John James "Jim" Exon was an American Democratic politician. He served as the 33rd Governor of Nebraska from 1971 to 1979, and as a U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 1979 to 1997. Exon was a Nebraska Democrat who never lost an election, and the only Democrat to hold Nebraska's Class 2 U.S. Senate seat. He was elected governor in 1970, re-elected in 1974, elected to the Senate in 1978, and re-elected to that seat in 1984 and 1990. He is the only Nebraskan besides George W. Norris, the architect of Nebraska's unicameral legislature, to win five consecutive statewide elections.
Early career
Exon was born in Geddes, South Dakota, in 1921 and attended the University of Omaha between 1939 and 1941. Exon joined the United States Army Signal Corps in 1942, and served two years overseas in New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan during World War II. He was honorably discharged as a Master Sergeant in December 1945 and served in the Army Reserve until 1949. After the war, he returned to Nebraska and worked as the branch manager of a financial services institution in Fremont. He founded Exon Office Supplies in Lincoln in 1953 and served as its president until 1971. In 1972, when Esso changed its name to Exxon, the Secretary of State of Nebraska declined to register the name due to the existence of Exon's Inc. Exon later claimed that he received an unspecified settlement from Exxon in exchange for renaming his business the J.J. Exon Company. He started his political career as a precinct worker for the Democrats. In 1964, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention for Nebraska and served as a delegate for that state in every convention between 1972 and 2004. He served as a member of the Nebraska Democratic State Central Committee between 1964 and 1968 and was a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1968 to 1970. Exon was Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party in 1970 when he decided to run for Governor.
Exon's first bid for public office was his successful campaign for Governor of Nebraska, defeating incumbent Republican Norbert Tiemann. The term of the Governor had been extended to four years beginning with Tiemann's win in 1966. Exon was re-elected in a landslide in 1974 and became the first Nebraska Governor to serve eight years in that position. His repeated vetoes of the legislature's spending programs earned Exon the reputation as a fiscal conservative. He vetoed 141 bills in his final seven years as Governor or an average of 20 a year. Due to his ability to control expenditures and his reluctance to raise taxes, Exon won the support of many Nebraskans who normally voted Republican. Exon vetoed the legalization of gay sex in 1977, expressing opposition to "perverts, homos, and gays." The legislature overrode his veto, and Nebraska became among the first states to legalize same-sex sex.
Senate career (1979–1997)
Exon's popularity as Governor carried over to his 1978 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and he was elected with 68 percent of the vote. He had a reputation as a moderate Democrat, often working with Republicans on fiscal and military issues. While serving on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Exon was a strong defender of the B-2 stealth bomber. On October 19, 1983, Exon was one of four Democratic senators to vote against a bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The legislation was signed into law by President Reagan the following month. In 1984, Exon had the closest election in his political career due to the popularity of President Ronald Reagan, eventually winning re-election by 25,000 votes. He was re-elected again in 1990. He helped sponsor the Exon-Florio Amendment, which prevented takeovers or mergers by foreign companies of U.S. companies, if said merger was found to be a threat to national security. In 1988, Exon took 10 vacations paid for by lobbying groups. Exon helped to write and secure support for a spending reduction in the U.S. budget of $14 billion in 1994, which he stated was his proudest political achievement. His Communications Decency Act of 1996 was Congress's first effort to try to regulate content on the Internet with the goal of preventing access or transmission of pornography on the internet. It was later overturned by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment.
Final years and death
After his retirement, Exon served on a Committee established by Congress and led by John M. Deutch on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. In the report, Exon warned of the dangers if such weapons fell into the hands of terrorists and recommended the formation of an agency with a similar role to the Department of Homeland Security. He was treated for cancer in the last years of his life, although he claimed in 2003 that it wasn't "highly malignant". Exon died of natural causes at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska on June 10, 2005. He was the first person to lie in state for public viewing in the rotunda of the State Capitol building.
