Edward J. Gurney was Florida’s first republican senator since Reconstruction and the first candidate in the state’s history to receive more than one million votes. He was also the first United States senator in half a century to be indicted on criminal charges while still in office.
No One Is Above the Law
A war hero, Edward J. Gurney spent two years recovering from wounds suffered from German machine gun fire in World War II. When Mr. Gurney’s doctors recommended he move from his home in Maine to a warmer climate, he settled in Winter Park. It was there that he began his political career becoming mayor of Winter Park and winning the first of three terms as a congressman in the House of Representatives.
In 1968, Gurney was elected to the United States Senate. He was later named to the senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal during Richard M. Nixon’s presidency.
In 1974, Senator Gurney’s political career suffered a severe blow when a grand jury indicted the senator on several counts of perjury, bribery, and conspiracy in connection with campaign fundraising.
Senator Gurney became the first United States senator in half a century to be indicted on criminal charges while still in office. The senator resigned his senate seat. Ed Gurney’s prosecution arose out of charges that his aides collected $400,000 in illegal or unreported campaign contributions, partly by demanding money from Florida builders in exchange for supposed government favors.
"It was a tense time. Senator Gurney was in a lot of pain from a war injury and had to sit on a cushion. He was reserved but personable once he got to know you, and we enjoyed a lot of camaraderie throughout our time together.
Gurney’s fundraiser, Larry Williams, had been promising awards of public housing contracts in exchange for sizable donations to just about every high profile contractor in the state, and all of these contractors gave testimony against Gurney. Three United States senators testified as character witnesses on Gurney’s behalf.
Although Gurney was never proved to have knowledge of Williams’ influence peddling, the trial ruined the careers of everyone involved who had any political government connections.”