Utah History Encyclopedia
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ELECTIONS IN THE STATE OF UTAH 1952 Election With Dwight D. Eisenhower leading the Republican party ticket, for the first time since Herbert Hoover and the 1928 election a majority of Utahns voted for the Republican candidate. The retired World War II Supreme Commander received 194,190 voted to 135,364 for Adlai M. Stevenson. With over 58 percent of the vote, Eisenhower represented a radical shift for Utah, which had given strong support to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman during the previous quarter of a century. However, a shift away from the Democratic party had been evident in 1950 when Republican Wallace Bennett won a victory over the veteran New Dealer Elbert D. Thomas in the Senate contest of that year. In the 1952 Senate race, incumbent Republican Arthur V. Watkins, who in 1946 had beaten the incumbent Democrat Abe Murdock by 101,000 votes to 96,000, defeated Democratic challenger Walter K. Granger by a count of 177,435 votes to 149,598. In the First Congressional District, Douglas Stringfellow, running on his record as a wounded World War II hero, easily defeated Ernest McKay, 76,545 to 49,898. However, before his term was over, Stringfellow confessed to having fabricated much of his war record and resigned just before the 1954 election. In the Second Congressional District, Utah′s first congresswomen, Reva Beck Bosone, was defeated by William A. Dawson, who she had unseated in 1948. Bosone had won by a large vote of 93,770 to 68,693 in 1948; she was defeated by Dawson in 1952 by a vote of 105,296 to 95,084. Bosone had been expected to win reelection easily, and analysts attributed her loss to the Republican deluge in 1952. With two Republicans in the House and two in the Senate, this marked the first time since 1914 that Utah′s entire congressional delegation was Republican. In the governor′s race, Republican J. Bracken Lee won a second term 1 of 14 with a 180,516 to 147,188 victory over Earl J. Glade. Lee, considered one of the most conservative politicians during a very conservative time, was strongly opposed by organized labor and education but still won an easy victory over Glade. The Republican trend was also evident in the state senate and house, and in most county and district elections. The Eisenhower/Republican victory came about for several reasons: Eisenhower′s war record and the confidence that Utahns had in him dealing with the Soviet Union; a very high percentage of young voters who, wearing "I Like Ike" campaign buttons, voted for Eisenhower; concerns that the Democrats were promoting socialism through such programs as the Truman Health Plan; the unpopularity of the Korean War, for which Utah National Guard units had been called up by Truman and which, voters felt, Eisenhower could end quickly; charges of corruption against the Truman administration; the feeling that it was "time for a change," since the Democrats under Roosevelt and Truman had been in control for twenty years; and the fear that the intellectual Stevenson, who admitted that he did not have all the answers, was not the best choice. 1956 Election A Republican-dominated election through and through, the 1956 campaign in Utah was one of the most colorful in Utah history and three men contended for the position of governor-George Dewey Clyde, L.C. Romney and J. Bracken Lee. Lee, described by some as the most colorful and controversial public figure in Utah politics since statehood, had served two terms as governor, having been elected on a Republican ticket in 1948 and 1952. He led a field of four candidates at the Republican nominating convention, but it a direct primary runoff, Lee finished second to George Dewey Clyde, an engineer and director of Utah′s Water and Power Board, who had come in second at the nominating convention. Despite his earlier statements eschewing a third term, Lee decided to enter the race as an independent, claiming there was no real difference between the Republican Clyde and the Democrat Romney. As an independent, Lee finished a strong third with 94,438 votes (which was 28.3 percent of the vote) to 111,297 for Romney (33.4 percent) and 127,164 (38.2 percent) for Clyde. Lee had won the vote of the conservative, anti-government, anti-tax bloc, but he found no support with teachers and educators, whom he 2 of 14 labeled as self-serving and self-invited guests at the public trough. He had alienated the Mormon Church authorities by vetoing a 1954 Sunday closing bill, offended organized labor by signing a right-to-work bill, and displeased the farmers by vetoing a bill providing them a tax rebate on off-highway gasoline use. He was anathema to most Republican party officials because he threatened to give the election to the Democrats by dividing