You couldn't run but once at that time. A very peculiar arrangement that
came up in the 20's and they incorporated into the general statutes,
that a district, and there were perhaps let's
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thirty-five districts, maybe a few more, a few less. Some districts had
one senator; some had two. I don't think any had more than that, but
Wake County had one, and it was a district. There wasn't any real
apportionment on population. It was kind of an historical development
more or less equal maybe when they were first drawn, and maybe partially
because of who had influence at the particular time. But Wake County had
one, and so that senator could run for reelection every time. There was
nothing in the statutes that barred it. The district that Jones County
was in, which would have been as I recall, but it doesn't make any
difference, but let's say, New Bern and Jones County, which a little
town of Trenton, and Kinston maybe was a district. They had one senator,
but they had no rotation agreement. So anybody could run from any county
right on. Then they had a great many districts that had rotation
agreements that were incorporated into the statutes. I was in, it seems
to me like it was the tenth senatorial district. Brunswick County,
Columbus County, Bladen County, and Cumberland County were in a district
with two senators. So there was a rotation agreement that in the session
when the governor came in, that the senator elected in that year would
be from Cumberland and, it seems to me, like Bladen. I've forgotten now.
But anyhow, one of the other little counties. Then in the next session,
the rotation agreement, the Democratic nominee had to come one from this
county, one from the other county. So that you couldn't run to succeed
yourself unless you challenged what was clearly, in my opinion, an
unconstitutional provision. I gave some serious thought to trying to
break that, because I thought it was to my
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advantage to serve two or three terms in the Senate. But the more I
looked at it, the more I figured that it would take me longer to break
it than I could do anything with it. That I'd make enemies in Columbus
and everywhere that would probably offset any other advantage. That I
had had a pretty good flash in the Senate. I got a lot of attention and
did some good things.
[interruption] Well,
in any event, it wasn't long before Scott asked me to be his campaign
manager, and it became unimportant to run again. And I couldn't have
anyhow. But I was very lucky. If I'd have gone back again, I probably
wouldn't have done as well as I'd done the first time.