Charles W. Lyon

CA Blue Book

Date	Party	Office	Votes	Result
11-03-1914	Republican	AD-62	6895	Win
11-07-1916	Republican	AD-62	10221	Win
11-05-1918	Republican	SD-34	16818	Win
11-07-1922	Republican	SD-34	38430	Win
11-02-1926	Republican	SD-34	69965	Win
11-08-1932	Republican	AD-59	23513	Win
11-06-1934	Republican	AD-59	30640	Win
11-03-1936	Republican	AD-59	33181	Win
11-08-1938	Republican	AD-59	33715	Win
11-05-1940	Republican	AD-59	45325	Win
11-03-1942	Republican	AD-59	27864	Win
11-07-1944	Republican	AD-59	35757	Win
11-07-1950	Republican	AD-59	28224	Win
11-04-1952	Republican	AD-59	45480	Win
11-02-1954	Republican	AD-59	8876	Loss

Candidate Biography:

Born: September 13, 1887 in Los Angeles, CA
Married: Nancy P. Janney (in 1912)
Children: Nancy J. Locke, Charles W. Jr, and Frank Gilbert
Family: Brother of Henry H. Lyon
Died: July 20, 1960

1914: City Attorney, City of Venice
1939: Minority Leader, California State Assembly
1943-1946: Speaker, California State Assembly

• LEGAL TROUBLES: Lyon was convicted in October 1954 of selling state liquor licenses (with G. Delbert Morris) and spent two years in prison. Lyon refused to resign from the Assembly and collected $1,500 in salary for the three months between his conviction and the end of his final term.
• PARDON ME: Lyon was paroled in November 1956 and pardoned by Governor Goodwin Knight in 1958.
• In 1938, Lyon (as a cross-filing candidate) defeated Robert A. Heinlein for the Democratic nomination for AD-59. As the only winning candidate in Primary, Lyon was unopposed in the General Election. Heinlein went on to become a prolific science fiction author, writing 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections (including Starship Troopers in 1959).

Source: California Blue Book (1928), (1946), (1954)
Source: Political Graveyard (website).
Source: "1905 Decisions Could Bear in Robbins' Case: by David Lawsky (UPI), Los Angeles Times (3/22/1981)