The take-no-prisoners editor of The Washington Times newspaper, Wes Pruden,
is an Arkansas native and a student of Southern history. On many occasions,
he's written about some antic/scandal/misunderstanding (take your pick) of
the Clinton administration by saying Mr. Clinton acted like a governor, not
a president.
The latest ruckus involving the Tuesday national election, Florida returns
and mysterious ballot challenges from Daytona Beach south to Miami reminds
me of a gubernatorial crisis in Georgia 53 years ago. That's when the Peach
State had three governors at one time - and Bill Clinton could emulate one
of them.
The November 1946 election for governor saw the people of Georgia do what
they'd done three times previously - elect the red suspenders wearing Gene
Talmadge to the state's highest office.
But "Ol' Gene" was in bad health - he lived through the election but died
from cirrhosis of the liver on December 21, 1946 - only weeks before
inauguration day.
Now, a word about Georgia politics. Until very recently it was a one-party
state. Everyone was a Democrat - but that didn't lessen disagreements.
Then, as now, the party is filled with factions. In 1947 the two largest
factions were the Talmadge faction and the anti-Talmadge faction.
Before the 1946 election, Talmadge faction leaders knew about Gene's poor
health and organized a write-in campaign for Gene's son, Herman, as insurance against Gene's untimely death. Their plan centered on a Georgia law which said that if a governor died before
inauguration, the General Assembly would elect a governor from the next two
highest vote getters.
But the Talmadge faction ran into two problems with their plan. First, Herman finished
third in write in votes. That problem was easily solved when an "uncounted"
box of ballots was found in Telfair County - the home county of the
Talmadges. There were enough ballots to put Herman into second place behind
only his late father. Only later did elections officials decide all the
"uncounted ballots" were written in the same hand, were voted in
alphabetical order, and some were cast by residents of a Telfair County
cemetery.
The General Assembly was filled with Talmadge faction members - and elected
Herman governor.
The second problem for the Talmadge forces was not so easily solved. In
1945, the people of Georgia approved a new constitution - a new
constitution that created, for the first time, the office of Lt. Governor.
And unlike other in states, the Georgia Lt. Governor was an independent
politician - not the running mate of the governor.
M.E. Thompson, an anti-Talmadge activist, won election as Georgia's first
Lt. Governor in that same 1946 election. He shocked people when he stood up
to the Talmadge faction and claimed to be governor, since the new
constitution said the Lt. Governor would succeed the governor if the
governor dies.
The General Assembly elected Herman Talmadge governor - he was sworn in at
2AM on January 15, 1947. Outgoing governor Ellis Arnall, an anti-Talmadge,
refused to leave office-saying Herman was a pretender.
People expected trouble. The National Guard had recently returned from
World War II and supported Talmadge. The State Guard, organized to take the
place of the overseas National Guard, supported Arnall. Some feared these
two armies would go to war on the State House grounds in downtown Atlanta.
Talmadge ordered the adjutant general, Marvin Griffin, to escort Governor
Arnall home to Newnan - about 40 miles from Atlanta - and then to change
the locks on the door to the Governor's office. Griffin accomplished his
mission, but Arnall came back later in the day. He was refused admission to
"Governor Talmadge's office." Incensed, Arnall commandeered the information
booth at the door to the Capitol and set up his own governor's office. But
he had to move after a pro-Talmadge legislator dropped a firecracker into
the booth.
Arnall continued to claim the governorship for three days until he
"resigned" in favor of M.E. Thompson. The Lt. Governor claimed to be
acting Governor and set up his own Governor's office in the Lt. Governor's suite.
Various state office holders began to take sides. The attorney general
refused to bond Talmadge's choice for state revenue commissioner. The state
treasurer refused to honor spending requests. The secretary of state hid
the state seal in his wheelchair.
Talmadge proposed that both he and Thompson resign and rerun the election.
Thompson refused and filed suit.
In March 1947, the Georgia Supreme Court decided the General Assembly
should have declared Ol' Gene governor-elect even though he'd been dead for
three weeks. The court made Thompson governor.
Now will we see Mr. Clinton act as one of these three governors?
