By Jerry Harrington

 

Harold Hughes may be best known as the Iowa governor in the early-1960s who fought for liquor-by-the-drink. Until this reform passed, serving alcoholic drinks over the counter in glasses was illegal in Iowa. Hughes’ leadership changed that. 

 

The irony is that Hughes was a recovered alcoholic. This disease nearly destroyed his life and he overcame it through his Christian faith, Alcoholics Anonymous and help from his friends. Yet, he supported legalizing liquor-by-the-drink under the principle of respect for law. The law against serving alcoholic drinks was widely violated across Iowa. Either enforce the law, Hughes declared, or change it to reflect public attitudes. To do otherwise was to show contempt for law itself.  

 

Hughes later said that this was among the least important actions he took as governor. Given that he led the effort to reform Iowa government, change Iowa’s tax and school funding system, create Iowa’s community college system and other positive changes, that is probably true. Liquor-by-the-drink reform, he said, would have come in time.

 

But this recovered alcoholic did aggressively campaign to change the law as the core issue in his campaign for governor in 1962 and pushed the Iowa legislature to follow him. It’s a story of strong leadership in support of respect for law.

 

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