When we talk about the “party switch” it is very important that we realize what this means, lest we think this means that the parties switched left-right ideologies, or that everything switched in 1964. It means a gradual shift in political philosophy in demographics and regions. Mississippi at one time elected liberal populists such as James K. Vardaman and Theodore Bilbo, men who were committed to white supremacy as well as taking on big businesses and helping poor whites. The career of William Meyers Colmer (pronounced “Calmer”) (1890-1980) is a prime example of the shift of politics in Mississippi and the Deep South as a whole. He was in Congress from the Roosevelt to Nixon Administrations, and the Colmer of 1972 seemed to bear little resemblance to the Colmer of 1932. Indeed, when he was elected in the Roosevelt wave, he was a New Dealer. Mississippi at the time was enamored with FDR, and one of its senators, Pat Harrison, was a key supporter of his first term agenda. Later in life, Colmer readily acknowledged the contrast of his earlier years, telling a friend, “You may not believe it, but I came to Washington as something of a liberal” (Hill). Although even in the first Congress of the Roosevelt Administration there was some foreshadowing of the state’s future with three members of Mississippi’s delegation voting against the National Industrial Recovery Act, Colmer was not among those representatives; he was on board with most of FDR’s agenda, and was the only representative from Mississippi to support the Bituminous Coal Act in 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 (minimum wage). He would also, like most Southerners, be supportive of FDR’s foreign policies.

Colmer in 1940.

In 1939, Colmer was tapped to be on the powerful Rules Committee, but it would not be long before his record would increasingly move towards conservatism. This was in keeping with the increasing conservatism of his district based in Biloxi (Finney). The South overall had come to dislike how strong unions had become since the Wagner Labor Relations Act of 1935 and were strongly opposed to the staunchly left-wing Congress of Industrial Organizations. It certainly didn’t help matters that this union was racially integrated. The last time in which Colmer was sort of cooperative with the national Democratic Party was in the 80^th Congress, in which he voted against a good number of Republican-backed positions. But even there, he was far from the strongest of partisans, with him agreeing with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action’s (ADA) positions in 1947 and 1948 73% and 55% of the time respectively. In 1947, Colmer ran for the Senate to succeed the late Theodore Bilbo, but he was defeated by John C. Stennis and did not try to move up again. After the 1948 election, in which he backed the State’s Rights Party (Dixiecrats) he would be among the most dissenting of Democrats within the party with low ADA scores.

Colmer played a key role in the consideration of legislation in the Rules Committee, which from 1955 to 1967 was chaired by fellow conservative Democrat Howard W. Smith of Virginia, who was a master obstructionist. Liberal legislation would often die in his committee as he, Colmer, and the four Republicans would vote it down, with the committee getting a 6-6 deadlock. Although he was now conservative on the bulk of issues, he did stick with some of his old New Deal positions on agriculture and public power. He opposed efforts by the Eisenhower Administration to institute flexible price floors on agriculture as opposed to rigid and high price floors, and opposed efforts to curb the Tennessee Valley Authority. Colmer was, consistent with the sort of politician his state would elect at the time, a segregationist who signed the Southern Manifesto against school desegregation and opposed all civil rights measures of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Despite this, Colmer was not a racial demagogue and prided himself on having “never made an anti-Negro speech in my life” (The New York Times, 1961). In 1960, Colmer sided with his state in supporting the candidacy of Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia for president, much to the consternation of Democratic leadership as well as many of his fellow Southerners who had stuck their necks out for Kennedy (Finney). This was the second time he had bucked the national Democrats and it threatened to complicate things for Colmer as Kennedy won the election. The following year, Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-Tex.) made his displeasure with Colmer clear and let it be known that he thought of him as “a very inferior man” (Finney). Rayburn attempted, without success, to get Colmer reassigned. What ended up happening was that the Rules Committee was expanded to add two Democrats and one Republican by a vote of 217-212 on January 31st. Although the majority was on paper 8-7 liberal, there were still some defeats that occurred on the Rules Committee as a person or two in the liberal majority would break off. In the next Congress, this expansion was made permanent and was helpful in passing Great Society legislation.

Chairman of the House Rules Committee

In 1966, Chairman Smith lost renomination, and Colmer was next in line. Since he was a think-alike to Smith, liberal Democrats initially thought that his chairmanship of the powerful committee would be like his, but this wasn’t the case. Colmer did not exercise his power further than persuasion through votes to bottle legislation in the committee, and all members appreciated his Southern courtliness and his sense of fair play. This was particularly demonstrated when he made sure that Bella Abuzg (D-N.Y.), very much his political opposite, would get her say in a House debate (Finney).

Mentoring a Prominent Successor and Retirement

Colmer with Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, April 1971.

In 1968, Colmer hired young lawyer Trent Lott as an administrative assistant, and mentored him in the ways of Washington D.C. to the point that when he decided to call it quits in 1972, he endorsed him as his successor despite him running as a Republican. The party affiliation did not matter for him, as by this time he had been voting with conservative Republicans for many years. It was widely agreed upon that Colmer, at least in his postwar years, was a conservative. He had only sided with ADA 10% of the time from 1947 to 1972 and sided with the conservative Americans for Constitutional Action 86% of the time from 1957 to 1972. Colmer’s DW-Nominate score was a 0.052, which was high for a Democrat. In 1974, Lott would state of his predecessor, “If they’d listened to Bill Colmer 25 years ago, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today” (Hill). He would reach greater heights in the Republican Party than Colmer had reached as a Democrat, serving as House Minority Whip from 1981 to 1989 and as Senate Majority Leader from 1996 to 2002. However, he would resign from the post in a 2002 controversy regarding a speech he delivered for Strom Thurmond’s 100^th birthday, in which he said something similar to what he said in 1974 regarding Colmer. In 1976, Colmer again endorsed a Republican candidate when he supported Gerald Ford for president, holding that he had “moral integrity” while the Democrats were pushing “socialist” ideas (Hill). He was far from the only former Democratic representative from Mississippi to back Ford. His colleagues Thomas Abernethy, Charles H. Griffin, and John Bell Williams did so too (Hill). Colmer’s principal political concern in retirement was inflation. He stated, “I do not think we can go on indefinitely with deficit spending without bringing down the house of inflation on us. We must either stop inflation or we are going to lose our cherished form of government” (Hill). For most of his retirement, Colmer appeared to remain in good health, and his demise was mercifully quick compared to many people, dying only a month after the start of his decline on September 9, 1980 at the age of 90.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Colmer, William Meyers. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/1952/william-meyers-colmer

Finney, J.W. (1972, March 7). The House Traffic Cop William Meyers Colmer. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Hill, R. (2024). The Gentleman From Mississippi: William M. Colmer. The Knoxville Focus.

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https://www.knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/william-m-colmer/

Target for a Purge; William Meyers Colmer. (1961, January 5). The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Although the year 1964 is often portrayed as the year the so-called “party switch” happened, it does have significance. While the South didn’t decisively move to the GOP that year, it did make the GOP an actual competitive party in the region. Republicans won an open seat in Georgia, won five of eight of Alabama’s seats, and won one of Mississippi’s seats with chicken farmer and one-time member of the Fish and Game Commission Prentiss Lafayette Walker (1917-1998).

Something to understand about Mississippi is that the state had been in rebellion against the national Democratic Party since 1960, when its voters elected an uncommitted slate of electors who cast their votes for conservative segregationist Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia. Thus, Kennedy was unpopular in Mississippi and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, doubled down on the national Democrats’ unpopularity in his signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson’s signing of this law and Senator Barry Goldwater’s vote against it was all the convincing Mississippi voters needed to give the Republican contender 87% of the vote. Congressional Democrats were fortunate that Republicans ran only one candidate that year, as he toppled Democrat W. Arthur Winstead, the first Republican to win a Congressional election in Mississippi in 82 years. There was nothing to indicate that Winstead was any friendlier to civil rights than Walker, and his record was conservative. It was purely a backlash against the national Democratic Party that brought Winstead down. A campaign ad of Walker’s in The Magee Courier of October 29, 1964, read, “Prentiss Walker Promises To Work Toward: 1. Repeal Of The Civil Rights Bill. 2. Stopping Import Of Foreign Beef. 3. Stopping Foreign Aid To Communist Countries. 4. Conservative States Rights Government. 5. Local Control of Schools. The Democratic Party Is Dead! If You Have Truly Had Enough, Go To The Polls Tuesday And Vote for Prentiss Walker” (12). For many Mississippi voters, the Democratic Party was indeed dead, at least in 1964. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan would relate Walker’s humorous story regarding this campaign at a Jackson, Mississippi fundraiser, “He dropped in on a farm and introduced himself as a Republican candidate. And as he tells it, the farmer’s eyes lit up, and then he said, “Wait till I get my wife. We’ve never seen a Republican before.’” [Laughter]

And a few minutes later he was back with his wife, and they asked Prentiss if he wouldn’t give them a speech. Well, he looked around for kind of a podium, something to stand on, and then the only thing available was a pile of that stuff that the late Mrs. Truman said it had taken her 35 years to get Harry to call “fertilizer.” [Laughter] So, he stepped up on that and made his speech. And apparently he won them over. And they told him it was the first time they’d ever heard a Republican. And he says, “That’s okay. That’s the first time I’ve ever given a speech from a Democratic platform.” [Laughter] (Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum).

