{{Short description|American politician (1917–2002)}} {{other people|Wyman}} {{more citations needed|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Louis Wyman | image = WymanLouis(R-NH).jpg | caption = Wyman in 1972 | jr/sr = United States Senator | state = New Hampshire | appointer = Meldrim Thomson Jr. | term_start = December 31, 1974 | term_end = January 3, 1975 | predecessor = Norris Cotton | successor = Norris Cotton | state1 = New Hampshire | district1 = {{ushr|NH|1|1st}} | term_start1 = January 3, 1967 | term_end1 = December 31, 1974 | predecessor1 = Joseph Oliva Huot | successor1 = Norman D'Amours | term_start2 = January 3, 1963 | term_end2 = January 3, 1965 | predecessor2 = Charles Earl Merrow | successor2 = Joseph Oliva Huot | office3 = Attorney General of New Hampshire | governor3 = Hugh Gregg<br>Lane Dwinell<br>Wesley Powell | term_start3 = January 15, 1953 | term_end3 = February 2, 1961 | predecessor3 = Gordon Tiffany | successor3 = Gardner C. Turner | birth_name = Louis Crosby Wyman | birth_date = {{birth date|1917|3|16}} | birth_place = Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2002|5|5|1917|3|16}} | death_place = West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. | party = Republican | spouse = {{marriage|Virginia E. Markley|1938}} | children = 2 | education = University of New Hampshire (BS)<br>Harvard University (LLB) | branch = United States Navy | service_years = 1942–1946 | rank = Lieutenant }} '''Louis Crosby Wyman''' (March 16, 1917 – May 5, 2002) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a United States representative and a U.S. senator from New Hampshire. He was a member of the Republican Party.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/137Durkin_Wyman.htm | title=U.S. Senate: The Election Case of John A. Durkin v. Louis C. Wyman of New Hampshire (1975) }}</ref>
==Early life and career== Louis Crosby Wyman was born on March 16, 1917, in Manchester, New Hampshire, the son of Alice Sibley (Crosby) and Louis Eliot Wyman.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/wyche-wyvell.html|title=The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Wyble to Wyzanski}}</ref> He graduated from the University of New Hampshire at Durham in 1938 and from Harvard Law School in 1941.<ref name="congressbio">{{cite web|title=WYMAN, Louis Crosby - Biographical Information|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=w000782|website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|accessdate=13 December 2017}}</ref> He was admitted to the bars of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1941, and of Florida in 1957, and commenced the practice of law in Boston, Massachusetts,<ref name="congressbio"/> at Ropes and Gray.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Wyman Slated To Take Over as Attorney General |last=O'Neil |first=D. Frank |date=January 10, 1953 |work=Manchester Union-Leader |page=14 |language=en-US}}</ref>
During World War II, Wyman served in the Alaskan Theater as a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. He also served as general counsel to a U.S. Senate committee in 1946; secretary to Senator Styles Bridges in 1947; counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Foreign Economic Cooperation from 1948 to 1949; attorney general of New Hampshire from 1953 to 1961; president of the National Association of Attorneys General in 1957; and as legislative counsel to the governor of New Hampshire in 1961; member and chairman of several state legal and judicial commissions. His attempts to investigate alleged communists as attorney general lead to the Supreme Court case ''Sweezy v. New Hampshire'', which ruled against the state and Wyman on due process grounds.<ref>{{Cite book |title= Patriots, Pirates, Politicians and Profit Seekers: New Hampshire Cases and the United States Supreme Court |last1=Blanchard |first1=Joan M. |last2=Bender |first2=Martin J. |publisher=New Hampshire Bar Association |year=2015 |edition=2nd |pages=84–86}}</ref>
==House of Representatives== Wyman was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House from {{ushr|New Hampshire|1}} in 1962. He was swept out in the Democratic landslide of 1964, but regained his seat in 1966 and was reelected three more times.
