Claude Kirk and the politics of confrontation

the long version

In 1966 Claude Kirk was elected the first Republican governor of Florida in almost a century. Four years later voters decided that his administration had been even more unsettling than his election, and the tenure of the maverick politician came to a close. Rugged, restless, idealistic, sensational, intelligent, inquisitive, confident, outrageous, energetic, or buffoonish - the media tried for years to pin down his baffling personality and to define his administration. Edmund Kallina does it in this revisionist study. "I believe that Governor Kirk has been unfairly treated by various journalists, historians, and political scientists," he writes. "This work will redress that imbalance. It demonstrates that Kirk accomplished a great deal as governor, especially in the areas of governmental reform, law enforcement, and environmental protection.". While not ignoring the sensational aspects of the governor's term - the appearance of a companion, "Madame X," at his inaugural ball, charges that he used state funds for his honeymoon, and the occurrence of one of the largest teachers' strikes in American history - Kallina offers the first detailed examination of the substance of the governor's record.