In Congress, Walker voted as he ran, as an ultra-conservative. The conservative Americans for Constitutional Action found nothing wrong with how he voted in the Great Society Congress and the liberal Americans for Democratic Action found nothing right. Walker’s DW-Nominate score was a 0.516, one of the highest of the representatives in the Great Society Congress. Practically every measure supported by the Johnson Administration had his vote of disapproval, including Medicare and the Constitutional amendment for presidential succession. Walker, like every other Mississippi politician, opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In an early speech, he defended his state while admitting that most Mississippians were conservative and stood for segregation, stating that changes in opinion in the public on such matters would have to come gradually (The Enterprise-Journal).  One cause he pushed aside from opposition to civil rights was another issue that he emphasized on his campaign: opposition to foreign aid to communist nations. In 1966, Walker sponsored an amendment to deny funds for communist nations (aimed at Poland and Yugoslavia at the time) under the Food for Freedom Act. Although his proposal got the votes of all but six Republican representatives, it failed in the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress on June 9^th, 157-200. At the time, Walker looked like a real start for the Mississippi GOP.

The 1966 Election: Walker Takes a Shot at Big Jim

In 1966, Walker tried to do something bold: run against Senator James Eastland, often known by his opponents as “Big Jim” for his power, perceived and actual. Walker ran on a platform of Eastland being too friendly to the Johnson Administration and Bobby Kennedy. However, he had been in the Senate since the 1940s and had a long history of using his post as chairman of the Judiciary Committee to bury civil rights legislation. For instance, the Senate had to vote to bypass his committee to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. Despite Walker running to Eastland’s right and as a segregationist, many newly registered black voters saw Walker as preferable. Dr. Douglas Conner of Starkville, Mississippi, stated that “He represents something disgusting to the Negro. It is his image as a great white father, the white plantation owner. It is unthinkable that a Negro would vote for Eastland” (Glass). However, there were a few contradictions surrounding Walker himself. Eastland pointed out that he had attended a meeting of the Americans for the Preservation of the White Race (a KKK front) and that “Walker can’t run as a racist. He appointed a Negro to the Air Force academy. We have the proof” (Glass). However, Walker’s path to victory was a rather difficult one. As columnist Holmes Alexander (1966) pointed out, “To score over Eastland, Walker, an ardent white racist, would have to be the fusion candidate of the Klan, the NAACP, the Goldwater right-wingers, the Nixon middle-roaders, and the AFL-CIO laborites” (4).

In one final ad for the Senate, Walker’s campaign gave its pitch. It touted Walker as in opposition to the “no win policy” in Vietnam, an opponent of the Great Society, an opponent of the “War on Poverty” as giving money to political bosses and civil rights demonstrators rather than the poor, and foreign aid while condemning Eastland for voting for Justice Abe Fortas (which was a unanimous voice vote) and citing multiple votes against anti-communist amendments on foreign aid (Simpson County News). There was truth to the latter, as Eastland had voted against Senator Jenner’s (R-Ind.) amendment to retain bans on trade with communist nations in 1957, opposed the Republican effort to ban stop wheat sales to the USSR and Hungary in 1963, and opposed Senator Tower’s (R-Tex.) amendment to bar Export-Import bank funds for sales to communist nations in 1964. Senator Eastland’s campaign emphasized in its ad the narrative that Mississippi had voted for Goldwater because he was more conservative than Johnson rather than a big shift to the Republican Party and pointed out that Goldwater had delivered a speech in which he stated that Republicans accepted integration while only Southern Democrats were against and that Walker had not said a word against it (The Newton Record). Most of Walker’s charges of Eastland being insufficient, however, relied upon his personal connections with LBJ, and only the anti-communist amendments were votes of substance he could use against Eastland and ultimately, he flew too close to the sun.

 “Big Jim” had huge institutional advantages in Mississippi and Mississippi voters just weren’t buying the “Eastland the friend of the liberals” narrative. He regularly bombed in his ratings with Americans for Democratic Action and Americans for Constitutional Action found him conservative on enough issues to satisfy Mississippians, even as they rated Walker a perfect 100% for his whole term. The truth is, Walker didn’t have that much room to move given the disparate groups that he needed to cater to in order to win and he would have likely been better off trying to hold on to his Congressional seat. On most substantive issues, he and Eastland were on the same page, and Walker was hoping that the Republican vote in Mississippi would extend beyond 1964, but old party loyalties held strong, and he lost by nearly 40 points. Although he made no effort to get the black vote, he won a considerable amount of it, but this is because many black voters were dying to cast a vote against Eastland. Worse yet for Walker, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which was not pleased with outright segregationist candidates, did not pour resources into this election, only giving him token support (Evans and Novak, 35). In 1968, Walker attempted to win back his old seat, but the district was pleased enough with his successor, Sonny Montgomery, and he only got 30% of the vote. That year, to highlight his continued segregationist stance, he had endorsed George Wallace rather than his own party’s nominee, Richard Nixon (Hattiesburg American). Walker would not be the transformational figure in Mississippi politics for the GOP, rather Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both first elected to Congress in 1972, succeeding retiring Democrats, would serve this role. Walker’s last race for political office was in the 1972 Senate race as an Independent, but he gained little traction. Today, a lake near Walker’s hometown of Mize is named after him. To me, Prentiss Walker represents lost potential. Had he not opted to challenge Eastland, would he have won reelection to the House? And if so, would he have proved in the long run to be a more politically complex figure than his Great Society Congress self like Alabama’s Jack Edwards, Bill Dickinson, and especially John Buchanan, all who voted to sustain the Philadelphia Plan only four years after voting against the Voting Rights Act? Would this chicken farmer have been the guiding light for the GOP in the state like Florida’s Bill Cramer? We will never know.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Alexander, H. (1966, July 13). Eastland Faces Tough Opponent in GOP’s Prentiss Walker. The News-Star, 4.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1038686074/

Evans, R. and Novak, R. (1966, April 14). GOP Fears Faux Pas By Nixon On Dixie Trip. The Indianapolis Star, 35.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/105520025/

Glass, A.J. (1966, April 26). Eastland Faces an Arch-Conservative Republican. The Kansas City Times, 28.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/675054281/

Goldwater’s Ghost (James Eastland Campaign Advertisement). (1966, November 2). The Newton Record, 12.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/317269887/

Prentiss Walker Advertisement. (1964, October 29). The Magee Courier, 12.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/267123184/

Prentiss Walker Advertisement. (1966, November 3). Simpson County News, 12.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/284496709/

Prentiss Walker backs Wallace. (1968, October 18). Hattiesburg American, 16.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/277015986/

Prentiss Walker Moves to Improve State Image. (1965, January 7). Enterprise-Journal, 11.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/318408236/

Remarks at a Mississippi Republican Party Fundraising Dinner in Jackson. (1983, June 20). Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.

Retrieved from

https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/remarks-mississippi-republican-party-fundraising-dinner-jackson

Walker, Prentiss Lafayette. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/10781/prentiss-lafayette-walker

Among the states, Louisiana is one of its most colorful and known to foreigners, but it also has a historical reputation for corruption that rivals Illinois and New Jersey. A man who was both colorful and corrupt in the modern history of the state was its longest serving governor, Edwin Washington Edwards (1927-2021).

Edwards’ public service began in 1954 when he was elected to the Crowley City Council and in 1964 he was elected to the State Senate. However, he wasn’t there long as in 1965 Congressman T. Ashton Thompson was killed in a car accident. Edwards was easily elected in the 1965 special election to succeed him, as Louisiana was solidly Democratic at the time. His voting record was more moderate than that of numerous other Democrats in the state, although he toed the Southern line on race in his voting until the Nixon Administration. In 1970, Edwards voted to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for five years. During his time in Congress, he sided with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action 23% of the time, the conservative Americans for Constitutional Action 58% of the time, and his DW-Nominate score was a -0.232. Edwards was as slick as grease and known for his zingers, and this helped him greatly. His theme of “let the good times roll” also appealed to the people of Louisiana, and he was well-positioned to run for governor.

