U.S. At War: Olson Out

California’s urbane, weary Governor Culbert Levy Olson was never happy in the State House. He bickered constantly with an opposition Legislature, the State’s press was solidly against him, he lost the support of many of his friends, including some potent labor leaders and dissatisfied Democratic Party workers. But after next Jan. 1, rich Culbert Olson can go back to his stately home in Los Angeles, where his German boxer dog Tony sits glumly on the white front porch, where the sheet music for his 1938 campaign song (He’s Olson) still graces his grand piano..

For Culbert Olson, running far behind on the Democratic ticket, was soundly trounced by bustling Republican Attorney General Earl Warren. Although there was hardly a crackpot candidate or crackpot issue in the campaign, it was still one of the nation’s liveliest. Comely Actress Helen Gahagan, Democratic National Committeewoman, shouted herself hoarse for Olson. Gregarious Actor Leo Carrillo, descendant of California’s first provisional Governor, added gags to humorless Earl Warren’s meetings. Typical Carrillo quip: introducing Warren to “my cousins” in the audience.

Olson and Warren tangled in one hot debate; both claimed they won. Californians preferred energetic Earl Warren to fumbling, wrangling Culbert Olson, whose administration had never come to grips with the State’s urgent problems.

Democrats held eleven House seats, Republicans tied them by gaining two (one is still to be decided by absentee ballots). The Olson defeat left able, chunky Robert Walker Kenny, 41, prosperous Los Angeles lawyer, national president of the Lawyers Guild, as the top Democrat in the State. Popular Bob Kenny, only Democrat elected to an important State office, succeeds Earl Warren as Attorney General. Democrats look to him to lead their Party’s resurgence.