. He lost the Congressional nomination, finishing third in a field of four. He won the state senate nomination by default, however, as he was the only Republican candidate on the ballot. This set up his campaign against incumbent Democratic state senator Tommy Burks.

Burks had represented Putnam County in the state legislature for 28 years — eight in the State House and 20 in the State Senate. He was an old-style conservative Southern Democrat and a farmer who was popular in his district. The 1998 election looked to be as quiet as his previous nine. Until October, in fact, the only news to come out of the campaign that made it beyond the borders of the district was Looper's legal change of his middle name from Anthony to "Low Tax". This was initially considered an amusing but bizarre gimmick by a gadfly candidate in a race he was destined to lose, and the race quickly receded into the background.

Tommy Burks's murder

On the morning of October 19, 1998, authorities were called to investigate a likely murder at the Burks farm. Tommy Burks' body was found with his head resting on the steering wheel of his pickup truck and a single bullet wound above his left eye. He had been speaking moments earlier with a farmhand, Wesley Rex, about work that needed to be done on the farm. Both men had seen a black car driven by the farm on multiple occasions that morning, driven by a man in sunglasses and black gloves. The car had later sped by Rex's truck, allowing Rex to get a view of the driver.^[4]

Cumberland County authorities immediately began a standard homicide investigation, but could find no one with any plausible reason to murder Burks. Then Rex called Burks's widow, Charlotte, after seeing a picture of Looper on television, and told her that Looper was the man he'd seen speeding away in the black car the morning of the murder.

Looper later turned up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he met with a friend, Marine recruiter Joe Bond. Bond and Looper had been friends as children, and Looper had rekindled the friendship in the summer of 1998, largely on the basis of wanting Bond's expertise in small arms. Bond would eventually become a key witness for the prosecution in Looper's murder trial. Looper had stayed with Bond for a while, talking a great deal about how he had murdered his Senate opponent and how he needed to, among other things, change the tires on the car he had used in the murder, as well as hide the car.

Trial

Looper was arraigned at a hearing that featured Bond as a surprise witness for the state. During the pre-trial phase, Looper attempted to have his former friend disgraced, and shuffled through at least six lawyers, one of whom filed a sealed court document explaining why, for ethical reasons, he could no longer be Looper's attorney.

The trial finally occurred in 2000. By this time, inmate road crews had found the weapon apparently used by Looper to commit the murder. Wes Rex and Joe Bond were both prominent witnesses for the prosecution, as were two political consultants who reported having been contacted at various times by Looper, who had told both of them that he wanted to run a political race and felt the surest way to win would be to murder the opponent. Looper was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.^[5] Following his conviction and sentencing, he was transferred to Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee.

The campaign following the murder

An obscure Tennessee state law required that a candidate's name be removed from the ballot and not replaced if he died within 30 days of the election.^[4] Even the Putnam County Election Commission did not know this law existed before the Burks murder. Looper's name therefore was the only one listed on the ballot, and for a few days it appeared he would win by default. This may have been Looper's intention.

Several people tried to have Looper's name stricken from the ballot, claiming that Looper's arrest constituted moral turpitude. Even though lists of campaign contributions and paid political advisers showed unquestionable past ties to the Tennessee Republican Party, the state Republican Party distanced itself from Looper. To counter Looper's potential election on a technicality, Burks' widow, Charlotte, ran a write-in campaign for the seat. Dozens of volunteers helped her campaign, including several Republicans. On election day, Charlotte Burks, as a write-in candidate, won the seat with 30,252 votes compared to Looper's 1,531 votes^[6] (she also received several write-in votes for governor and for Congress). Among the first bills she sponsored was one to repeal the state law that had almost allowed Looper to win. Charlotte Burks was reelected in 2002, 2006, and 2010.

Imitators

Other political candidates and public personalities have emulated Looper's adopted name or have independently adopted similar names. These include:

• Internet personality Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, who adopted his nickname as a reference to Byron Looper.
• In 1998, a candidate with the name Craig 'Tax Freeze' Freis ran for the California Board of Equalization. He finished fourth place (out of six candidates running) in the Democratic Primaries for the office.^[7]
• In 2000, 2002, and 2006, deputy county assessor John Lower Taxes Loew^[8] ran for office of Los Angeles County Assessor. In 2000, Loew received less than 1% of the vote^[9] in the special election to fill a vacancy in the office. In 2002 and 2006, Loew lost the elections to incumbent Rick Auerbach by a 70%-11% margin in 2002,^[10] and by a 77%-23% margin in 2006.^[11]

References

1. ^ "Political opponent charged in slaying". Deseret News. 1998-10-23. http://archive.deseretnews.com/archive/659004/Political-opponent-charged-in-slaying.html. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 
2. ^ Moehringer, J.R. (1998-10-24). "Tennessee Lawmaker Killed; Election Opponent Arrested". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/24/news/mn-35639. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 
3. ^ Final Ouster Appeal State ex rel. Jones v. Looper, 86 SW 3d 189 - Tenn: Court of Appeals, Middle Section
4. ^ ^{a b} "Farmhand saw suspect with murdered state senator, heard 'pop'". CNN. 1998-10-27. Archived from the original on 2008-02-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20080229131902/http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/10/27/senator.killed/. Retrieved 2008-08-18. 
5. ^ Jason Strait (2000-08-24). "Election opponent found guilty in murder of state senator". Associated Press. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/24/senatorkilled.ap/index.html. Retrieved 2008-08-18. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "Tennessee State Senate General Election Results, November 3, 1998 General Election". http://www.tennessee.gov/sos/election/results/1998-11/senate.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-18. 
7. ^ Election results for the June 2, 1998 elections, page 42.
8. ^ John "Lower Taxes" Loew candidate profile, League of Women Voters of California
9. ^ Final Official Election Returns, Los Angeles County, November 7, 2000 General Election
10. ^ http://rrcc.co.la.ca.us/elect/02031211/rr1211pn.html-ssi 70-11
11. ^ http://rrccmain.co.la.ca.us/charts/1275/1275AS.htm 77-23

External links

• Court TV report on the Looper case and trial

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Name	Looper, Byron
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Date of birth	1964-09-15
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