political transformation. Most obvious to the public was the unprecedented division in the Republican Party caused, in part, by the ambitions of J. Edward "Gas" Addicks for a seat in the U.S. Senate. A gas company industrialist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Addicks spent vast sums to build a Republican Party devoted to him. Largely successful in heavily Democratic Kent County and Sussex County, Addicks-financed a faction that came to be known as the "Union Republicans." Meanwhile, he made bitter enemies of the New Castle County "Regular Republicans," who considered him nothing more than a carpetbagger from Philadelphia. Behind the headlines, however, all the effort was making obvious the archaic and corrupt practices that characterized elections and the resultant state government. This caused a consensus to develop that major reform was needed in all areas of state government, but especially in voting procedures, apportionment, and the assignment of various responsibilities to the governor, legislature, and judiciary. The result of the all this was the Constitution of 1897 and the return of two-party politics to Delaware. It also created a statewide, moderately progressive, Republican Party, which become a statewide majority, particularly after the highly personal Addicks controversy ended in 1905. Governor of Delaware Hunn was to be an early beneficiary of these developments. As a political newcomer but descended from a long-respected Delaware family and a successful businessman in his own right, Hunn became a compromise candidate acceptable to all Republicans. Running in opposition to the Roman Catholic Wilmington leather merchant, Peter J. Ford, Hunn was able to take advantage of the conservative Democrats, discomfort with Catholicism, as well as their dislike of the national Presidential candidate, populist William Jennings Bryan. Hunn handily won the election in 1900 and began a period of Republican occupancy of the Governor's office that lasted for all but eight of the next 60 years. Hunn became the first governor elected under Delaware's new Constitution of 1897. As such he enjoyed an authority unknown to governors since colonial times. He also became the first governor of Delaware to be eligible to serve for two terms. Most importantly, Hunn was the first governor with authority to veto General Assembly bills; including line-item veto power on appropriations bills. Hunn was also the first governor to serve with an elected lieutenant governor. Along with changes to the Governor's authority, the new Constitution modified the General Assembly's duties so that it too