Trimming the Redhead

By campaigning against the hypocrisy of Oklahoma's prohibition law, Tulsa's redheaded, young (then 32) J. Howard Edmondson won the 1958 gubernatorial runoff primary, brashly upset the Dry-favored candidate slated by the old guard Democratic machine. Elected Governor, he got prohibition repealed by referendum, went on to push for such general reform measures as legislative reapportionment, a patronage-free highway committee, a merit system for state employees. Still popular with the voters, he might have won most of his proposals had he not continued to snub the old political hands and to make a big to-do about his cabinet full of novices in their 30s. Old politicos also resented his Eastern-style narrow-brim hat, his frequent out-of-state junkets, his preference for Scotch and soda over bourbon and branch water, his preference for Oklahoma City's Golf and Country Club and plush Tower Club over such spots of legislative camaraderie as the Capri Motel on U.S. 66.

Last week the politicians, organized by U.S. Senator Robert Kerr, decided to trim the redhead down a size or two. In county meetings to pick delegates to the state convention, only seven of 77 counties elected Edmondson backers, thus ended his bid to name a new state chairman.

Another result of the vote: Oklahoma's 29 votes in the Democratic National Convention will go to Kerr's friend, Texas' Lyndon Johnson, and Kennedy-leaning Governor Edmondson will be on the delegation only if the old-line politicos decide to let him go along for the ride.

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