Thomas L. Woolwine

In 1907, Woolwine was appointed as Deputy City Attorney of Los Angeles under Leslie R. Hewitt, and in the next year was named the City Prosecuting Attorney as well as the Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles County.^[5] He criticized the District AttorneyJohn D. Fredericks for being incompetent.^[4]

In 1909, with the recall proceedings against Mayor Harper by the Municipal League, Woolwine was suggested to run in the election, but both Woolwine and the Municipal League supported George Alexander. Woolwine argued that the party lines should not be used in city government, with Woolwine being a Democrat and Alexander being a Republican. In 1910, he ran against Fredericks for District Attorney of Los Angeles County and was endorsed by the Good Government Organization, Democrats, union leaders, and some Republicans including United States SenatorFrank Putnam Flint.^[6][7] Although he was projected to win against Fredericks at a time where Republicans had a "clean sweep" in Los Angeles County, Fredericks won the election with 2,000 more votes.^[8]

In 1914, he again ran for District Attorney against W. Joseph Ford, to which he won in the general election by a large majority.^[9][10] He served a two-year term due to a change in election years for the office, and during his tenure helped create three new departments of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, convicted a number of arsonists, and prosecuted against police chief Charles E. Sebastian. He also helped convict Milton Schmidt and David Caplan for their involvement with the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, which he was praised by the Times who later endorsed him in the 1916 election after previously criticizing him in the 1910 election.^[4] That same year, he faced a trial brought by a former deputy, to which he was defended by his previous opponent, W. Joseph Ford, and was exonerated after a few days.

In 1916, he launched his re-election campaign and was opposed by four candidates, including former deputy W. T. Helms, and won against Helms in the general election. In his second term, he went after wholesale bakers who conspired to raise bread prices during World War I, with his efforts lauded by the United States Department of Justice. He later made the Food and Drug Administration and Senate investigate a price dispute between sugar refineries and sugar beet growers. In 1917, he charged three city councilmen and two county supervisors for funding mismanagement.^[4]

In 1918, he ran for governor on the Democratic ticket but lost the primary to Francis J. Heney and Republican James Rolph, who cross-filed but was unable to participate in the election due to not winning his own party's nomination.^[11] After his loss, he ran again for District Attorney, with attacks coming from John D. Fredericks, accusing him of being soft on crime. The attacks backfired, and Woolwine was re-elected over opponent Charles W. Lyon, a State Senator.^[12]

En 1922, anunció su candidatura a gobernador de California y ganó las primarias demócratas, con el apoyo de Charlie Chaplin , Tom Mix y Thomas H. Ince , así como de algunas organizaciones republicanas. Se enfrentó al Ku Klux Klan, ya que Woolwine lo había denunciado y exigido una investigación en su contra. ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ]} Perdió en las elecciones generales contra el republicano Friend Richardson . ^{[ 15 ]}

Algunos votantes del condado de Los Ángeles querían destituirlo porque quería legalizar la venta de vinos y cervezas de baja graduación, alegando que sería negligente en la aplicación de la ley. ^{[ 16 ]} En 1923, renunció por problemas de salud por recomendación de su médico, y su adjunto, Asa Keyes, fue nombrado. ^{[ 17 ]}