was to be the nation's largest water irrigation project, supported by the progressivists who believed in non-privatized power. While PG&E wanted to pass Proposition 1 to defeat the CVP, lawyer Sheridan Downey was forming a team to help defeat Proposition 1. Becoming Campaigns, Inc. Whitaker's lobbying efforts for the barbers' trade union attracted Downey, who hired him to help on the campaign. Knowing that the nearby City of Redding would also have economic interests in protecting the Central Valley Project, Downey recruited Baxter, the city's Chamber of Commerce manager, to help with his undertaking. Downey paired Whitaker and Baxter together on the project. Whitaker and Baxter's efforts helped defeat the measure by 33,000 votes. This partnership led to the formation of their campaign management firm, Campaigns, Inc., in 1933. In 1935, Whitaker separated from his then wife, Harriet Reynolds. In 1938, after being in business together for five years, Whitaker and Baxter married. Their business, called Campaigns Inc., was not formally incorporated until 1950, under the name Whitaker & Baxter, Inc. The business became known as the first public relations firm in the country dedicated solely to politics. Over the next 25 years, the firm handled over 75 campaigns and initiatives, spanning topics such as taxation and finance, pensions, and legislative reapportionment, as well as teacher's salaries and railroad crew issues. Clients who utilized Campaigns, Inc. were also entitled to many of the other enterprises that Whitaker and Baxter pursued, including the Clem Whitaker Advertising Agency, Whitaker-Baxter Public Relations, and an editorial and news syndicate that sent prepared materials to publishers throughout California. Whitaker and Baxter eventually named Whitaker's son, Clem, Jr. and James J. Dorais as junior partners in the firm. These four formed the core staff, along with several other staff members. In 1959, when Clem, Sr.'s health began to plague him in 1959, and Whitaker and Baxter sold the firm to Clem, Jr., James Dorais, and Newton Stearns. The two original founders then formed Whitaker and Baxter International, after which Whitaker died in 1961 and from which Baxter retired in the early 1980s. Clem, Jr. wrote in a letter on October 31, 1991, "Years ago when I assumed management of Whitaker and Baxter we phased out of the campaign management business. Our last candidate campaign was the election of Senator Robert Griffin over Governor Mennen "Soapy" Williams in Michigan in 1966. We ceased ballot issue campaigns in