Bob_Sikes--Donna_E._Shalala

Robert Lee Fulton Sikes (June 3, 1906 – September 28, 1994) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who represented the Florida Panhandle in the United States House of Representatives from 1941 to 1979, with a brief break in 1944 and 1945 for service during World War II.
He served during a long period in which Florida was effectively a one-party state dominated by Democrats, as the Republican Party had been weakened by the disfranchisement of African Americans by racist policies and Jim Crow laws. The Republican Party began a resurgence in the 1970s.
In 1975 Sikes was accused by Common Cause of financial misconduct and was investigated and censured by the House in 1976. He did not seek re-election in 1978.