In 1972, he was elected governor of Louisiana over Republican Dave Treen by 15 points due to a multiracial coalition as he capitalized on Cajun and newly mobilized black voters. Edwards also happened to be the first Cajun to be elected governor, being sworn into office on May 9, 1972. One of his earliest acts in office was appointing his wife, Elaine, to the Senate as a placeholder after the death of longtime incumbent Allen J. Ellender. Edwards’s accomplishments as governor included making Louisiana’s government more efficient, opening up the Democratic Party to minorities, and overseeing the completion of the Superdome sports arena (Heil). He also made significant changes to spending and taxes, such as raising oil and gas taxes, which resulted in a massive influx of revenue for the state when oil had a boom throughout the decade. Edwards used this revenue to increase funding for numerous educational programs and to raise teacher salaries. He also instituted some key changes to state government. In 1973, Edwards succeeded in initiating a constitutional convention to update and simplify the state’s 1921 constitution, which was an unwieldy document with hundreds of amendments. Louisiana is currently governed under the 1974 constitution. He also reduced the number of elections in an election year from three to two. Instead of a state primary, a runoff, and then the general election, he simply made Louisiana an open primary state. Edwards proved to be so popular that Republicans didn’t bother fielding a candidate against him in the 1975 election. He and Louisiana also benefited from rising oil prices in the late 1970s. Although quite popular, numerous allegations started to surface of corruption and he would be subjected to six federal and three state grand jury investigations, but none of these produced an indictment. He also came to be regarded as a womanizer, a reputation he would joke about. Ironically, Edwards was ineligible to run for reelection to another consecutive term in 1979 due to the terms of the state constitution he pushed, he was succeeded by his 1972 rival, who won in a squeaker of an election, prevailing by less than a point.

Break Time and Back Again 

Dave Treen was the first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction, and although he was an honest man who sought to reform government and expand upon including blacks in government, he lacked the charisma and the leadership skills that Edwards possessed, gaining a reputation for indecisiveness. Furthermore, Louisiana was not spared from the recession impacting the nation and budget deficits soared. In 1983, Treen was up for reelection and Edwards was raring to come back. The election really was no contest. Edwards commented upon the reality of this election, stating that he could only lose if he were “caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy” (McFadden). Treen also proved no match for Edwards’ zingers on the debate stage as he poked at him for allegedly being dumb. He said that he was so slow that “It once took Dave Treen an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes” (Finley). Edwards prevailed with over 62% of the vote, winning all but two parishes. Although successful in his comeback, he would find his third term considerably tougher than his first two.

In 1985, Edwards was indicted for allegedly scheming to award hospital construction permits for healthcare corporations in which he secretly had stock (Brightbill). In addition to this indictment, the price of oil slumped and this resulted in hard times for Louisiana’s economy, and the major budget shortfall that came from it forced Edwards to enact an unpopular tax increase. While voters were willing to handwave allegations of corruption while the economy was booming, an indictment along with a poor economy soured many voters on him, and this opened the door to a challenger in Congressman Buddy Roemer.

Defeated…But Not Done

Congressman Roemer, at the time a conservative Democrat, ran for change and accused him of turning the state into a “banana republic” (McFadden). Ultimately, the savvy Edwards conceded the election to Roemer after he came in second on the first vote, realizing that he was licked. However, he was only temporarily licked! Edwards’ withdrawal was strategic, as it served to deny Roemer an electoral majority, thus denying him a governing coalition and mandate. The 1985 indictment did not result in a conviction, so he was free and clear to make yet another attempt at governor.

The 1991 Election: Vote for the Crook: It’s Important

In the late 1980s a charismatic figure started making his way through Louisiana politics. Many whites were enthused by him and his populistic conservative messaging, such as his appeals against affirmative action, welfare dependency, and crime. This man was David Duke, a former member of the American Nazi Party and former Grand Wizard of the KKK who pretended that he had left his past behind. However, numerous white voters either bought his story, did not care, or were good with his past. The Republican establishment had hoped that Buddy Roemer’s party switch to Republican would help them, but this didn’t work out. Despite the opposition of the Republican organization as well as President George H.W. Bush, Duke managed to win the Republican primary for the Senate in 1990, losing the election but coming within 10 points of victory. He then managed to get in the top two for the runoff for the 1991 gubernatorial race, facing Democrat Edwin Edwards. Both Roemer and former Governor Dave Treen endorsed Edwards.

Edwards was on his game in this election, saying, “The only thing we have in common is that we both have been wizards beneath the sheets” (Finley). However, Duke gave Edwards something of a run for his money on charisma and did well in the first debate. Edwards gained a lot of prominent endorsements and received big campaign funds to defeat Duke as many large interests feared the impact on business should Duke win. Those who would otherwise not have endorsed Edwards had a rather funny bumper sticker, “Vote for the Crook: It’s Important”. Edwards got up on his game in his second debate and he made his case, “While David Duke was burning crosses and scaring people, I was building hospitals to heal them. When he was parading around in a Nazi uniform to intimidate our citizens, I was in a National Guard uniform bringing relief to flood and hurricane victims. When he was selling Nazi hate literature as late as 1989 in his legislative office, I was providing free textbooks for the children of this state” (Avoyelles Today). Although many voters believed that Edwards was corrupt despite his acquittal, 61% voted for his return rather than face Duke as governor.

The Third Term and Waterloo

Although Edwards had secured a fourth term, his fourth go-around would end up being his downfall. He had called for expanding gambling in the state, including one land-based casino in New Orleans as well as with riverboat casinos. However, he also accepted bribes of over $1 million to secure riverboat casino licenses, and rampant Medicaid fraud plagued his administration. Edwards opted not to run for a fifth term.

In 2000, Edwards was convicted on 17 charges of racketeering, money laundering, and conspiracy and especially devastating to his case had been the testimony of former 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., who testified that he had bribed him $400,000 (Pellegrini). Sentenced to ten years in prison, he served eight. During his prison term, he divorced his second wife and married a woman fifty years his junior, and had a fifth child with her. In 2013, Edwards and his wife Trina had their own reality TV show, The Governor’s Wife.

Edwards’ Last Stand and Death

In 2014, at the age of 87, Edwards made one final run for public office, trying to make a comeback to Congress, running against Republican incumbent Garret Graves. However, in addition to 2014 being a good year for Republicans the state had moved far away from him and his politics, and he lost by 24 points. Edwards died on July 12, 2021, in Gonzales, Louisiana at the age of 93.

What to Make of Edwards?

In Edwin Edwards there was a strange mix of good and ill. He was a natural born politician, was undoubtedly the most important figure in transitioning Louisiana politics in a “New South” direction, and modernized the state in many ways, including in its fundamental legal framework. However, his corruption overwhelmed his legacy. As Professor Robert Mann of Louisiana State University wrote of him, “He had eloquence, creativity, a razor-sharp mind, executive abilities that many lacked and leadership skills that many envied. He could relate to crowds better than almost any politician I ever knew. He had everything, and yet squandered it by devoting much of his time to enriching his friends. I’ve rarely seen a wider chasm between the promise for greatness and reality” (McGill).

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

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ADA Voting Records

Brightbill, R. (1985, September 30). Gov. Edwin Edwards sold out the citizens of Louisiana… UPI.

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https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/09/30/Gov-Edwin-Edwards-sold-out-the-citizens-of-Louisiana/5342496900800/

Edwards, Edwin Washington. Voteview.

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https://voteview.com/person/10787/edwin-washington-edwards

Finley, K. (2015, September 10). Edwin Edwards. 64 Parishes.

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Edwin Edwards

Four-Time Louisiana Governor Dies at Gonzales Home Monday. (2021, July 13). Avoyelles Today.

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https://www.avoyellestoday.com/news/four-time-louisiana-governor-dies-gonzales-home-monday

Heil, E. (2021, July 21). Edwin Edwards: Colourful American governor with a penchant for theatrics. The Independent.

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/edwin-edwards-louisiana-governor-dead-b1887167.html

McFadden, R.D. (2021, July 12). Edwin Edwards, Flamboyant Governor of Louisiana, is Dead at 93. The New York Times.

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McGill, K. (2021, July 12). Populist Edwin Edwards, a ‘Cajun King,’ loved his Louisiana. Associated Press.

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https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-louisiana-edwin-edwards-5f3e076c253a338f9d2c7917e2e5de44

Pellegrini, F. (2000, May 10). The Law Finally Catches Up to Edwin Edwards. Time Magazine.

