"Hello, Down There"

A dozen cotton choppers on an East Texas farm dropped their hoes and hightailed it for the piney woods. One of those crazy flying machines that stand still in the air was right on top of them. But they stopped dead when the thing yelled at them: "Hello, down there. This is Lyndon Johnson, candidate for the U.S. Senate, dropping in to say good morning."

Long Lyndon Johnson, one of Texas' most ebullient Congressmen, had introduced the first new gimmick in Texas politics* since the hillbilly band and the free barbecue. Leapfrogging all over the state in his helicopter, he hoped to make a three-point landing in the seat which "Pappy" O'Daniel, the demagogue from Fort Worth, would vacate next January.

Out in the bottoms and the back country, the Johnson City Windmill (named for Lyndon's home town) wowed the citizenry. Campaign workers raced ahead in cars to meeting places, strewing literature along the way. Johnson hovered over small towns, urging people to follow him. Over Forney he cried: "How's the gang in Adams' drugstore?" In Omaha he took Mayor Jack Vaughn, a young exmarine, up for a ride, gave him a chance to make a political speech of his own.

Johnson, a longtime New Dealer and favorite of Franklin Roosevelt ("He was just like a daddy to me"), told the farmers what they wanted to hear: if elected, he would get them plenty of farm-to-market roads, keep farm prices up, bring in more rural electrification. He was for a big Army, Navy and Air Force, aid to Europe, and more money for Texas schools.

Johnson would run against ten other candidates in the July 24 Democratic primary. His most formidable opponent was 60-year-old ex-Governor Coke ("Calculatin' Coke") Stevenson, a conservative states-rights man. Coke's supporters offered to put him into a plane, too, but Coke replied, after a hard bite on his pipestem: "No, thanks. I'll keep my campaign down to earth."

*But not new elsewhere: in New Jersey in 1946, H. Alexander Smith campaigned successfully by helicopter for re-election to the Senate.

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