and flow in the 1980s. At one point, he became rather prosperous again. He promoted a new fast-food chain, Hooker's Hamburgers, named for himself, which sold hamburgers from small, drive-by-only buildings, operating this venture from 1984 to 1986 before selling it for $3 million. One of these outlets was built in the Nashville area and several more in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Hooker began to file to run for various political offices including governor, Senator, Congressman, and others, for the purpose of acquiring the legal standing to sue all of these persons running for the office for taking campaign contributions from "out of state" contributors, which according to his legal theories were both illegal and unconstitutional. Hooker continued to bring lawsuits in that regard down through the early part of the 21st century. In 1995 he sued President Bill Clinton, as well as all of the other presidential candidates, for accepting certain campaign contributions, which according to his theory were unconstitutional. He sued the Tennessee Supreme Court, saying their elections under the "Modified Missouri Plan" were unconstitutional, eventually forcing them to recuse themselves from their own case and require the empanelment of a special State Supreme Court to hear the charges (this panel dismissed Hooker's claims). Hooker received the 1998 Democratic nomination for governor. No other prominent Democrat had filed to oppose incumbent Republican governor Don Sundquist, and Hooker defeated a field of other "token" candidates as well as the "serious" candidate with union backing, Mark Whitaker. Hooker won the nomination based on name recognition among older Democrats, who in Tennessee are generally the most reliable primary voters. He ran best in the rural areas and with urban blacks, who had always provided him with a core support group. While not formally disavowing him, the regular Democratic Party organization did almost nothing to promote his candidacy, and Hooker had disavowed the formal fundraising process as unethical and immoral. Hooker received about 30 percent of the vote in the November general election. At this time, Governor Sundquist had a 72 percent approval rating. Hooker remained a political activist, running for Congress in 2002 and again suing all his opponents, and then for Chancery Court judge in 2004 as an Independent against Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman. He sued her for taking campaign contributions from lawyers who practiced in her court and then attended fundraisers held by her at which, according to Hooker, she