Arthur Samish

Samish represented movie studios, racetracks, lawyers, insurance companies, fishing, cigarette, liquor and brewing interests. He was politically powerful throughout his career. Elmer Ritter Rusco, who did his doctoral dissertation at U.C.- Berkeley on Samish judged that Samish had a better organized political operation during the decades from 1930 to 1950 than either the Democrat or Republican Parties in California. In 1953 he was convicted of tax evasion, which led to a three-year stint in prison beginning in 1956 as well as millions of dollars in penalties. He retired from politics in 1959 and died in San Francisco in 1974.