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https://time.com/archive/6925733/the-law-finally-catches-up-to-edwin-edwards/

Taylor, P. (1985, March 1). U.S. Indicts Gov. Edwards. The Washington Post.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/01/us-indicts-gov-edwards/35a92be1-5a34-483b-be4a-847b25d444e4/

On September 16, 1961, longtime Democratic Congressman Overton Brooks died in office. Brooks had been in office long enough to be among the legislators who shifted from supporting FDR’s liberalism to being of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, Joe Waggonner (1918-2007) of Plain Dealing had already planned on challenging him in the 1962 primary over what was seen as insufficient conservatism. Waggonner was a leader in the state’s White Citizens Council and had refused to support John F. Kennedy in 1960, instead serving as an elector for the State’s Rights Party which was backing Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd. One key point of contention for Waggonner was Brooks’ 1961 vote to expand the Rules Committee, thus weakening the obstructive power of conservative chairman Howard W. Smith (D-Va.). However, with Brooks six feet under, Waggonner had a clear path to run to succeed him, and his opponent would be oilman Charlton Lyons, who had only the previous year switched from Democrat to Republican. Both were in truth highly similar men differentiated mostly in party affiliation. Both were strongly conservative, and both were outspoken segregationists. Party affiliation won the day in Louisiana, with Waggonner prevailing by 10 points in the special election. Lyons’ 45% of the vote was, however, a strong showing for a Republican in that day, and it was the closest contest of Waggonner’s career.

Waggonner vs. National Democrats

Although a Democrat, as I mentioned before, Waggonner was strongly anti-Kennedy, and on most questions of importance, he voted with conservative Republicans. He even voted against some of the most popular proposals backed by Kennedy, such as educational television and job training programs. Indeed, in his first full year of Congress, Waggonnner got a 100% from Americans for Constitutional Action and a 0% by Americans for Democratic Action. The only major Kennedy measure of ideological salience that he backed was his tax reduction legislation. Waggonner likewise proved a strong opponent of President Johnson and the Great Society, voting against most key measures. However, in 1966, he did oppose multiple Republican efforts at budget reduction in certain departments in 1966, 1967, and 1968. He saw himself as something of an ambassador of conservatism in Congress, and by his own account spent a good deal of time trying to persuade liberals to see things his way. He stated, “The trend to socialism is not accidental, but reflects the attitude of the majority, or it would not be the prevailing trend. I spend all of my time talking to the liberals in Congress, doing all I can to persuade them of the rightness of our views, not to conservatives who already share our philosophy” (Minden Press, 1).  Waggonner was not without positions on foreign policy, and on April 5, 1966, he voiced support for Ian Smith’s minority white government in Rhodesia and commented, “Three generations ago, a group of resourceful white men went into the jungle of what is now Rhodesia and carved a civilized land by the sheer force of their brains and management ability. The lesson of history was crystal clear then as it is now: the natives were not capable of producing any semblance of what we call civilization. Now that the white man had led them out of savagery, the Socialist, left-wing camp is up in arms to turn the country back to them. This is, of course, a not too subtle way of building a Socialist bridge from Democracy to Communism” (Lake, 119). He was of course uncompromising in his opposition to the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Waggonner was not just an ideologue, however, he also was able to secure federal funds for his district, for instance for getting Interstate 49 between Lafayette and Shreveport constructed (WAFB 9).

Waggonner having a chat with Wernher von Braun.

New President, New Day

Although Waggonner had not gotten on with Kennedy and Johnson, he got on exceptionally well with Richard Nixon and was often of assistance even if at times he thought Nixon was too friendly to civil rights. In 1970, Waggonner cosponsored Gerald Ford’s (R-Mich.) resolution to impeach Justice William O. Douglas, in part as a retaliatory move for the Senate rejecting Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell. However, this failed to gain traction. He marshalled Southern Democrats to support much of Nixon’s agenda, strongly supported him on the Vietnam War, and even became a personal friend. Waggonner’s stances on civil rights during this time seemed to ease up a bit since, being a savvy politician, he sensed the changing times. The Shreveport Times (1978) noted that by the early 1970s most people were not associating Waggonner with his earlier strong segregation stances, and that unlike some of the old segregationists, his popularity increased with time (16). One of the great elements of his success was not just his savviness, but also his attentiveness to his constituents.  As The Shreveport Times (1978) noted upon Waggonner’s announcement of his retirement, “Rarely, if ever, did a letter from a constituent go unanswered. If a favor could be done for a voter, it got done. For thousands of people, he has been a very personal line to the top level of government” (16).

During the summer of 1974, Nixon looked to him to give reports on where Congressional support stood on impeachment on the Democratic side, and a motivating factor for him to resign was Waggonner reporting that his support was crumbling among Southern Democrats. The Shreveport Journal (1976) noted, “On a personal level, he was among Richard Nixon’s closest friends and shared some of his most dramatic and emotional last experiences in the White House and he has continued that close relationship. During the past weeks, Waggonner has traveled to San Clemente for a long personal discussion with the former president” (13). He would also be a friend and political ally of Gerald Ford’s, although not quite as close as he was with Nixon.

A Scandal That Changed the Rules

Like his fellow Louisianan Otto Passman, Waggonner faced a scandal in 1976, although it was not for alleged bribery. The 1970s were an interesting time in political journalism, since before the press was willing to cover for politicians carrying on affairs, but with multiple political sex scandals making the news, this cover has since been gone. In June 1976, The New York Post revealed that Waggonner was arrested for solicitation of sex from an undercover female officer earlier in the year. He claimed entrapment, and because members of Congress had been immune from prosecution for misdemeanors in Washington D.C. for a century, Waggonner had not been prosecuted. In July 1976, this non-prosecution policy was scrapped. Waggonner was also in something of a difficult position that year, as he was clearly far more in alignment on policy with President Gerald Ford than Jimmy Carter, but the Democrats had more power to deny seniority for those who broke party line. Despite the aforementioned difficulties, he easily won reelection.

Waggonner’s Last Term

Joe Waggonner’s record on Carter was quite similar to his record with the previous Democratic president. In January 1978, he was interviewed and one of the subjects was on his stance on segregation. Waggonner did not disavow his previous political positions on segregation or on his votes against the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. He continued to express his opposition to the Voting Rights Act as it was, but expressed that if the law was applied throughout the nation rather than just the South and certain counties, he would support it (Flournoy). The year 1978 constituted a bit of an end of an era in the South, as numerous prominent legacy politicians were not running for reelection, such as Senators John Sparkman of Alabama and James Eastland of Mississippi, Congressmen Bob Poage and George Mahon of Texas, and Waggonner joined them. However, he didn’t do so before securing the construction of a new General Motors plant in Shreveport (The Shreveport Times, 16). In the Democratic primary for his successor, he endorsed Buddy Leach over future Republican Buddy Roemer over the latter’s criticism of the Red River navigation program. Although Leach would win in 1978, the other Buddy would win the 1980 primary. In his career, Waggonner sided with ACA 83% of the time and the liberal Americans for Democratic Action a mere 3% of the time. His DW-Nominate score didn’t seem to reflect this, as he got a 0.015, which is high for a Democrat.

After Congress

 Waggonner was a man who wore multiple hats while in Congress, and he was highly knowledgeable on Social Security. President Ronald Reagan thus appointed him to be part of the commission to investigate the long-term feasibility of Social Security. The commission’s recommendations informed the legislation passed in 1983 to save Social Security, or at the very least buy it time. In his later years, Waggonner expressed opposition to Louisiana conservatives moving into the Republican Party, but he nonetheless would at times back Republican candidates for public office, such as Bob Dole for president in 1996. In 1994, Waggonner attended Richard Nixon’s funeral. He would join Nixon in death in October 7, 2007 at the age of 89.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Flournoy, C. (1978, January 17). Waggonner Has Mellowed on Segregation. The Shreveport Journal, 19.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/602215909/

Former Congressman Waggoner dies. (2007, October 9). WAFB 9.

Retrieved from

https://www.wafb.com/story/7180968/former-congressman-waggoner-dies/

Joe Waggonner in a Political Vise. (1976, October 27). The Shreveport Journal, 13.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/602091876/

Lake, A. (1976). The “tar baby” option: American policy toward Southern Rhodesia. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Langeveld, D. (2012, May 6). Joe Waggonner: solicitation immunity. The Downfall Dictionary.

Retrieved from

https://downfalldictionary.blogspot.com/search/label/Joe%20D.%20Waggonner

Mitchell, T. (1978, February 11). Rep. Waggonner Will Not Seek Reelection. The Shreveport Journal, 13.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/602215206/

Says Waggonner, Missionary Work Among Liberals Is Necessary. (1963, June 3). Minden Press, 1.

Waggonner, Joseph David, Jr. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/10567/joseph-david-waggonner-jr

Waggonner’s retirement: Power loss. (1978, February 12). The Shreveport Times, 16.

