Unlike Nixon, Trump Will Not Go Quietly

Townhall.com ^ | December 15, 2017 | Pat Buchanan

[Osage Orange]

You have no idea...what you are saying.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yes, Mahoney was still considered a “seg.” Of course, anyone who opposed a heavy-handed DC approach to Civil Rights issues would be termed that. Mahoney might not have differed much from other Governors of the period (such as Wallace or Lester Maddox, who ironically despite his “seg” reputation, did more to place Blacks in government jobs than his so-called “moderate” predecessors).

Millard Tydings, what a horror he was. A far-leftist, opposed Joe McCarthy viscerally and any attempts to seriously weed out the Soviet and Soviet sympathizer infiltration of the government. I recall reading about the “doctored photo” of him with Earl Browder, but frankly, that was nothing compared to the crap Dems have done to Republicans (right up to the assassination of Judge Moore). Tydings, however despite being the “good liberal” had an enormous sore point... he was opposed to Black issues. John Marshall Butler, a Conservative Republican lawyer from Baltimore City and future ally of McCarthy, was pro-Civil Rights, and that enabled him in 1950 to carry the Black vote and win a decisive victory (Tydings won much of the East Bay, but Butler carried the populous counties and Balto City by 53%).

Tydings did narrowly beat Mahoney (48-45%) in the 1956 Democrat primary, but he had to withdraw due to ill health and Mahoney was nominated in his place. Mahoney did respectably (47%) against Sen. Butler, and actually carried Balto City but by 51-49% and just 5,000 votes), but carried just 4 counties additionally, worse than Tydings. It’s too bad Butler didn’t run again in 1962, but he probably surmised the tide was turning against him. The GOP unwisely put up a former 67-year old Congressman, Edward Miller, who had lost in the 1958 Dem tidal-wave and failed to get his seat back in 1960. Had Miller won, he would’ve died in office (passed in 1968 right in the middle of an election season). The GOP took back Butler’s seat in ‘68, though, albeit with a Republican as left-wing (if not more so) than the freshman Democrat incumbent, Dan Brewster (Mathias).

Back to Mahoney for a moment, in 1950, he actually won a majority of the vote in the Dem primary for Governor over freshman incumbent William Preston Lane, Jr., but like some Southern states, they had the “unit system” in place, which required the winner to win the most areas, not the most votes. Despite Mahoney winning 50% to Lane’s 45.5%, Mahoney won just 7 counties and Balto City, while Lane carried 16 counties. Lane then lost to left-wing RINO and former Balto Mayor Ted McKeldin in the general election of 1950 by a 15% landslide.