Wyman was behind an amendment to 1964 automobile safety legislation which prohibited a "seat belt interlock system" in automobiles.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Walter Rugaber Special to The New York |date=1974-10-16 |title=Congress Clears Auto Safety Measure Eliminating Seat Belt Interlock System |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/16/archives/congress-clears-auto-safety-measure-eliminating-seat-belt-interlock.html |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The interlock system prevented automobiles from starting unless the driver was wearing a seatbelt.<ref name=":0" /> Consumer advocates had advocated for the safety measure, but the measure also provoked much opposition.<ref name=":0" />
==Senate election== {{main|1974 and 1975 United States Senate elections in New Hampshire}} Wyman did not run for reelection to his House seat in 1974, opting instead to run for the Senate seat that was due to come open by 20-year incumbent Norris Cotton's retirement. The initial returns showed him defeating Democratic candidate John A. Durkin by 355 votes on election night.<ref name="Wymanobit">{{cite news|title=Louis C. Wyman, 85; Served 5 Terms in House|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/09/us/louis-c-wyman-85-served-5-terms-in-house.html|accessdate=13 December 2017|work=The New York Times|agency=The Associated Press|date=9 May 2002}}</ref>
Durkin demanded a recount, which resulted in Durkin winning by ten votes.<ref name="Wymanobit"/> Governor Meldrim Thomson then certified Durkin as the winner. However, Wyman demanded another recount in which he prevailed by two votes. Cotton resigned on December 31, 1974; Thomson appointed Wyman to the seat for the balance of the term ending January 3, 1975, to give him a leg up in seniority. This appeared to end the dispute, but Durkin appealed to the full Senate, which is the final arbiter of Senate elections per Article One of the U.S. Constitution.
The Senate Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over the results of Senate elections, then deadlocked on whether to seat Wyman for the 1975–1981 term pending the resolution of the dispute. On January 14, the Senate returned the matter to the Rules Committee, which returned 35 disputed points to the full Senate based on 3,000 questionable ballots. However, the Senate was unable to break a deadlock on even one of the 35 points.
After seven months of wrangling which included six unsuccessful Democratic attempts to seat Durkin, Wyman, having never been seated, proposed that he and Durkin run again in a special election. Durkin agreed, and the Senate declared the seat officially vacant on August 8, 1975, pending the new election. Thomson appointed Cotton to his old seat in the meantime. The special election was held on September 16, and Durkin won handily, defeating Wyman by nearly 28,000 votes—ending what is still the closest Senate election since the people gained the right to directly elect Senators with the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.
==Later life== Wyman served as an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court from 1978 to 1987.<ref>{{cite web|title=In Memoriam - Louis C. Wyman|url=https://www.nhbar.org/publications/archives/display-news-issue.asp?id=576|website=New Hampshire Bar Association|accessdate=13 December 2017|date=17 May 2002}}</ref> He was a resident of Manchester, New Hampshire and West Palm Beach, Florida, until his death due to cancer on May 5, 2002.<ref name="Wymanobit"/> Wyman's remains were cremated, and the ashes scattered at sea.<ref name="congressbio"/>
==See also== *Unseated members of the United States Congress
==References== {{Reflist}} *[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015025120877&view=1up&seq=148&q1=Louis%20Wyman Official Congressional Directory: 93rd Congress (1974)] {{PD notice}} *[https://archive.org/details/manualforgeneral46newh/page/412/mode/2up?q=Superior+Court Manual for the New Hampshire General Court (1979), page 412]
==External links== {{CongBio|W000782}} Retrieved on 2008-01-25
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=Gordon Tiffany}} {{s-ttl|title=Attorney General of New Hampshire|years=1953–1961}} {{s-aft|after=Gardner Turner}} |- {{s-par|us-hs}} {{s-bef|before=Chester Earl Merrow}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives<br>from New Hampshire's 1st congressional district|years=1963–1965}} {{s-aft|after=Joseph Oliva Huot}} |- {{s-bef|before=Joseph Oliva Huot}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives<br>from New Hampshire's 1st congressional district|years=1967–1974}} {{s-aft|after=Norman D'Amours}} |- {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Norris Cotton}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from New Hampshire<br>(Class 3)|years=1974, 1975}} {{s-aft|after=Warren Rudman}} |- {{s-par|us-sen}} {{s-bef|before=Norris Cotton}} {{s-ttl|title=U.S. Senator (Class 3) from New Hampshire|years=1974–1975|alongside=Thomas McIntyre}} {{s-aft|after=Norris Cotton}} {{s-end}}
{{USSenNH}} {{Authority control}}
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