Retrieved from

https://www.newspapers.com/image/210855985/

In October 1917, 22-year-old South Dakotan Clinton Presba Anderson reports for duty to serve his nation for World War I. What he didn’t know was that he was suffering from advanced tuberculosis, and this was diagnosed by the army doctors, who gave him 6 months to live. Since antibiotics hadn’t been discovered yet, it was a common practice of those who suffered from tuberculosis to move to a hot and dry climate to recover or die, and he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, spending time in a sanitarium. Initially, it looked like the army doctors were going to be right, as Anderson’s lungs were hemorrhaging, and the doctors gave him less than five days to live. However, five days passed by, and he was still holding on. Then six months passed by, and he had still eluded the grim reaper. In nine months, Anderson (1895-1975) was well enough to start a career in journalism, and by 1919 he had recovered, but he would often struggle with his health throughout his life. While a journalist, Anderson developed a passion for politics in New Mexico. Republicans held the governorship from 1917 to 1923, and Anderson didn’t like how they were running the state, so he joined the Democratic Party and during the 1920s the party started to see significant successes; in 1922, they won the governorship, and in 1924 they won a Senate seat and maintained their hold of the governorship. Anderson was also involved in public health, having worked for the New Mexico Public Health Association starting in 1919, where he sought to improve the public health system, and in 1923, he entered the insurance business, starting his own firm in 1925. Given his health difficulties as well as his background in public health and insurance, it makes sense that his later career would be characterized by pushing for the expansion of health insurance. In 1928, Anderson became the head of the state’s Democratic Party, and they made long-term gains during the Great Depression, which were completed after the death of progressive Republican Senator Bronson Cutting in an airplane crash in 1935. Ultimately, from 1935 to 1962 there would be no federal Republican officeholders. In 1933, Anderson was elected Treasurer, and in 1934 he became the head of the state’s relief administration.

In 1940, Congressman John J. Dempsey was deprived from running again due to a dispute within the Democratic Party, and in his place, Clinton Anderson was elected. Although without doubt a supporter of FDR and backing numerous key policies such as Lend Lease, his voting record was not staunchly liberal, rather moderately liberal. In 1945, Anderson headed up a committee to investigate food production in postwar United States, and President Truman was so impressed with his report and recommendations that he nominated him to be his Secretary of Agriculture, a post in which he sought to move the US agricultural economy from wartime to peace time as well as addressing the food shortage in the postwar world. Anderson was one of the key people, working closely with President Truman and former President Herbert Hoover, in getting people in war-torn areas fed. Hoover would craft plans, and Anderson would implement them. However, in 1948, by which time the postwar food situation was stable, he resigned to run for the Senate after Carl Hatch announced his retirement. The Republicans picked former Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley, but this year was good for the Democrats, and Anderson prevailed by 15 points. In the Senate, he strongly supported President Truman’s agenda. Although Republicans were starting to make gains in New Mexico, most notably with the election of Ed Mechem as governor, Anderson was more than capable of hanging on, and in 1954, he won reelection against Mechem by nearly 15 points. Republicans would only get within single digits of defeating him in 1966, and that was a backlash election against the Johnson Administration.

Anderson and Eisenhower

As Secretary of Agriculture, Anderson had come to believe that flexible price floors were the right approach for agriculture and thus supported Ezra Taft Benson in his efforts to push agriculture more to a market-based system, which was not popular in rural areas. As a New Mexican, he supported the oil industry and in 1950 and 1956 he voted for legislation prohibiting the Federal Power Commission from regulating the price of oil. Anderson also supported maintaining the 27.5% oil depletion allowance. However, there were ways in which he waved his partisan flag. For example, Anderson had come to strongly dislike Lewis Strauss when he headed the Atomic Energy Commission. A key issue that the men fought on was public power generation and distribution; Strauss opposed, Anderson supported. Strauss had also once insulted Anderson when he said that he, the chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, had “a limited understanding of what is involved” in Cold War atomic energy policy (U.S. Senate). Although Anderson never forgave Strauss for that insult, he initially decided to put politics out of the way when in 1958 President Eisenhower made clear that he wanted him to be Secretary of Commerce. However, this was not stuck to as in the 1958 election Democrats won 12 seats, the issue of Strauss’s involvement in the revoking of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance came up, and Strauss came off badly in hearings as arrogant, combative, and condescending to the Senate. On this matter, he was his own worst enemy, and Anderson now put his full energy into calling for his nomination to be voted down, and it was, 46-49, on June 19^th, Strauss being one of the few cabinet nominees in history to be voted down by the Senate. This event is notably portrayed in the 2023 film Oppenheimer. He was also known during his time in the Senate as a scholarly figure who had a hobby of collecting and reading old books about the American West, and this resulted in him having one of the finest personal libraries in New Mexico.

Anderson and Civil Rights

Although Senator Anderson generally supported civil rights and backed the major laws on final passage, he also supported Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.) in his successful efforts to water down the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 to ease them for passage. Indeed, he sponsored with Senators George Aiken (R-Vt.) and Francis Case (R-S.D.) the amendment striking 14^th Amendment implementation from the 1957 law. Anderson can be seen as both a supporter of civil rights but also a Senate institutionalist.

Advocacy for Medicare

Senator Anderson was one of the principal politicians, along with Albert Gore of Tennessee and Representative Cecil King of California, to push for the adoption of Medicare. President Kennedy had specifically designated Anderson as the leader of adopting the measure. Anderson would write on his role, “Perhaps a man who has spent much of his life fighting off the effects of illness acquires…an understanding of the importance of professional health care to all people” (U.S. Senate). Although the Senate rejected Medicare proposals in 1960 and 1962, in 1964, Anderson succeeded in getting the Senate to adopt a Medicare amendment to the pending Social Security legislation. However, in the course of doing so, he strained his health and found himself managing the measure from his hospital bed. Because the House and Senate could not agree upon a final version of the Social Security measure, Medicare would have to wait until the next Congress, which had more of the president’s supporters elected to the Senate and especially the House. After Anderson managed to get Medicare passed in the Senate in 1965, President Johnson invited him to the signing ceremony in which former President Truman and his wife, Bess, were given the first Medicare cards. Medicare would not be the only cause in which he specialized, as he also was the Senate’s leading advocate for wilderness conservation. Anderson wrote on the matter, “There is a spiritual value to conservation, and wilderness typifies this. Wilderness is a demonstration by our people that we can put aside a portion of this which we have as a tribute to the Maker and say–this we will leave as we found it” (Wilderness Connect). Anderson also supported most other Great Society proposals, but he proved more conservative on law-and-order issues. He supported several proposals to weaken the impact of Supreme Court decisions on criminal defendant rights, but did not support the Nixon Administration’s efforts to enact “no knock” warrants for drug cases. Anderson also supported efforts to withdraw from the Vietnam War, including the Cooper-Church Amendment in 1970 and the Mansfield Amendment in 1971. Despite his support for withdrawal, he tended to support increasing military spending for key missile delivery systems as well as taking a hardline stance on the USSR.

By 1972, Anderson’s health was clearly declining, and he chose not to run again. Throughout his Senate career, he agreed with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action 66% of the time, the conservative Americans for Constitutional Action 23% of the time from 1955 to 1972, and his DW-Nominate score was a -0.201. In retirement, he continued his hobby of collecting and reading old books on the American West. Anderson was wise to have opted to retire, as on November 11, 1975, his 58-year streak of eluding the grim reaper came to an end with a massive stroke at the age of 80.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Anderson, Clinton Presba. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/165/clinton-presba-anderson

Clinton Anderson. Wilderness Connect.

https://wilderness.net/learn-about-wilderness/people/clinton-anderson.php

Clinton P. Anderson. The Miller Center.

Retrieved from

https://millercenter.org/president/truman/essays/anderson-1945-secretary-of-agriculture

Clinton P. Anderson Dead; Ex-Senator Was in Cabinet. (1975, November 12). The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Medicare Signed Into Law. United States Senate.

Retrieved from

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Medicare_Signed_Into_Law.htm

Simmons, M. (2014, December 26). Trail Dust: Clinton P. Anderson went from newsman to senator. Santa Fe New Mexican.

Retrieved from

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/trail-dust-clinton-p-anderson-went-from-newsman-to-senator/article_27d72c92-0379-5041-b936-7e70f3cdc31d.html

The Administration: The Strauss Affair. (1959, June 15). Time Magazine.

Retrieved from

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,892639,00.html

In 1946, the American public elected a Republican Congress for the first time since the Great Depression. One of the fresh faces in Washington who vanquished a Democrat was another Democrat in Otto Ernest Passman (1900-1988) of Monroe, Louisiana. Passman, an appliance manufacturer and salesman by profession, had succeeded in ousting conservative Democrat Charles McKenzie in the 1946 nomination contest. However, if national Democrats got their hopes up that he would be more loyal to party line than his predecessor, they were in for a great disappointment. Passman was one of the most agreeable in the House to the conservative agenda of the 80^th Congress; in his first year, Americans for Democratic Action scored him a 25%, one of the lowest among House Democrats that year.

