Oklahoma: Life Begins at 37

“I doubt that I’ll ever seek public office again,” Oklahoma’s Democratic Governor J. Howard Edmondson sourly told a reporter. “I’ve had enough.” But that was several months ago. Last week Edmondson, 37, showed just how completely he had changed his mind. Only eight days before he was to give way to the first Republican Governor in Oklahoma history, Edmondson resigned from office, had his lieutenant governor name him to the U.S. Senate vacancy caused by the death of Robert Kerr.

In his four years as Governor, Edmondson managed to become about as unpopular a chief executive as Oklahoma ever had. On taking office, he kept his campaign promise to end Oklahoma’s half-century of Prohibition; that enraged the state’s substantial dry minority. He set up a withholding system for state income tax and a merit system for state employees, pushed for legislative reapportionment and a dilution of the powers of county commissioners. Such reforms did not endear him to the regular Democratic organization.

Beyond all that, many Oklahomans became suspicious of Edmondson’s personal ways. He preferred Scotch and soda to bourbon and water. Although admittedly broke when he became Governor, he built himself a $70,000 home, borrowing most of the money on his future potential as a lawyer. On a visit to Chicago last year, he was arrested for speeding; a local TV weather girl was with him at the time. He made no bones about favoring his political pals with lucrative state jobs, said matter-of-factly: “The money is there to hand out, and I’m sure not going to give it to my enemies.” He became a favorite of Bobby Kennedy’s, traveled several times to Washington to visit with the clan; at one party, he was even dunked in the famed swimming pool along with his dance partner, Mrs. Pierre Salinger.

Banned by the state constitution from seeking reelection, blamed by many Democrats for wrecking the party to the point that Republican Henry Bellmon was elected Governor, Edmondson thus had considerable cause to talk about retiring from politics. But Kerr’s death enabled him to prolong his political career for at least two more years, when he must go to the voters. Among those already announced against him: Kerr’s son, Robert Jr., 36, an Oklahoma City attorney.