the state mental health system his proudest accomplishment as governor. There was not total agreement between Nunn and the legislature, however. The governor vetoed one-quarter of the bills passed in the 1968 legislative session and 14 percent of those passed in the 1970 session. An open housing bill became law without Nunn's signature, and he also refused to sign the 1970 state budget as a form of protest. (Unsigned bills become law after ten days under the Kentucky Constitution, in contrast to the pocket veto provision in the federal constitution.) A supporter of President Nixon's law-and-order philosophies, Nunn called out the National Guard to break up violent protests in the state. In May 1968, he sent the Guard to Louisville to break up race-related protests that followed peaceful civil rights marches. This action was criticized by civil rights leaders across the state. In May 1970, Nunn again dispatched the Guard to quell protests against the Vietnam War at the University of Kentucky, and imposed a curfew that interfered with final examinations. The latter protest culminated in the burning of one of the university's ROTC buildings. From 1968 to 1969, Nunn served on the Executive Committee of the National Governors' Conference and, in 1971, chaired the Republican Governors Association. The Courier-Journal said of Nunn's administration "On the whole, his management of the state's finances has been sound. ... [H]e took a general fund facing a deficit, restored it to solvency, and kept it healthy. No scandals have marred the Nunn record. He chose able men to direct his revenue and finance departments, and their efficiency saved the state millions of dollars." Historian Thomas D. Clark called Nunn the strongest of Kentucky's eight Republican governors. At the time, Kentucky governors could not serve consecutive terms; in the 1971 race, Nunn backed Tom Emberton, who lost to Ford. Later career Following his term as governor, Nunn opened a law practice in Lexington. He campaigned for the retiring Cooper's seat in 1972, losing to Democrat Walter Dee Huddleston, a state senator who had managed Ford's campaign. His loss came despite a landslide victory for Richard Nixon in the state and was generally blamed on his advocacy of raising the sales tax to 5 percent from 3 percent in 1968. He continued working on behalf of Republican candidates and backed Ronald Reagan's primary challenge to incumbent Gerald Ford in 1975. His last run for office