Passman the “Lord High Executioner of Foreign Aid Bills”

Passman was a frequent thorn in the side of the internationalist leadership in both parties. As chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, he was frequently pushing for budget cuts, with his critics calling him the “Cajun Cassius” and being responsible for reduction of annual presidential foreign aid requests by an average of 20% from 1955 to 1965, resulting in Time Magazine (1965) calling him the “lord high executioner of foreign aid bills”. He had also been one of the few Democrats to vote against the Marshall Plan in 1948. Passman so ticked off President Eisenhower that he once told an aide something similar to what President Truman told an aide regarding J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Remind me never to invite that fellow down here again!” (Time Magazine) President Kennedy wasn’t terribly happy with him either. He once told an aide in exasperation, “What am I going to do about him?” (Time Magazine) Appropriations Committee Chairman Clarence Cannon (D-Mo.) would not rein him in, as although he wasn’t an opponent of foreign aid himself, he also would sometimes push for budget cuts regardless of whether the president wanted it or not, regardless of party. Passman said regarding presidential support, “What the President wants does not mean a damn thing to me unless it makes sense” (Time Magazine, 1957). Both Cannon and Passman could be peppery in the carrying out of their duties, further aggravating presidential and Democratic Party leadership. The essence of Passman’s critique of foreign aid was that it propped up despots whose regimes might have otherwise collapsed (Curtis). There has since been research that suggests that Passman was right. For instance, a 2016 paper by Faisal Z. Ahmed (2016) found that “U.S. aid harms political rights, fosters other forms of state repression, and strengthens authoritarian governance”. Passman did, however, do a solid for the Johnson Administration when he successfully pushed a compromise to allow shipments of wheat to the USSR and Hungary in 1963 against fierce Republican opposition.

Passman the Powerless

Passman’s power was conditioned on Cannon permitting him free reign, and Cannon’s death in 1964 resulted in a far less favorable successor in George Mahon of Texas. Although Mahon was not a liberal, he was willing to cooperate with his fellow Texan Lyndon B. Johnson, and this included the subject of foreign aid. Although he allowed Passman to stay on as chairman, he reduced the membership of his subcommittee from 11 to 9, making most of its membership favorable to foreign aid and resulting in Passman losing committee votes, and Mahon even deprived him of the ability to write reports on pending legislation as they contradicted what the majority wanted (Time Magazine, 1965).

Foe of 1960s Domestic Liberalism

Among the Louisiana delegation, Passman was strongly opposed to most of the liberal domestic programs of the 1960s. He voted against aid to medical schools and students and accelerated public works in 1963, against urban mass transit legislation, food stamps, and the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964, and federal aid to education and Medicare in 1965. Passman did have something of a soft spot for minimum wage legislation, and backed increases in 1961 and 1966. His record on civil rights is what you’d expect from a Louisiana representative of his time and place. Given Passman’s dissatisfaction with liberalism in the 1960s, he was certainly looking for an alternative, and one came with Richard Nixon in 1968.

Embracing Nixon

Although a Democrat, we have already established that Otto Passman was not the sort of Democrat we think of today, and he was quite pleased with President Nixon. As he had with President Johnson, he supported President Nixon’s Vietnam War policies. On social issues, Passman was largely on the conservative end, but he made a rather striking exception in his opposition to a school prayer amendment to the Constitution in 1971. His support for Nixon even extended beyond his resignation, with him being one of only three representatives to vote against adopting the report on his impeachment proceedings. Passman stated in support of Nixon after his resignation, “I contend that Richard M. Nixon is the greatest President this country ever had. Rather than take any chance of doing anything offensive to this great man, I decided to vote ‘no’” (Rosenbaum). Can you imagine a Democrat today saying this about President Trump? Passman’s overall ideology differs somewhat between sources. He was in accord with the position of Americans for Constitutional Action 70% of the time from 1957 to 1976, only 17% with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action from 1947 to 1976, and his DW-Nominate score was a -0.056, which is conservative for a Democrat.

Koreagate

In 1976, a scandal broke regarding South Korean millionaire lobbyist Tongsun Park. Park had been spreading money around Washington both to promote his rice business and to maintain US military presence in South Korea as a bulwark against North Korean aggression, and Passman was one of 31 representatives named by Park as having accepted money from him. His involvement in this scandal resulted in his narrow loss for renomination in 1976 to Jerry Huckaby. On April 1, 1978, Passman was indicted for accepting $98,000 in illegal gratuities or bribes from 1972 to 1975, and allegedly in exchange he lobbied Congress to maintain Park’s monopoly as an agent for selling American rice to South Korea (Columbia Missourian). However, Passman managed to get the venue of his trial changed to his home city of Monroe, given that there was also a tax evasion charge. His attorney portrayed him as “an unknowing victim of an evil Korean conspiracy” and he was acquitted (The New York Times). This acquittal, however, many have been produced by the move in venue as well as sympathy he got from his poor health.

Sex Discrimination

Although Passman had been one of many members of Congress to vote for the Equal Rights Amendment, he has the dubious distinction of being the first member of Congress to be sued for sex discrimination. In 1974, he fired his assistant, Shirley Davis, and wrote in her termination letter that it was essential that a man be in her role. She sued him, and the case established a Supreme Court precedent in 1979’s Davis v. Passman, which affirmed that members of Congress can be sued for discrimination. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount that year.

The Last Years

Passman ended up living longer than would be expected given his poor health in the late 1970s. His wife died in 1984, and he soon remarried to his secretary, who was over 25 years younger than him. Passman died on August 13, 1988, at the age of 88.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Ahmed, F.Z. (2016). Does Foreign Aid Harm Political Rights? Evidence from U.S. Aid. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 11: 1-35.

Retrieved from

Click to access ahmed_qjps2016.pdf

Curtis, J. (2021, March 17). Author details Otto Passman’s life in latest book. The Ouachita Citizen.

Retrieved from

https://www.hannapub.com/franklinsun/community/author-details-otto-passman-s-life-in-latest-book/article_5ab63372-81bc-11eb-b400-1f3c2fc3b4bf.html

Passman Is Acquitted On Charges of Taking Payments by Korean. (1979, April 2). The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Passman, Otto Ernest. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/7228/otto-ernest-passman

Rosenbaum, D.E. (1974, August 21). House Formally Concludes Inquiry Into Impeachment. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Second congressman indicted. (1978, April 1). Columbia Missourian.

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwibhteY-_mNAxX2BDQIHSDUBXoQFnoECBQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmdh.contentdm.oclc.org%2Fdigital%2Fapi%2Fcollection%2Fcolmo7%2Fid%2F126569%2Fdownload&usg=AOvVaw0KlKnyDSz57wgFM3ECkxgq&opi=89978449

The Congress: A Tartar Tamed. (1965, September 17). Time Magazine.

Retrieved from

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,842094-1,00.html

The Nation: The Gutting of Foreign Aid. (1957, August 26). Time Magazine.

Retrieved from

https://time.com/archive/6800125/the-nation-the-gutting-of-foreign-aid/

Sam Rayburn of Texas, House Democratic leader in both the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations.

In this follow-up to the post tracking the Republicans between the Truman to Eisenhower Administrations I was thinking that given the Republican movement, especially in the House, during the Eisenhower era that there might be similar Democratic movement, but the truth I found I must confess was pretty unexciting in the House: Democrats in the House averaged an agreement rate with Americans for Democratic Action of 67% during the Truman Administration and a 66% during the Eisenhower Administration. This makes them a moderately liberal party in this time, and it averages out this way because of the increasingly stark differences observed between Northern and Southern Democrats by Americans for Democratic Action. Southern Democrats were figured as moderate during both administrations, with an average of 42% and 41% respectively, while Northern Democrats were solidly liberal, with an 85% and 86% respectively. Many people who conduct research wish to only report the exciting results, but sometimes the research is done, and the results are mundane, but true. I think there’s a good argument to be made that the current Democratic Party is more liberal than the Northern Democrats in that time.

