In his obituary, Harry A. Cobden was described as “a pioneer aviator, a rancher, a mountain climber, a rodeo cowboy, a Golden Gloves boxer, an engineer, a lawyer, a counter-espionage agent, a campaign manager in Upton Sinclair’s 1934 race for the governorship of California and, in the mid-1930s, a California state senator from Alameda County.”
Cobden was not, in fact, a state Senator, but was (in 1934), a candidate for Alameda Democratic Central Committee (from AD-19).
