The Augusta Courier

Bodenhamer's Race For Governorship

Backed By Czar Of "Liquor Interests"

Ty Ty Preacher Tries To Separate "Sheep From Goats" In Tifton Speech

A funny race for governor is shaping up in Georgia.

Reverend William T. Bodenhamer, pastor of the Baptist Church at Ty Ty, has resigned to become a candidate for governor against what he calls "a weak candidate".

The "weak candidate" is none other than Lieutenant Governor Ernest Vandiver.

The preacher is of a rather impractical and visionary type, otherwise he would not refer to the Lieutenant Governor as being a "weak candidate".

Hunted Unsuccessfully

The Griffin administration took out after Vandiver and combed the whole state with a fine-tooth comb to find a candidate who could successfully compete with the Lieutenant Governor. They first tried "Red" Williams, the State Revenue Commissioner, and decided that he couldn't draw enough water to be elected.

Then they had Roger Lawson, chairman of the highway board, to resign a year ago and with the announced intention of running against Vandiver. Lawson ran for nearly a year and finally gave up the ghost and announced that he would not be a candidate because he didn't think he could make the grade.

Then they put up a few lightning rods for Denmark Groover, of Macon, and lightning failed to strike any of his lightning rods.

Zack Flickered Out

He soon decided not to become a candidate.

Then, Zack Cravey, the Comptroller General of the State and long-time campaigner in the state, was trotted out for the view of the customers.

Zack's best friends advised him to stay where he is and the rest of the folks let it be known in no uncertain terms that they intended to support and back Ernest Vandiver.

Then they tried everybody else they thought would be interested.

The hunt continued and no one with any material strength, or political sagacity, was willing to become the sacrificial goat.

Then Came The Spite Boys

So, Vandiver was left with a clear field and no opposition.

Governor Griffin then announced to all of his friends that he was out of the governor's race and he was only concerned with trying to make a good governor and leaving a good reputation at the expiration of his term of office. He stated frankly time and time again that he was out of the governor's race.

But there were two or three public officials around the state capitol who literally hate Ernest Vandiver and are determined that he should not get by without opposition.

Blood Money For The Preacher

So, they found the preacher willing to quit his preaching and to start running for governor. These officials have the ability to raise some campaign funds out of the people who come within the jurisdiction of their own departments and for fear of having their heads chopped off, dare not contribute.

So, they were able to show the preacher how they could raise some campaign money and probably he could make more money during the summer running than he could preaching.

The preacher decided to run.

Now, the preacher has been rather close in with the Griffin administration and he thinks that the Griffin administration is a handicap to him.

Tut! Tut! Thou Too, Bill!

So, in a speech down at Tifton, Georgia, a few weeks ago he undertook to separate Governor Griffin from the other members of his administration in Atlanta. He stated that if elected he would put the "percentage people and influence peddlers around the capitol" out of business.

The only "percentage people and influence people around the capitol" during the Griffin administration are part and parcel of the Griffin administration and friends of the governor.

He also lit into the "liquor interests" and Bodenhamer's chief backer is the czar of the "liquor interests".

The preacher in his Tifton speech also blistered those whom he said have been "in the trough under the present administration . . . getting fat".

The Preacher Is One of Them

He also said that those members getting fat off the present administration have "stabbed the present administration in the back".

Since the preacher is a member of the Griffin administration, he probably knows better than we do which members of the Griffin administration have been getting fat.

All of the evidence available at the present time indicates that the influence peddlers and percentage people around the capitol and those who have been getting fat off the present administration are very close associates of the administration and brothers in the lodge with the preacher since he also is a member of the same administration.

Now, what he means by these peculiar statements it is hard for the average man to decipher.

But, old-time observers of the politics at the state capitol who have seen them come and go for the last forty years are somewhat in the position of the doctor. When they observe certain symptoms, they look for certain diseases.

These aberrations of the preacher are but symptoms of his undertaking to lead the people to believe that there are two groups in the present administration.

All Are Of The Same Litter

He is trying to create the impression that he and the governor are different from the rest of the administration. He's trying to leave the impression that neither he nor the governor have gotten fat and that it is the rest of the administration who have been getting "fat".

There are also symptoms that indicate that the people who are running the preacher are among the percentage people and the influence peddlers and have themselves been getting fat off the present administration.

Here Are The Reasons

The symptoms exhibited by the preacher would also indicate that the reason the influence peddlers, the percentage people, the members of the present administration who have been getting fat off the administration, are opposed to Ernest Vandiver is that they know three things.

These three things are:

1. They will get no percentage under Ernest Vandiver.

2. They will have no influence to peddle under Ernest Vandiver.

3. They won't get fat under Ernest Vandiver.

Now, these three facts explain the reason why the preacher is running.

The Preacher Sees Things

The preacher himself is a little visionary, most impractical, extremely ambitious and will show up to be nothing but a tool and a spokesman for those in the present administration who have been classified as percentage people, influence peddlers and have been getting fat.

In reading these symptoms, we are somewhat saddened when we come to the inevitable conclusion that the preacher is either so innocent he is having the wool pulled over his eyes or else he has been taken up on the mountain and shown the advantages of being one of the percentage boys, being an influence peddler and the comforts of being fat.

Then The Wreck

We prefer to believe that the preacher is naive and innocent and a political virgin.

If he stays in this race under the present auspices when he finishes the race he will neither be naive, innocent, nor a virgin.

The preacher would do himself a great service should he return to Ty Ty and continue his ministry among the good people of that fine community.

How To Learn The Hard Way

Bill is going to find out that his opponent is not a "weak candidate". He's going to find him the strongest candidate who ever ran for governor in Georgia.

He is going to find that Ernest Vandiver will have the backing of practically every political faction and political group in Georgia, with the exception of the present palace guard around the state capitol.

He's going to find that those who have been leading the fight for the last ten to fifteen years to maintain the pattern of segregation and the county unit system in Georgia are the ones who have been backing Ernest Vandiver now for three years in his race for governor and who will continue to back him until they see him elected and installed as the next governor of Georgia.