Crawford Martin

Crawford Collins Martin (March 13, 1916—December 29, 1972) was a Texas State Senator, Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General of Texas from 1967 until his death.

Early life

Martin was born to Will M. Martin and the former Daisy Beavers in Hillsboro, Texas. He was educated in public schools and graduated in 1935 from Hillsboro Junior College. He graduated with a law degree from Cumberland Law School in Tennessee after attending the University of Texas at Austin, first. He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1939 and commenced the practice of law with his brother, William, in Hillsboro. In 1941, Martin married the former Margaret Ann Mash (born 1921 in Brandon, also in Hill County, Texas). During World War II, Martin enlisted in the United States Coast Guard.^[1]

Political career

Mayor and state senator

After the war, Martin was elected mayor of Hillsboro. In 1948, he was elected as a Democrat to the Texas Senate representing District 12, which his father had previously represented. The 12th District comprised all of the counties of Ellis, Hill, Hood, Johnson, Somervell in North Central Texas. During his fourteen-year career in the Senate he served on a number of committees, including Finance. He sponsored legislation in insurance reform and securities regulation, and he was elected president pro tem of the Senate in 1955. In addition, in 1957 he sponsored the state's first law requiring the registration of lobbyists.^[2]

Martin served in the Senate from 1949 to 1963. In 1962, he ran for lieutenant governor but lost the Democratic nomination to future Governor Preston Smith. In 1963, Governor John B. Connally, Jr., appointed Martin as Texas Secretary of State, a position that he held until 1966, when he was elected attorney general, the position vacated by fellow Democrat Waggoner Carr, who instead ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against the Republican incumbent John G. Tower.^[2]

Attorney General

Under Martin's leadership, the attorney general's office added antitrust, consumer protection, crime prevention, and water control divisions to its organization. Martin made drug abuse and organized crime a focus, and he was the first attorney general of any state to file successful litigation against commercial drug manufacturers for fixing the prices of antibiotics. By this action his office was able to recover more than $4,000,000 for Texas consumers. Through litigation, Martin's office established the Sabine River boundary between Texas and Louisiana, "thus preserving for Texas extremely valuable oil rights." Martin's activities as attorney general won him both state and national recognition.^[2]

Crawford Martin grave at Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas

Despite his record, Martin was defeated in the 1972 Texas Democratic primary in a re-election bid for a fourth two-year term by his successor as Secretary of State, John Luke Hill. Also going down to defeat were Governor Preston Smith, Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes and others tainted, for real or imaginary reasons, by the infamous Sharpstown scandal. All were defeated by "reform" candidates.^[3]

Attorney General Crawford Martin died of a heart attack on December 29, 1972, just three days before he was to leave office. He is interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Texas State Cemetery obituary
2. ^ ^{a b c} Handbook of Texas online
3. ^ King, Michael, "Sharpstown v. Tomstown" The Austin Chronicle March 5, 2004.

Texas Senate
Preceded by A.B Crawford	Texas State Senator from District 12 (Hillsboro) 1949-1963	Succeeded by J.P. Word
Political offices
Preceded by P. Frank Lane	Secretary of State of Texas 1963-1966	Succeeded by John L. Hill, Jr.
Legal offices
Preceded by Waggoner Carr	Attorney General of Texas January 1, 1967-December 29, 1972	Succeeded by John L. Hill, Jr.

Persondata
Name	Martin, Crawford Collins
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 13, 1916
Place of birth	Hillsboro, Texas
Date of death	December 29, 1972
Place of death