Astounding Results

On election night Charles Holley, Florida's Republican candidate for Gov ernor, sent word to Democrat W. (for Willie) Haydon Burns. "It looks like you've won,": he said. Replied Winner Burns: "That's the first accurate statement he made during this campaign." Taking his place among the South's Governors, Burns, 52, a six-term may or of Jacksonville, will almost certainly prove to be one of the most colorful. A native Kentuckian, he is tall (6 ft. 2 in.), trim, and known as "Slick" because of his penchant for flashy clothes. Running for the nomination last spring, he found himself confronted by bloody race riots in Jacksonville. He overcame the potential political damage by appearing on statewide television to charge that the violence had been inspired by some of his Democratic opponents to embarrass him politically.

After winning the primary, Burns kicked off his campaign against Holley by declaring that he had been traveling around Florida's institutions of upper learning and had been "astounded to find the number of pinks and the number of Commies on the campuses." Warned he: "These people know who they are. Get out before I get in, or you will be kicked out." As it happens, Florida, rightly or wrongly, is proud of its colleges, and Burns drew a barrage of damning editorials; he never brought up the subject again.

For a while it appeared that Holley, 39, a former minority leader in the Florida house of representatives, might give Burns a real run for his money. Holley gave reporters "photocopies" of bank ledgers purporting to show that Burns had a secret Nassau bank account of $1,215,690. To refute the charge, Burns flew with reporters to the island, marched them into the Bank of Nova Scotia branch on Bay Street, and proved to everyone's satisfaction that Holley's documents were phony. From then on, Burns's election was a cinch.

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