Well, I don't know what you mean by "mistake." I didn't run. In fact, it
would have been a mistake if I had run. Here's what happened in that
regard. Vandiver, who had been governor and was expected to run again,
was an odds on favorite to win overwhelmingly and he had no great
substantial opposition, as a matter of fact. He called me one day and
said, "Senator, I need to see you and I am coming up to Washington
tomorrow morning, arriving at Dulles Airport at such-and-such a time . .
. " It was five or six o'clock in the morning as I recall. I said,
"Well, Ernie, I'll meet you out there and bring you in for breakfast at
the house." So, he told me coming in that his doctor told him that he
had serious heart trouble and if he ran for governor, he would be taking
his life in his hands and he had some young children that he had to
educate and couldn't afford to sacrifice his family and that he thought
I ought to come home and run for governor. He knew that I had been
somewhat unhappy in the Senate. All former governors are. A governor can
make a decision and execute it. A Senator can make a decision and talk
about it. There is a tremendous difference between the roles of the two.
I gave it some thought and about the next day, I announced the fact that
I was considering
Page 8 coming home and running for
governor. I had an amazing reaction. Telephones in the office, all of
them, and in my residence were ringing constantly twenty-four hours a
day and every two minutes, a stack of telegrams would come in a foot
high. Within forty-eight hours, the mail started arriving and in the
course of two or three days, we recieved something like 10,000
communications from Georgia. Politicians, black and white, liberal and
reactionary and moderate were of one choice only, "For God's sake, come
home and run for governor and save us." Rank and file of the people,
what we called the "butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker," had a
different reaction. They said, "The real issues are being fought in
Washington now and not in the governor's office. The governor's office
has virtually degenerated to a federal clerkship. You have just been in
the Senate long enough to begin to render real service there. Senator
Russell is not getting any younger and we don't want two rookies in the
Senate at the same time." Most of them wound up by saying, "Regardless
of what you decide to do, I'll support you." I could see that the
politicians wanted me to run and the people wanted me to stay in the
Senate and I opted for that course.