the Republican vote and because he failed to cooperate with other party leaders, including bypassing them in making political appointments. Lee, who had campaigned on a slogan of "economy, efficiency, and honesty" in government, was hurt politically when lax practices in the liquor control commission and state employee financial contributions to his campaign were exposed. With a popular Republican in the White House, Clyde had strong appeal for many voters because of his experience in water issues, which was timely because of the current Colorado River reclamation projects. Dwight D. Eisenhower had won in Utah by a significant margin over Adlai E. Stevenson in 1952; his victory over Stevenson in 1956 was even greater. With 215,631 to 118,364 votes, Eisenhower′s 64.7 percent of the total vote was nearly a six percent improvement over that of 1952. In 1952 Eisenhower had designated Apostle Ezra Taft Benson of the Mormon Church to the be Secretary of Agriculture, the highest political appointment for a Mormon to that time. In foreign affairs, as the Middle East crisis over the Suez Canal threatened, Eisenhower was seen as a careful and experienced leader who could keep the country out of war. In the Senate race, incumbent Wallace F. Bennett won reelection to a second term with 178,261 to 152,120 victory over Democrat Alonzo F. Hopkin, a long-time Utah legislator and livestock raiser from northeastern Utah. In the congressional races, Republicans Henry A. Dixon and William A. Dawson each won reelection with substantial victories over Democratic candidates Carlyle F. Gronning (74,107 to 47,533) and Oscar W. McConkie, Jr., (119,683 to 87,970). The Utah state senate and house of representatives remained solidly Republican, with ratios of twenty-five to ten and forty to twenty-three, respectively. 1960 Election Whereas the 1956 election had been dominated by the controversial three-way contest for governor, the 1960 election saw a patchwork of 3 of 14 issues, contests, and charges that enlivened the campaign on several fronts. Although Richard Nixon carried Utah in his unsuccessful bid to move from vice-president to president, his margin of victory was far below that given Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. With 205,361 votes to 169,248 votes for John F. Kennedy, Nixon′s 54.7 percent was ten percent lower than that given to Eisenhower in 1956. Both presidential candidates spoke in Salt Lake City, and John Kennedy′s speech in the Mormon Tabernacle, with references to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Mormon scriptures, and even praise for Republicans Reed Smoot and Ezra Taft Benson, seem much more effective than the cordial but less specific remarks by Richard Nixon. Both candidates met with Mormon Church president David O. McKay, and, while the eighty-six-year-old, lifelong Republican told Kennedy that the Mormon Church would support him if he were elected, he told Nixon that he hoped he would be the next president. His comments implied, for some, an endorsement for Richard Nixon by the Mormon Church. However, in a subsequent statement, McKay clarified that, while he had wished a fellow Republican success, this did not constitute a church endorsement for Nixon and Mormons who favored Kennedy should vote for him. J. Bracken Lee was not a factor in the 1960 election, and he suffered humiliating defeat at the state Republican convention in an unsuccessful attempt to be named a delegate in the national convention. However, he had played a key role in the 1958 senatorial campaign, running as an independent candidate in a three-way race that saw incumbent Arthur V. Watkins defeated by Democratic newcomer Frank E. Moss. With a vote of 112,827 for Moss, 101,471 for Watkins, and 77,013 for Lee, it was clear that the conservative vote was split between Watkins and Lee, giving the victory to Moss. Watkins was especially bitter because he believed that Lee had entered the race out of spite for Watkin′s role as chairman of the Senate select committee that censored outspoken Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. Democratic good fortune continued as Democrats N. Blaine Peterson and David S. King were elected to the House of Representatives. King, representing the Second Congressional District, won reelection with a 120,771 to 116,881 victory over Sherman P. Lloyd. Two years earlier, he had defeated three-time incumbent Republican William A. Dawson by a vote of 91,213 to 87,234. In an extremely close First Congressional District contest, Democrat N. Blaine Peterson beat Republican A. Walter Stevenson by 68 votes, 65,939 to 65,871. Republicans did hold on to the governorship with the sixty-nine-year-old 4 of 14 George Dewey Clyde winning reelection by a 52.7 percent margin (195,634 to 175,855) over thirty-nine-year-old St.