Joseph D. Tydings, former progressive U.S. senator from Maryland, is dead at 90 [View all]

[ehrnst]

In 1954, he was elected to represent Harford County in the Maryland House of Delegates. There, he fought for greater oversight of savings and loan companies after a major scandal within the industry.

"I was appalled no one was doing anything about it," he wrote in his autobiography, “My Life in Progressive Politics: Against the Grain,” co-written by former Baltimore Sun reporter John W. Frece. The reason, he argued, was that many top politicians in the state were profiting from these schemes.

Later, as a federal prosecutor in the state, he brought several cases against corrupt politicians, including Congressman Thomas Johnson and House Speaker A. Gordon Boone, both who served time in prison. According to his autobiography, Sen. Tydings brought so many cases against Democratic politicians that, according to his autobiography, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy once called him and exclaimed: "My God, Joe, can't you ever find a Republican to indict?"

In 1963, at the urging of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Tydings launched his bid for the U.S. Senate. Kennedy was assassinated on the same November day that Sen. Tydings held his farewell luncheon with colleagues to prepare for his run.

During his single six-year term in the Senate (1965-1971), he championed liberal causes including gun control, civil rights and opposing the war in Vietnam. His advocacy for gun safety also incurred the wrath of the National Rifle Association, which helped defeat him in his re-election bid, according to a biography provided by his family. He also became an enemy of President Nixon after helping to defeat two of the president’s Supreme Court nominees, Clement F. Haynsworth Jr., and G. Harrold Carswell, according to the biography.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-joseph-tydings-20181008-story.html