Richard Achilles Ballinger was mayor of Seattle, Washington, from 1904–1906, Commissioner of the United States General Land Office from 1907–1908 and U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1909–1911.

The Pinchot–Ballinger controversy, also known as the "Ballinger Affair", was a dispute between middle level officials in the U.S. government regarding whether or not the federal government should allow private corporations to control water rights, or instead cut them off so that the wilderness would be protected from capitalist greed. In 1909-1910 the dispute escalated to a battle between President William Howard Taft and ex-president Theodore Roosevelt. Pinchot and his allies accused Balinger of criminal behavior to help an old client of his and thus promote big business. Ballinger was eventually exonerated but the highly publicized dispute escalated a growing split in the Republican Party. Taft took control of the Republican Party in 1912, but Roosevelt started a third "Progressive" party. Both Taft and Roosevelt were defeated in the three-way 1912 presidential election, with Democrat Woodrow Wilson the winner.