In 1885 the Republican-dominated Arizona territorial legislature enacted a test oath requirement for voters, requiring them to disavow membership in any organization that encouraged the practice of polygamy “as a religious duty or privilege.” In 1887 the Democratic-controlled legislature repealed the law, so that by the time Andrew came to Arizona in 1889, Mormons were fully engaged in the political process. The Mormons voted predominantly Democratic, and in Graham County, the county that includes the Gila Valley, the Latter-day Saint voters constituted more than a third of the total.
Andrew continued his activity in politics upon moving to Arizona. He almost always voted a straight Democratic ticket. Within a few months, in September 1898, he was chosen as a delegate to the Democratic Party county convention.385 And in 1900, Andrew won election to represent the county in the 1901 territorial legislature. He received 70 percent of the vote in his Graham County district.
In 1900, Republican Governor Nathan Murphy arrived in Pima at 10 a.m. to address voters, but almost no one showed up. He had called the Mormons “a disgrace, a danger and a menace to our very national existence.” And he had promoted the “Idaho Test Oath,” that had effectively disfranchised Mormons.386 Embarrassed sponsors, after an hour of diligent legwork, recruited forty reluctant people to come hear him as a matter of civic hospitality.
Although only a first-term legislator, Andrew chaired the Judiciary Committee, with responsibility for revising the territorial code. This brought him quick recognition as a leader. He also served on the influential Rules Committee and the committees that dealt with education and livestock.387
He decided in 1902 to run for a second term, but found that another LDS man had already committed himself to seek the nomination. The man took offense at Andrew’s proposal to run, even though Andrew withdrew his name from consideration.388 During his one term he procured for his fifteen-year-old daughter Clare the position of assistant journal clerk at the excellent salary of $5 a day. And he obtained the same job for her the next session, too, as a matter of political patronage, even though he was out of office.389
After serving in the state legislature, Andrew continued to be active in politics. He ran successfully for a seat on the Thatcher city council390 and served as mayor.391 In 1911 he asked permission of the First Presidency to run for the Arizona senate. The Presidency telegraphed him a backhanded denial: “We are in perfect accord with your own judgment . . . to devote yourself entirely to stake duties.”392
Political questions sometimes divided Church members. In 1915 an election was going to determine whether the county seat in Solomonville should be moved to Safford or to Pima. The residents of Pima, a Mormon town, felt betrayed when many of Thatcher’s Mormon residents voted for Safford because it was a few miles closer to them.
Mormons who disagreed with Andrew’s views resented the fact that Andrew’s views were often taken as “the” Mormon views.393 He supported the right of others to disagree, but he felt free to express his personal political opinions.
In the Graham County 1911 election there were 58 straight Democratic ballots, 17 Republican, and 14 Socialist. The rest were scratched ballots. A few Church members were active in the Socialist Party at the time. William Moore Claydon, music teacher at the academy, felt offended by a statement in church that wise voters would stay within the two national parties. He complained that because of this statement people accused him of apostasy.394 The stake presidency referred him to his bishop “for a recommend which the stake presidency will vindicate.” That should allay criticism.395
On the topic of Socialism, Andrew expressed his views as follows: “I attended meeting of Socialists. . . . Whatever may be my feelings in the future, I cannot accept of their wild and dangerous theories at present; . . . I may change my mind.”396 During World War I, Andrew wrote the First Presidency, “Some few of our Valley boys, however, become affected by the sentiment of Socialism and Unionism, and lose their heads. But generally our people are acting a wise part.”397
Eventually, Andrew spoke out against Socialism in church meetings and read to the priesthood holders a First Presidency letter urging members not to talk of Socialism as being akin to the United Order. Church members were free to consider Socialism on its merits, but they should not claim (as apparently some had done) that Elders John Henry Smith (Republican) and Heber J. Grant (Democrat) were Socialists.398
In 1912, Andrew supported Democrat George W. P. Hunt for governor. In consequence, as patronage he was able to get Bishop Moody appointed to the Land Commission, paying $250 a month and expenses. Hunt said, “Keep this strictly confidential.” But despite his long time as a loyal and active Democrat, in 1918 Andrew registered as a Republican because he believed the Hunt administration was corrupt—far beyond traditional patronage. Hunt served as governor four different times, for fourteen years total. When Governor Hunt won the contested 1917 election, he asked for Andrew’s resignation from the generally non-partisan Agricultural and Horticultural Commission, so Andrew resigned.399
Even without public office Andrew was widely known and respected in the territory. He spoke out on issues where he had a strong opinion, such as woman suffrage, workmen’s compensation, the death penalty for murder, the admission of Arizona Territory as a state, and particularly the prohibition of liquor. Whether the territories of Arizona and New Mexico should be admitted to the union as one state or two stirred heated controversy at this time.400 Andrew preferred separate states; however, LDS Senator Reed Smoot disagreed.401 In 1908, Andrew received a request that he make a special trip to Salt Lake City to meet with the First Presidency, no subject was specified.402 It turned out that they wanted to talk with him in person about the issue of statehood. After that Andrew continued to speak against jointure and the Church took no position. The two territories joined the Union as separate states in 1912.
