WATERLOO - Robert Fulton's ears should have been burning when the young Waterloo attorney walked into a Black Hawk County Democrats Central Committee meeting in 1958.

"I was always interested in politics. … I went to a Central Committee meeting just trying to get to know people as a lawyer. And one of the labor guys said, 'We've got a candidate for (Iowa) House here,'" he recalled. "I looked around to see who it was. All of a sudden he said, 'Bob Fulton.'"

It was the beginning of a 12-year political career that put Fulton on the ground floor of some major reforms in state government in the 1960s. He worked alongside Gov. Harold Hughes, first as a legislator, then as lieutenant governor. When Hughes was elected to the U.S. Senate, Fulton even became governor for two weeks in the transition to Gov. Robert D. Ray.

For his endeavors in state government, particularly in the Democratic-controlled Iowa Legislature of the mid-1960s, Fulton has been named to the Iowa Democratic Party's Hall of Fame.

He will receive the state party's "outstanding elected official" award Saturday at the Five Seasons Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cedar Rapids. So far, five presidential candidates are scheduled to attend, including U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christopher Dodd, Joseph Biden, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards. Others inducted will be former Democrat gubernatorial candidates Roxanne Conlin and Ed Campbell.

Fulton served one term in the Iowa House before he was unseated in 1960. In 1962, he tried for a seat in the Iowa Senate and defeated Republican Willard Hansen of Cedar Falls, later elected to the Senate in the 1970s. Hughes also was elected in 1962 to the first of his three terms as governor.

"He was quite a guy," Fulton said of Hughes - the recovering alcoholic, World War II veteran and Ida Grove truck driver, whose spiritual conversion led him to stop drinking and instilled in him a compassion that led him to become one of the most dynamic leaders in Iowa's history.

In 1964, Hughes picked the by-then politically savvy Fulton to run with him as lieutenant governor.

"It was not so much the issues so much as my understanding of how the Legislature worked" that Hughes selected him, he said. "So when issues were discussed, we had the best plan to pass it forward and give the Republicans the best chance to make a mistake against Harold. They didn't realize who they were fighting at that time. They knew it, but they really didn't believe it.

"In the '64 election, they attacked him, which was a bad thing to do," Fulton said. Hughes' opponent was another Waterloo attorney and acquaintance of Fulton's, Evan "Curly" Hultman, then Iowa attorney general.

During that campaign, Fulton recalled that Hughes called a meeting of his supporters to let them know that the stories were about to be made public of his checkered background stemming from his drinking, including some scrapes with the law. He gave fellow office seekers a chance to disassociate themselves from him.

Fulton said he told Hughes, "I wish they'd say the same things about me, because you're going to win."

Hughes retained the governorship and took both houses of the Legislature, a feat not duplicated until 2006. They proceeded to overhaul state government.

"When I got to Des Moines in 1959 we had a Legislature that met every two years, got paid on a per diem basis for 100 days," he said. "We had a chief executive that served two years; the lieutenant governor ran separately; and most of the boards and commissions were appointed for longer than the term of the governor. The Legislature was completely malapportioned," Fulton said.

He devised a permanent reapportionment plan, calling for regular population-based redrawing of legislative districts. It met with some resistance from legislators whose districts would be redrawn or eliminated. But it had support from the League of Women Voters and labor. Today, "Iowa's known nationwide for its method of redistricting," he said.

During Fulton's time in the Legislature, the state also changed the governor's term in office from two to four years; established the community college system; and, on a social issue of which Fulton is particularly proud, ended the death penalty for state crimes.

Fulton was financially unable to run for governor in '68 and spent the intervening two years devoting time to his law practice to earn money for his growing family. In 1970, he ran for governor, but lost to Robert Ray, who was re-elected to his second term. "I had to try it," Fulton said of his run, or he would have wondered forever about what might have been.

By that time, Fulton said, he was perfectly happy to return to private life. One has to maintain a public persona to sustain a career in politics for that long, Fulton said. He recalled how relaxed Ray was with him shortly after leaving office, when the Iowa Capitol's anniversary was celebrated in 1984.

By that time another Fulton, Robert's wife, Rachel, had taken a higher political profile locally, serving several years on the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors and volunteering in numerous capacities. The Fultons will celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary this year and have four children and five grandchildren.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com.