[2] A Democrat, he was the second-longest serving Oregon Attorney General in the state's history, holding that office from 1953 to 1969.

[3] Thornton was the Democratic nominee for Oregon Governor in 1962, losing in the general election to incumbent Mark Hatfield.

[4] His ultimate defeat by Republican Lee Johnson, who garnered some 80,000 more votes than Thornton in the 1968 general election, became a matter for the courts.

Thornton challenged the outcome by bringing a suit charging that Johnson had violated campaign spending limits and falsified a report by signing the blank form.

The Oregon Supreme Court overturned that decision and awarded the office to Johnson, on the grounds that neither violation was deliberate and that both had occurred after the election.