Andrew’s major accomplishment in the 1901 legislature had been passing a law that provided for a local option on the prohibition of liquor, although prohibition required a two-thirds majority, a degree of unanimity that was almost impossible to obtain.
Andrew did not take primarily a highly moral stance against liquor, but he emphasized the huge indirect costs of alcohol use to law enforcement, health, and the economy generally. He worked tirelessly in promoting prohibition.
In 1904 the Local Option Committee in the Gila Valley filed a petition calling for an election in a district so defined as to include as many towns as they thought would provide a two-thirds vote for prohibition. Opponents filed a counter-petition that would define the district to include the mining towns of Clifton and Morenci, sure to outbalance the Mormon vote. The petition filed first should have taken precedence, but the county clerk fraudulently backdated the counter-petition so it would appear to take precedence. Andrew’s committee and their opponents worked out a compromise solution by which only the predominantly Mormon towns would be included in the election, each town a separate district. On this basis local option passed in four towns and lost in two.403
Building on Andrew’s local option law, in 1909 Mormon legislator W. W. Pace obtained an amendment of the law to allow prohibition by simple majority. And in 1909, Andrew led the anti-saloon effort, both in the Gila Valley and in the territory. In 1911 when he urged his fellow Church members to support prohibition, he was told that such a policy would create a Mormon/non-Mormon schism,404 so he responded by a letter to the newspaper editor explaining that in opposing saloons he did not mean to endorse any political party.
Andrew asked the First Presidency whether Church members should be heavily involved in non-Mormon organizations fighting liquor, such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. They answered that while those already involved should continue, it was better for Mormons to join the Church’s own separate efforts to fight for prohibition.405
Andrew continued working toward Graham County’s countywide adoption of prohibition,406 and by 1915 the four counties with the most Mormons went dry by local option.407
Andrew had supported woman suffrage in the Utah Constitutional Convention. He viewed suffrage as an inherent right.408 In Arizona he lectured repeatedly in meetings of the Equal Rights Association that worked for universal suffrage.
In 1903, Andrew directly lobbied Governor Alexander O. Brodie in favor of woman suffrage,409 but the governor replied with his concern that this might work against Arizona’s pursuit of statehood. He vetoed the woman suffrage provision that had passed the legislature, asserting it exceeded the constitutional power of the territorial legislature.410 However, in 1912, Arizona did adopt woman suffrage. When Congress in 1919 submitted the proposed Nineteenth Amendment to the states for ratification, Andrew urged Governor Thomas E. Campbell to call a special session of the state legislature to ratify the proposed federal constitutional amendment. The governor declined, but approval of the federal amendment in Arizona soon came by direct initiative.
Even without being in the legislature, Andrew’s views had political significance because of his Church position and his articulate advocacy. He was the friend of several governors, close enough that he might expect an invitation to dine with them.411
