Frank Horton (New York politician)


Frank Jefferson Horton was a United States Representative from New York State.

Early life and career

Horton was born in Cuero, Texas and was a graduate of Louisiana State University where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and served until the end of World War II. He then attended Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1947, the same year that he was admitted to the New York Bar. From 1956 to 1962 he was the President of Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. From 1959 to 1961, Horton served as the Executive Vice President of the International Baseball League, as well as the League's attorney.

Political career

Horton was a member of the Rochester City Council from 1955 to 1961. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1962 as a Republican, Horton was re-elected to 14 additional terms.
In 1966, along with three Republican Senators and four other Republican Representatives, Horton signed a telegram sent to Georgia Governor Carl E. Sanders regarding the Georgia legislature's refusal to seat the recently elected Julian Bond in their state House of Representatives. This refusal, said the telegram, was "a dangerous attack on representative government. None of us agree with Mr. Bond's views on the Vietnam War; in fact we strongly repudiate these views. But unless otherwise determined by a court of law, which the Georgia Legislature is not, he is entitled to express them."
Horton was known as a moderate, a Rockefeller Republican and "the least partisan of Representatives." He rose to the position of Ranking Minority Member of the Government Operations Committee
Horton retired from Congress in 1993 when redistricting placed him in the same district as his friend Rep. Louise Slaughter.
While in Congress, Horton proposed making the United States Environmental Protection Agency a cabinet-level agency and helped introduce the Whistleblower Protection Act in 1987.