Joe Shell (R-Calif.), 89
Posted: Monday, April 14th, 2008 3:30 pm1:15 p.m. April 11, 2008 BAKERSFIELD — Joe Shell, a former Assemblyman who mounted a colorful campaign challenging Richard Nixon for the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nomination, has died. He was 89.
Shell, a conservative who served for five years as the GOP minority leader in the California Assembly, had been in declining health since breaking several ribs in January…
During his unsuccessful campaign for governor, Shell piloted his own Beechcraft Bonanza from one campaign stop to the next with a pet poodle at his side in the cockpit, emphasizing an ultraconservative platform that ultimately split loyalties in the GOP. …
Shell accused his primary opponent, former Vice President Nixon, of trying to use Sacramento as a way to get back to Washington. Shell won 35 percent of the vote and Nixon lost to Democratic incumbent Pat Brown in the general election. … Read full obituary
