Lawrence Radigan
| Lawrence Radigan | |
| File:Lawrence Radigan.jpg Radigan in the early 1970's | |
| 27th President of Rio Blanco | |
|---|---|
|
In office 1 August 1980 – 23 September 1983 | |
| Prime Minister | Thomas Kirchenauer |
| Preceded by | Chris Klaudes (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Kirchenauer (acting) |
| Constituency | Ouray |
| President of the Rioblancoan People's Front | |
|
In office 3 October 1984 – 23 August 2016 | |
| Preceded by | position created |
| Succeeded by | George Rasmussen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 October 1936 (as James Lincoln Finch III) Cortez, Ouray |
| Died | 23 August 2016 (aged 79) Cortez, Ouray |
| Political party | Progressive (1972-1983) RBPF (1984-2016) |
| Spouse(s) | Yvonne Caulker-Radigan (div. 1984) |
| Children | James (L. Finch IV), Susan (Finch) |
| Profession | Politician |
| Religion | Baptist |
Lawrence Radigan, also going by the name of James Saunders while in Canada (born James Lincoln Finch III; 15 October 1936—23 August 2016) was a Rioblancoan politician, 27th President of Rio Blanco. Radigan won the 1980 election in the closest margin since the independence of Rio Blanco; his term was riddled with involvement in major scandals, many failed proposals for law, alleged intervention in favor of dictatorships in South America and failure to properly terminate revolts when a presumed law that would abolish the state of Salt Lake (which caused the second rise of the Honeybee Independence Movement, a secessionist movement in Salt Lake).
Biography
Early life
Radigan was born in the family ranch just outside of Cortez (OU) to James L. Finch Jr. and Rhonda Smithey; Finch Jr. died three months after the son's birth, making his mother give him a new family: the Radigans, based in Dolores (OU), composed of William Donald "Willy" Radigan (1904 – 1979) and Phyllis Coleman-Radigan (1904 – 1991). After completing high school, he attended the Fort Lewis College in Durango (OU), while also helping his adoptive father in his café; while attending college, he met Leslie Garafikis, who would convince him to join the Progressive Party, and his future wife, Yvonne Caulker.
Early politics and Presidency
Radigan joined the Progressive Party in 1972, but did not actively participate until late 1979, during the Progressive primaries for the 1980 presidential election, which he would later win.
However, right after taking office, Radigan would have to deal with a scandal that featured a possible proposal of abolition of the state of Salt Lake; in the midst of the Honeybee revolt of 1981, Radigan denied the existence of such law (which was later confirmed to be a hoax) and attempted to get the publisher of the article arrested. Despite his public apologies to Salt Lakers, his approval rating plunged from 59% to just 21%, the lowest of any Rioblancoan president, with percentages being even lower in Salt Lake (just 9%).
On March 1982, Radigan was involved in a second scandal; according to Rocky Mountain News, he tried to enact several laws without the consent of the Parliament; among those:
- a law which would allow the President and the Vice President to be reelected indefinitely;
- a law which would criminalize marijuana;
- a law which would ban any form of abortion;
While the Conservatives were ready to support those three bills, they harshly criticized the way Radigan was attempting to apply them.
On January 1983, Radigan was in the middle of yet another scandal, where the Denver Post published a top-secret report effectively authorizing the Chilean, Uruguayan and Argentine authorities to search for hypothetical political opponents who fled to Rio Blanco. This report led the Parliament to pass a bill that would allow two votes, one popular and the other intraparliamentary, on whether to oust Radigan from office before his term was over; the dates for voting were set on 15 September (for people) and 23 September (Members of Parliament).
On the question Should President Lawrence Radigan be asked to resign from office?, the majority of the voters answered Yes.
| Category | Yes | No | Don't know/refused to answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| People | 58.27% | 40.30% | 1.43% |
| Members of Parliament | 91 | 59 | 3 abstainers |
Aftermath
The Progressive Party was appalled by his tenure; on the 1st of October 1983, following an extraordinary committee, Robert Johnson (then-President of the Party) expelled Radigan, after a lenghty speech on how his tenure was "something that we [the Party] could expect from someone unqualified" and that "Radigan was essentially a dictator running as a Progressive", as well as on his unconstitutional way of enacting laws. After the 1984 election, the Progressive Party went so far as to purge all material related to him and held a public conference "apologizing to the citizens" for what Radigan did as a President. The party still refuses to list him as a Progressive president and no pictures of him are found in their website.
That same day, Radigan went back home in Dolores; for three months, he rarely got out of there, and when he did, he refused to talk about his political experience to anyone but the closest members of his family and his best friends.
The People's Front
After his presidential experience, he founded his own party: the Rioblancoan People's Front. The role of Secretary of the newly-born Party was to be endowed to his son James, but the latter and his sister Susan changed surname to James Lincoln Finch IV and Susan Finch and moved to Provincetown, MA (where their biological grandmother lived until she died in 1992), to avoid being associated with him, and his wife, Yvonne Caulker, divorced from him and dropped the second surname; thus, he was forced to assign the role to his friend Nellie Osmussen.
Initially focusing on liberalism, the Front then shifted to the center and began spearding more Christian themes, such as opposing abortion and criminalization of marijuana. In both 1984 and 1988, the party was the sixth most voted option, usually going just after the required 5,000 votes to be among the six qualified parties. From 1992 on, however, the People's Front failed to reach the threshold.
Later life and death
After Radigan decided that he "should be living another life", he fled to Canada, more specifically in Spirit River, Alberta. To avoid being recognized and possibly defamed, he went by the name of James Saunders and stayed away from political activity. While in Canada, he kept in touch with his party via letters, later to e-mails and videoconferences.
Radigan returned to Rio Blanco in 2014 and moved to the family ranch in of Cortez (OU); that was the first time he met the members of his party since 1984. Two weeks later, he participated at the 16th Congress of the People's Front, held in Cortez.
He also participated at the party's 18th congress in March 2016, held in Broomfield (DCD); right after the session was over, he suffered a heart attack and was rushed at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver. He was dismissed and could return to his family ranch.
He suffered another attack on July 2016; he later died on 23 August 2016 (21:30 RBDT; UTC 03:30) in his ranch; the cause of death was confirmed to be complications from that stroke he had a month earlier. In his testament, it was revealed that the family ranch and unclaimed land around it was donated to the People's Front, so that they could build new headquarters around the ranch, which would become a house museum dedicated to Lawrence Radigan himself.
The People's Front would later merge into the Dead Center Party on 16 September 2016, thus scrapping the idea of building new headquarters.