Berkeley Lloyd Bunker (August 12, 1906 – January 21, 1999) was a United States senator and representative from Nevada. Early life Born in what was then St. Thomas, Clark County, Nevada (now a northern arm of Lake Mead), he attended public schools, graduating from Clark County High School in 1926. Bunker married Lucile Whitehead, then entered the tire and oil business in Las Vegas in 1934. Career The Democrat Bunker was a member of the Nevada Assembly from 1936 to 1941, serving as speaker in 1939. When United States Senator Key Pittman died just after reelection in 1940, many candidates sought to be appointed as replacement. On November 26, Governor Edward P. Carville surprised the state and appointed Bunker as Pittman's replacement for the term ending January 3, 1941, and also for the term ending January 3, 1947, serving until December 6, 1942, when a duly elected successor qualified. The young new senator, whom Carville likely chose as a compromise candidate because (as an observer later said) "Nobody was mad at Berkeley Bunker", later claimed to be the "most surprised man in the state" as he had not asked for the job. Bunker was the first southern Nevadan, and first Nevadan Mormon, to serve in federal office. As a senator he made headlines by accusing Basic Magnesium of having negotiated a contract with the government to get exorbitant profits. Bunker lost to former governor James Scrugham in the Democratic primary for the 1942 special election but was elected in 1944 as a Democrat to Nevada's only House seat after he had defeated incumbent Maurice Sullivan in the primary and Republican former actor Rex Bell in the general election. In 1946 he introduced a bill to incorporate Boulder City, Nevada, removing it from federal control, but the bill never made it out of committee. When Scrugham died in 1945 Carville resigned so that Lieutenant Governor Vail Pittman would succeed him and appoint him to the vacancy. In what he later called "the biggest mistake of my political career", instead of running for reelection to the House, Bunker challenged Carville in the Democratic primary for the 1946 election. Bunker won, but according to fellow Democrats, he had committed what the Las Vegas Review-Journal later described as the "heinous crime of political ingratitude, becoming a party pariah." Observers expected Bunker to easily defeat Republican George Malone, but the Democratic vote was divided and