Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 18, 2015

Ruby Laffoon (1869–1941) was an American politician and the 43rd governor of Kentucky, from 1931 to 1935. At age 17, Laffoon moved to Washington, D.C. to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk Laffoon. In 1931, he defeated Republican William B. Harrison by what was then the largest margin of victory ever in a Kentucky gubernatorial election. To make up for a revenue shortfall during the Great Depression, Laffoon advocated the enactment of the state's first sales tax. This issue dominated most of his term in office and split the state Democratic Party and his own administration; the tax was defeated three times before he forged a bipartisan alliance to get it passed in a special legislative session in 1934. Term-limited by the state constitution, Laffoon supported political boss Tom Rhea to succeed him as governor, but Rhea was beaten by Lieutenant Governor Happy Chandler in the primary. Laffoon appointed a record number of Kentucky colonels, including Harland Sanders, who used the title "Colonel" when he opened his chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.