The Senate was a bit more of an exciting story, although this is because there were considerable shifts in the Senate and more votes on civil rights and foreign aid that attracted crossover votes in a way they didn’t in the House. The Senate Democrats figured at 65% and 55% respectively, with Southern Democrats having a pronounced decline from 45% to 33%. Northern Democrats too had a decline, from 82% to 75%. An example of such decline is James Murray of Montana, who agreed with ADA 97% of the time during the Truman years but had a decline to 85% during the Eisenhower years. In part this was due to his willingness to back compromising amendments to civil rights legislation and his support for sustaining Senate rules. Senate Democrats had a decline in liberalism by ADA standards as opposed to House Democrats at least in good part because the Senate considered a wider range of issues. On foreign aid, it was usually the case that amendments cutting foreign aid of some sort were counted in the Senate while foreign aid passage votes were counted in the House. Votes on the former are not exactly equivalent to the latter. The same goes with the coverage of civil rights in the House as opposed to the Senate. More Northern legislators crossed to the position opposed by ADA on the subject in the Senate than in the House. Furthermore, more civil rights votes were held and counted in the Senate than in the House. By ADA standards, House Democrats were remarkably consistent while Senate Democrats saw a decline. It is also interesting when we look at how little the Senate Republican score rose as opposed to the House Republican score, highlighting to me the importance of trying to balance out the House and Senate when determining scores. After all, if one branch holds 20 tariff votes and the other holds only one, a legislator could be judged more conservative or liberal by the mere fact that he or she is in the House instead of the Senate. One must bear in mind of course that I am basing my results on the standards of a liberal organization. Conservatives to be sure saw legislators in a different light; the conservative organization Americans for Constitutional Action did not register the Southern Democrats quite as conservative as ADA did in the Eisenhower years. ADA, however, is the only non-DW-Nominate source that covers both the Truman and Eisenhower years. When I finalize my own set of ratings, that can accomplish with ADA does but with more consideration for the conservative position.

The numbers, based on agreement with ADA position:

The 1952 election produced the first Republican presidential win in 24 years as well as a Republican Congress, thus united government. From the onset of the Great Depression until 2001, the 1953-1955 session of Congress would be the only time the GOP would have united government. Although the Republicans, particularly the House Republicans, stood against the Truman Administration agenda staunchly, their resolve against liberalism lessened during the Eisenhower Administration, at least per how much they agreed with the votes Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) from 1947 to 1960 determined as important for liberal policies. I would have loved to use Americans for Constitutional Action for this, but they did not exist during the Truman Administration.

One of the most prominent and dramatic examples was that of Republican House leader Joe Martin of Massachusetts. While he proved a strong partisan against liberalism and the Truman Administration, he shifted during the Eisenhower Administration to accommodate its priorities which were considerably more moderate than the anti-New Deal politics of many of the Congressional Republicans during the Truman years. Despite opposing public housing during the Truman Administration, as Speaker in the 83^rd Congress Martin supported the administration’s request for public housing. He had only supported ADA’s position 6% of the time during the Truman Administration. During the Eisenhower Administration, it was 53% of the time. Martin’s successor as leader of the House Republicans, Charles Halleck of Indiana, went from 6% to 35%, and Republican Whip Les Arends of Illinois went from 5% to 29%. Some Republicans who stood previously stood resolute against foreign aid under Truman were supporting Eisenhower’s Mutual Security legislation (economic and military aid). Another interesting phenomenon was that a few of the most conservative Republicans by DW-Nominate standards actually moved rightward during the Eisenhower Administration. Illinois’ Noah Mason agreed with ADA 10% of the time during the Truman Administration, only 4% of the time during the Eisenhower Administration. Likewise, Wint Smith of Kansas, Bob Dole’s predecessor in the House and possibly the most conservative individual Kansas elected to Congress in the 20th century, had gone from siding with ADA 4% of the time to 1%. Iowa’s H.R. Gross, who started his career as something of a populist, saw his agreement decline from 37% to 13%. Overall, the House Republicans increased their agreement with ADA positions from 19% to 30%. The effect was far less dramatic, however, in the Senate. Interestingly, some of the Senate’s moderates during the Truman Administration moved to the right during the Eisenhower Administration (such as Massachusetts’ Leverett Saltonstall and Vermont’s Ralph Flanders) but the trend did still exist, although only 27% to 30%.

Sheet w/Scores and Averages:

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

As a state, Ohio has had a long history as a swing state in politics, and Stephen Marvin Young (1889-1984) had a long career in which he benefited from and was harmed by such shifts.

Young, a lawyer by profession, launched his political career in 1912, winning a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives in the same year that Woodrow Wilson was elected president. He would serve until 1917, when he was called to fight in World War I. The 1920s would be the political doldrums for him, as he lost a state attorney general election in 1922 and lost the Democratic primary for governor in 1930.

In 1932, Young was elected to Congress, representing the entirety of Ohio as an at-large representative. Although a supporter overall of FDR’s New Deal who voted for much of it including the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, he was more moderate in his voting in his early years in Congress than he would be later, indeed Congressional Quarterly described him during this time as a “moderate New Deal Democrat” (CQ Almanac, 1958). He also took a stand against popular opinion in his opposition to the Patman Bonus bill for veterans on fiscal grounds, and this would be far from the last time he would be unafraid to stand against public opinion. In 1936, Young opted to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination but lost to incumbent Martin Davey.

Young sought to win back one of Ohio’s at-large seats in 1938, but the winners for the two seats were Republicans George Bender and L.L. Marshall. However, in 1940 he ran again and with Bender was one of the top two. Time Magazine (1942) described him as a “New Deal enthusiast” and as Ohio’s top vote-getter for the Democrats. However, even in this “enthusiast” stage, Young nonetheless didn’t always vote in line with what New Dealers wanted, and this included his vote for the Vinson Anti-Strike Bill in 1941 and his vote against continuing the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1942. The former vote contrasts greatly with his strong pro-union record later in his career. In the 1942 election, the number of at-large seats was reduced to one, and with that year being a good one for Republicans, Young lost the election to Bender. He proceeded to resume his military service, serving from 1943 to 1946, rising in rank from major to lieutenant colonel. And he wasn’t a staff officer either; like also in his fifties Paul Howard Douglas. At the war’s end, Young was serving as military governor of the Province of Reggio Emilia in Italy.

In 1948, Young came back to Congress again by defeating Bender, as this year went sideways for the Republicans. In the 81^st Congress, as a veteran of both world wars, he furiously denounced Veterans Committee Chairman John Rankin’s (D-Miss.) effort to scuttle President Truman’s proposed expansion of Social Security through a big veterans’ pension bill. Young proved a strong supporter of President Truman’s agenda, both on domestic and foreign policy. However, in 1950 the winds would shift back to the GOP, and Ohio’s at-large seat to Bender. Young would run for state attorney general in 1956, but lost to Republican William B. Saxbe, who would later serve in the Senate and briefly as the U.S. attorney general. The 1950s would also be a time in which Young would start to suffer several personal tragedies in life. In 1952, his wife of 41 years, Ruby, died of lung cancer, and one of his sons, Stephen Jr., followed in 1958 at the age of 46. His other son, Richard, would die seven years later at 42. His second wife, Rachel, who was 23 years younger than him, would nonetheless precede him in death by two years due to a car accident.

The 1958 Election: The Fall of the House of Bricker

In 1958, many Senate Republicans were up for reelection, and one of them was Ohio’s John W. Bricker. Bricker was a big name in Ohio, as he had been a popular and successful governor from 1939 to 1945, Thomas E. Dewey’s running mate in 1944, and had served in the Senate since 1946. Bricker was in many ways the antithesis of Young. He had written a proposed amendment to the Constitution, known as the Bricker Amendment, which if enacted would have considerably weakened the president’s ability to enact executive agreements. He was one of the most conservative senators; he sided with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action only 7% of the time, the conservative Americans for Constitutional Action 98% of the time from 1955 to 1958, and had a DW-Nominate score of 0.528, which made him the 4^th most conservative senator in the 85^th Congress (1957-1959). Many Democrats passed on running against him because they thought he was unbeatable, that is, except Stephen Young. Young had some incentive to run for the Senate in addition to his ideological opposition to Bricker; he was 69 years old, and this was likely his last chance to continue his political career.

A lot of people underestimated Young in the 1958 election because of his age and as mentioned before, Bricker was popular. Indeed, only one statewide newspaper endorsed Young. However, a “right to work” amendment, backed by Senator Bricker, was on the ballot for the state constitution, and unions went into overdrive in campaigning against it. Another favorable development for Young was him getting former President Harry S. Truman to campaign for him. Truman took a great liking to Young as he saw him as a kindred spirit; a liberal who calls a spade a spade. This, combined with the generally unfavorable environment for the Republicans in the 1958 midterms, resulted in Young’s win by 5 points.

Senator Young

In the Senate, Young had a liberal record and did not get on well with his fellow Buckeye Democrat in the Senate, Frank Lausche. Lausche, the most conservative Senate Democrat north of the Mason-Dixon line, hadn’t backed his 1958 run. Thus, Young refused to abide by the senatorial custom of having the senior senator walk the junior senator down the aisle to be sworn in to office. As Time Magazine (1962) reported, Young said of Lausche, “If Senator Lausche supported me for election, it was a well-guarded secret.”

