How Gore defeated McKellar
Though Senator McKellar, the incumbent during Gore's first campaign for the Senate, was a powerful, charismatic, and much-loved politician, Gore managed to defeat him. Gore explores how he and his team accomplished that and reiterates the importance of running a clean campaign.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Albert Gore, October 24, 1976. Interview A-0321-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- DEWEY W. GRANTHAM:
-
You certainly were in a uniquely strong position to challenge the Crump
machine and to be successful in 1952. I wonder if you could say a bit
more about the campaign itself, and about the factors which, in your
opinion, enabled you to be successful.
- ALBERT GORE:
-
Well, the strategy was carefully determined. The late Senator McKellar
was a very powerful man: he was chairman of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, and as such he had led in the Senate many of the battles
which I had led in the House. Indeed, he was far more powerful than I.
Sometimes I would lose the battle in the House, it would be retrieved by
him in the Senate, and then in conference between the House and Senate
he and I would work closely together to cement the victory. This was
repeated several times with respect to TVA matters. So when he decided
to run again I was not in a position to criticize
the manner in which he had utilized the power of the chairmanship of the
Senate Appropriations Committee. I had had critical views in that
regard, because he had undertaken to dominate the policies of the TVA,
to control appointments to the TVA. I had opposed this, and throughout
my term as a congressman I had never recommended anyone for employment
by the TVA. I had never recommended anyone or endorsed anyone for
appointment to the TVA board. Looking back on it, maybe this was an
extreme position. But I regarded the TVA as an autonomous agency, and I
felt that it should operate in a businesslike way and be free of
political interference in its administration and in its operation. I
still feel that way, but maybe I was going too far. But at least I was
so opposed to the efforts of Senator McKellar to dominate the TVA and to
tell them where they should put a dam or when they should build a dam,
where they should not put a dam and who they should employ, I so
resisted that that I became an absolute antithesis to it.
So there were issues between us which I could have utilized in the
campaign, those and other things that we differed on. But he had been so
helpful to me in the matter of securing appropriations for TVA's
expansion, and our records were so alike in that regard (his the more
successful because of the power that he wielded as chairman of the
committee) that I chose (both because of those reasons and because of
his advanced age and the esteem in which he was held) to make no
reference to him at all. Not one time did I call his name during the
campaign or criticize him on a single issue. Having made that decision,
I announced it at my first state-wide organization with leaders. And it
was discussed around the room. Some doubted that it was wise; most
seemed to agree with it. But one young lawyer from
East Tennessee, Bill Todd from Kingsport, was late arriving. He came in
with some little commotion--God bless Bill, he's about six
foot two and has very large feet, and he seemed to create a little
commotion almost any time he entered a room
[laughter]
. Anyway, just as he came in I . . .
[END OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
[TAPE 1, SIDE B]
[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE B]
- ALBERT GORE:
-
. . . said, "Bill, we've been discussing here the strategy and
tactics of my campaign. How do you think I should deal with the problem
of my adversary, the venerable Senator Kenneth McKellar?" Right
off Bill said, "I think you should say he's too old to cut the
mustard."
[laughter]
This created quite a deal of amusement, and there were some who
fairly agreed with him. But I had to tell him then that we'd decided
just not to do that at all. Later on in the campaign, you might be
interested to know, Senator McKellar's friends began to emphasize his
influence as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This was
my toughest issue. And they were saying all over the state,
"Why should Tennessee turn out to pasture the chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee when we need so many things: roads, TVA
dams, steam plants, various projects? The chairman of the Appropriations
Committee, why should we turn him out and put a young whipper snapper in
his place who'd have to start at the foot of the class?" Well,
it was my toughest issue. To emphasize this point, they suddenly began
to tack on the trees and utility poles and vacant store windows a
placard which said, "Thinking feller Vote for
MaKellar." Well, I found that amusing the first day or two. But
I found it was repeated every time I turned a curve, and by many other
people by word of mouth. I saw we had to get an answer to that. So Mrs.
Gore and I came home one Saturday night after a
hard day of campaigning, and she cleaned off the kitchen table and made
a pot of coffee and said, "Well Albert, sit down here. Here's
the pencil, here's the paper. I'll get a pencil and paper. We've got to
get an answer to this placard." So we wrote doggerels and
rhymes and riddles, and finally came to one that we thought would work.
So we got our country printer up early the next morning (even on
Sunday), and ran a bunch of placards answering that of the opposition.
And on Monday morning my friends started fanning out over the state. And
wherever they found one of those "Thinking Feller Vote for
McKellar" placards, they tacked one just beneath it which read
"Think some more and vote for Gore."
[laughter]
This had its effect: it created such amusement that in some
counties the supporters of Senator McKellar went around and pulled
theirs down. And the people driving through the state would often stop
and take down both. I was later speaking in Chicago, and the man who
introduced me told the story and said he had a pair of those placards on
the wall in his office. It had a little humorous twist to it. It was
very effective, and later on as I would make speeches over the country I
would sometimes tell that story, and say that the people did vote for me
after that mark of poetic genius. Thereafter, I always voted for federal
aid to education
[laughter].