AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

6. Political Shake-Up

Chapter 6 POLITICAL SHAKE-UP THE 1956 ELECTION YEAR was a politically exciting time in West Virginia. Democrats turned testy while Republicans shouted with glee when Cecil Harland Underwood was elected as the state's twenty-fifth governor. Such behavior was understandable. Underwood was the first Republican in twentyfour years to be elected to the state's highest office. Opinions as to why this surprising event occurred, in the face of an overwhelmingly Democratic voter registration, varied widely. The presence of incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also a Republican, on the same ballot was certainly an advantage for Underwood. Many credited Underwood's low-key charm and charisma as well as his unblemished background as the primary factors in his election. Others said voters simply rebelled against the quality of the candidates offered by a party that had controlled the West Virginia electoral process for so long. The average voter could identify with Underwood. He had started life as a farmer's son and had worked his way through college to earn a degree in education, eventually becoming vice president of a small Christian college. He had been the legislature's most vocal advocate of budgetary restraint for a dozen years when he entered the race for governor. By contrast, his opponent, U.S. Representative Robert H. Mollohan, had gotten his hands soiled in a coal-mining venture. While serving as head of the Industrial School for Boys at Pruntytown, where his responsibility was the rehabilitation of wayward youths, Mollohan had personally benefited when a private coal company began strip-mining operations on school lands. POLITICAL SHAKE-UP 57 In his analysis of this election four years later, WVU political science professor William R. Ross wondered "whether the Republicans won the election in West Virginia in 1956 or whether the Democrats simply lost it ... " Regardless of who won and who lost, the '56 election was a political classic . Mollohan, as personable as Underwood, was a u.s. Congressman with the power and influence of the Statehouse machine behind him. He was also labor's choice in this heavily unionized state. Underwood, on the other hand, was relatively unknown. His only claim to fame was several years of service as minority leader in the House of Delegates . But after the business community lost its chosen candidate, Howard Myers, in the primary, it swung behind Underwood with all of its force and power. Even one of its most respected spokesmen, former Democratic Governor Holt, then a senior partner in one of the state's largest corporate law firms, publicly endorsed the young legislator. The Republican leadership planned its strategy well. Waiting for the best possible moment to strike out at Mollohan in the closing days of the campaign, it took its best shot, the Boys' School strip-mine deal, to the Gazette, a newspaper of independent Democratic allegiance, rather than to the staunchly Republican Daily Mail. The Gazette broke the story with big, bold headlines, quoting Republican State Chairman Jack Hoblitzell who claimed to have documented proof that Underwood's opponent had received more than twenty thousand dollars in exchange for his "influence" in helping Grafton Coal Company obtain stripping rights on state-owned land. Hoblitzell produced three checks as a basis for his charge, and pointed out that Mollohan had been superintendent of the school when they were written. Mollohan denied the charges, but the Gazette did a follow-up stringer on his relationship to Grafton Coal during his tenure at the school. By election morning even the UMW's leadership had grown red-faced as a result of Mollohan's eventual admission that he had been an officer of Grafton Coal. In 1950s labor circles, the UMW had been found guilty of the worst of hypocrisies , endorsing a former coal company executive. 58 CHAPTER SIX Underwood's victory was decisive. He outpaced Mollohan by 63,381 votes, and by winning office at the age of thirty-four he bested Marland's record as the youngest governor in the state's history. UNDERWOOD WAS INAUGURATED on January 14, 1957. Snow had fallen the night before and it was cold and brisk as he took the oath of office before a gathering of well-wishers in front of the Capitol. With nature so uncooperative, the affair was less festive than his fellow Republicans had hoped it would be after waiting on the sidelines for a quarter century. In his inaugural...