Young was known for his acerbic answers to constituent letters that he considered abusive, stupid, ignorant, or generally repugnant. Such answers included,

“Dear Sir: It appears to me that you have been grossly misinformed, or are exceedingly stupid. Which is it?” (Lardner)

“Buster, your insults show that you are the east end of a horse going west” (Rasky).

After a constituent wrote him a nasty letter in which he finished with, “I would welcome the opportunity to have intercourse [as in discussion] with you”, he responded, “you sir, can have intercourse with yourself” (Crass).

In response to a constituent letter defending the Ohio National Guard’s conduct in killing four students at Kent State University protests, he wrote, “Only a cruel ignoramus would take the position that these four students – not one of whom was rioting or throwing stones – deserved to be killed. Also, you are a stupid, cruel jerk” (Buchanan).

He also wrote to one Ohio voter that he was “a low-down skunk and a liar” and to another that he was “lower than a snake’s tail in a wagon rut” (Buchanan).

Young also went after some prominent targets for criticism. In response to Ohio American Legion posts censuring him for speaking before the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (a left-wing group), he responded by calling them “puffed-up patriots” and “publicity-seeking professional veterans” (Time Magazine, 1962).

Young was not afraid of blowback from these responses, rather he publicized them! It was his view that no matter who was going after him, it was fair game for him to defend himself. In 1963, he voted for the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which banned atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Young considered this the single most important vote of his career. He was also greatly concerned with the less fortunate in society and thus strongly supported nearly all New Frontier legislation as well as backed Medicare every time it came up for a vote. However, he sometimes would support a cut in government spending, particularly on foreign aid. Sometimes international agencies could attract his scorn, once declaring, “The Agency for International Development must have far in excess of the usual quota of dimwits” (Rasky). One of the few exceptions he made to domestic legislation as a senator was his vote against the Domestic Service Corps in 1963. Young also opposed government subsidies to industries. This included his votes against fishing vessels in 1959 and 1960 and drydock subsidies in 1959.

Young and Civil Rights

As both a representative and a senator, Young supported civil rights legislation, including supporting strengthening amendments that weren’t adopted in the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and supported the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with no weakening amendments. However, this didn’t mean that he agreed with all the tactics of the activists of the civil rights movement. In a speech he delivered before the Senate on July 11, 1963, he expressed his strong opposition to a proposal for a mass sit-in at the offices of members of Congress by civil rights demonstrators, stating, “Citizens have a right to petition and to lobby. However, a mass invasion and demonstration is unwise and is a disorderly way to dramatize any cause. It would probably lead to rioting. Any such sit-in in the Senate Office Building or the Capitol would demonstrate contempt for the Congress and a lack of confidence in senatorial powers to reason and deliberate. It would recklessly demonstrate disregard for the dignity and integrity of the legislative branch of our Government” (Congressional Record, 11745). Ultimately, the March on Washington did occur, with Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech but without the proposed sit-ins as the activists reached the same conclusion Young did about the wisdom of such tactics. The next year, Congress would pass the comprehensive Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The 1964 Election

Young was in a vulnerable position for reelection. His poison pen rubbed some voters the wrong way and his voting record was certainly to the left of the average Ohio voter. He was even at risk in the Democratic primary, as a compelling challenger stepped forward in astronaut John Glenn. However, he slipped and fell in a bathtub and suffered a head injury that forced him to bow out to recover. Glenn would be elected to the Senate in 1974. Furthermore, Republicans picked a strong contender to defeat him in at-large Republican Congressman Robert Taft Jr. Taft’s center-right politics were probably closer to the views of Ohioans than Young’s and certainly more appealing to the electorate than Goldwater’s ultra-conservatism, and the general consensus was that he was going to win the election. However, Goldwater at the top of the ticket dragged down the candidacies of numerous Republicans down ticket given his outspokenness and his uncompromising nature. Indeed, at the time only one senator exceeded him in conservatism according to the DW-Nominate scale. Goldwater ran behind many other Republicans down ticket and his candidacy likely resulted in victories for Democrats in key races that they would have otherwise lost. The Senate races in Ohio as well as Nevada were major examples, and Young prevailed by less than a point. By contrast, Johnson won in Ohio with 63% of the vote, the best performance a Democrat ever had running for president in the state.

Young: All the Way with LBJ?

Young was a strong supporter of President Johnson’s Great Society programs, voting for the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Social Security Act Amendments of 1965 (established Medicare and Medicaid), federal aid to education, and the Housing and Urban Development Act. He also opposed both of Senator Dirksen’s (R-Ill.) proposed amendments to the Constitution, which if adopted would have permitted states to have one legislature proportioned based on factors other than population and permitted voluntary school prayer in schools and other public buildings.  

However, Young was not always on board with President Johnson. He became an early critic of the Vietnam War in part based on inconsistencies with what he saw when he visited Vietnam and what the Johnson Administration was saying. Young also had a level of skepticism when it came to foreign policy that made his vote not guaranteed for the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. In 1968, Young stood as a “favorite son” candidate for president but recognizing that he had no chance to win, he only submitted his name for the Ohio primary.

Young was a strong opponent of the Nixon Administration and opposed “no knock” warrants in drug cases as well as the unsuccessful Supreme Court nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell. He also led the opposition to Nixon’s nomination of conservative Otto Otepka to the Subversive Activities Control Board, who had had a controversial tenure as the Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Security until he was fired by the Kennedy Administration in 1963. In 1970, Young decided that it was time to hang up his hat. Although still in good health at 81, he believed it was time for someone younger to succeed him. Young agreed with the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action, which had covered his term in the House during the Truman Administration and his Senate record, 90% of the time while he agreed with the conservative group Americans for Constitutional Action which covered his Senate record 14% of the time. Young’s DW-Nominate score, which covers his entire career, was a -0.351, which accounts for his early record as a moderate New Deal supporter and his stronger liberal record later in his career. Young’s successor was none other than the man he bested in 1964, Taft Jr. He had endorsed Taft’s opponent, Howard Metzenbaum, who had managed his 1958 Senate campaign. Young lived to see Metzenbaum defeat Taft Jr. in 1976.

Young had a strong spirit and a commitment to work that he maintained after the Senate as he believed it kept him alive. This, in addition to his daily workouts at the gym and possibly some excellent genetics from his mother (who lived to be 95), got him 95 years of life, dying on December 1, 1984, from a blood disorder. He outlived all of his siblings, and his daughter only survived him by three years.

Bonus:

Three ads in which former President Truman expresses his support for Young in 1958, ads produced by the General Pictures Corporation and provided by the Harry S. Truman Library:

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Biographies of Newly Elected Senators. CQ Almanac 1958. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.

Retrieved from

https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal58-1340461#_=_

Bricker, John William. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/1024/john-william-bricker

Buchanan, T. (2021, January 28). History Thursday: Pugnacious Ohio senator was unafraid to insult critics. Ohio Capital Journal.

Retrieved from

History Thursday: Pugnacious Ohio senator was unafraid to insult critics

Crass, S. (2015, August 31). Statesmen and mischief makers: officeholders and their contributions to history from Kennedy to Reagan. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation.

Democrats: Mighty Steve Young. (1962, December 21). Time Magazine.

Retrieved from

https://time.com/archive/6873226/democrats-mighty-steve-young/

Lardner, J. (1966, March 10). Senator Stephen M. Young. The Harvard Crimson.

Retrieved from

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1966/3/10/senator-stephen-m-young-pwhen-the/

Rachel Bell Young, Wife of Ex-Senator, Active in Red Cross. (1982, June 29). The Washington Post.

Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/06/29/rachel-bell-young-wife-of-exsenator-active-in-red-cross/8007f39a-2c8e-49c1-a81f-98e8e765ba57/

Rasky, S.F. (1984, December 2). Stephen Young Dies; Served Two Terms in Senate from Ohio. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Stephen Marvin Young Jr. FamilySearch.

Retrieved from

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/K8RX-HT8/stephen-marvin-young-jr-1889-1984

U.S. At War: Revolution in Ohio. (1942, November 16). Time Magazine.

Retrieved from

https://time.com/archive/6865963/u-s-at-war-revolution-in-ohio/

Young, S.M. (1963, July 11). Proposed Mass Sit-In at Capitol Should Not Be Tolerated. Congressional Record. Congressional Printing Office.

Retrieved from

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/347164906610210-march-on-washington-stephen-m-young-typed-letter-signed/#mz-expanded-view-416334941426

Young, Stephen Marvin. Voteview.

Retrieved fromhttps://voteview.com/person/10454/stephen-marvin-young