Arizona political icon Steiger dies at 83 <nbsp/><nbsp/>

Sam Steiger, an Arizona icon known for his brutal honesty and wry sense of humor who served five terms in the U.S. House, died Wednesday. He was 83.

Perhaps best known for shooting two burros while he was a congressman and painting a crosswalk between the Prescott courthouse and Whiskey Row, Steiger's long, storied political career began with a bet.

But his friends and family remember him most as a public servant from a bygone era, who worked with the likes of Mo Udall, Barry Goldwater and John Rhodes.

"Those guys met every week, once a week to talk about what was good for Arizona," said Steiger's son, Gail. "He helped a lot of people, just because that's what you did for your constituents."

Born in New York City, Steiger first visited Arizona as a teenager, attended Cornell University and graduated from Colorado A&M. He settled on a Prescott ranch after earning a Purple Heart as a U.S. Army platoon leader in the Korean War.

Voters first elected him to the state Senate as a Republican in 1960 and he quickly established himself as a brash, independent politician. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1964 in what was then Arizona's 3rd District, but took the seat two years later after redistricting made his district more GOP-friendly.

During five terms in the U.S. House, Steiger burnished his reputation as a bomb thrower with frequent attacks against politicians he saw as self-serving tools of lobbyists. He was a staunch conservative who earned praise from hard-line constitutionalists and derision from environmental groups.

In August 1975, Steiger went to investigate constituent complaints about a herd of burros running loose near Paulden. He discovered 14 burros in a pen and said later that they charged at him when he went to check their brands, so he shot two of the animals in self-defense.

The burro shooting prompted a criminal investigation, a civil lawsuit from the burros' owner, and brought picketing children to his congressional office.

Steiger later told the Prescott Daily Courier: "I could find a cure for cancer and they'd remember me as the guy who shot the burros."

The following year he won a bruising GOP primary for U.S. Senate against John Conlan, but lost the general election to Dennis DeConcini.

Steiger's political career largely went south from there. He lost a 1978 race for state Senate and, after switching to the Libertarian Party, got trounced in the 1982 governor's race.

But his populist star would rise again in May 1986, after a state road-resurfacing project eliminated the crosswalk on Prescott's Montezuma Street between the Yavapai County courthouse and Whiskey Row. The Prescott City Council failed to restore it.

Steiger took a striper machine and painted a new crosswalk. Police arrested him and he was charged with criminal damage and disorderly conduct. When police approached to ask Steiger what he was doing, according to an account in the Prescott Sun, the former congressman replied: "A little historical preservation."

The disorderly conduct charge was dropped and a jury took 25 minutes to acquit Steiger of criminal damage.

Steiger returned to state government with the election of Gov. Evan Mecham, but the administration did not turn out well for either man. Lawmakers impeached Mecham and removed him from office three days before a jury found Steiger guilty of an extortion charge.

Steiger was accused of threatening a justice of the peace with his job if he didn't vote to retain a fellow parole board member. An appeals court later overturned Steiger's conviction.

Steiger made his second-to-last run for public office in 1990, switching back to the Republican Party to take on Fife Symington in the primary. Symington went on to win the election, was re-elected in 1994 and then resigned following a bank-fraud conviction which was later overturned on appeal.

Political consultant Joyce Downey, a longtime friend of Steiger, business partner and campaign aide, said he was one of the smartest and funniest men she'd ever met. He was from a different era, she said, where elected officials spoke their minds, regardless of how it might play with voters.

She recalled a campaign swing through Green Valley during the 1990 gubernatorial primary. If he were elected governor, a woman asked Steiger, what would he do about overdue library books?

"Ma'am, I have never given it one thought and I never intend to," Steiger replied.

"I had a hell of a ride with Sam," Downey said. "I wouldn't have missed a minute of it."

During the 1990s, Steiger wrote a book, became a radio and TV talk-show host, published a newsletter called The Burro Chronicles and worked in the Phoenix office of U.S. Sen. John McCain. He served one term as Prescott mayor from 1999-2001. He was sidelined by a stroke in 2002 and spent most of his last 10 years in an assisted-living home near downtown Prescott.

Steiger is survived by his children, twin sons Gail and Lewis, daughter Delia and a grandson, all of Prescott. A memorial service for Steiger has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Yavapai County Mounted Sheriff's Posse House on Sheriff's Posse Trail in Prescott.

Reach the reporter at maryk .reinhart@arizonarepublic.com.

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