At Large

Former Alabama governor Albert Brewer speaks at a Rotary Club meeting at Indian Hills Golf Club in Northport, Ala. Tuesday, December 9.

(Dusty Compton / Tuscaloosa News)

Published: Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, December 12, 2008 at 10:12 p.m.

Those of a certain age and political predilection remember the 1978 campaign for governor of Alabama in which 'The Three Bs' were supposed to fight it out for the highest office in the state.

They were former governor Albert Brewer, Attorney Gen. Bill Baxley and Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley, all Democrats, of course, in those days of the 'Solid South.'

But a funny thing happened on the way to the governor's mansion that year. A pug-nosed former Auburn football player with no political experience but plenty of money made by inventing vinyl-coated barbells came out of nowhere to beat all three of them. That would be Fob James, who was also elected governor again, this time as a Republican, in 1994.

Baxley, who lost to James in the '78 runoff, and Beasley would remain active in elective politics for several more years (they are both very successful trial lawyers now), but for Brewer, that race was his last hurrah in partisan politics.

However, Brewer, 82, has remained active in the political and civic life of Alabama. For the past few years he has been the Distinguished Professor of Law and Government and professor emeritus at Samford University, where he also served as chairman of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, the state's first nonpartisan think tank.

For those of an even older age and passion for politics, however, Brewer's 1970 race for governor against George Wallace, who had run his wife in his stead in 1966 because Wallace was constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term, will be remembered as one of the seminal campaigns in Alabama history, not to mention one of the dirtiest. Yes, even more so than the ones Karl Rove ran for judicial candidates in the 1990s.

Brewer, who had been something of a protege of Wallace's when he was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1954 and had worked well with him as lieutenant governor, led Wallace in the three-man '70 Democratic primary.

But in the runoff, which was tantamount to victory in those days, Wallace, who had already run for president once and needed Montgomery's Goat Hill as a power base, threw everything he had at the always courtly former attorney from Decatur.

I had Brewer in our studios earlier this week for a Town Hall segment for our Web site. Although he was in town to talk to the Rotary Club about the current state of affairs in Alabama politics, I felt I had to ask him about that 1970 runoff, for the historical record if nothing else.

Brewer said 'you don't have a choice' in coming to terms with an experience like the one 38 years ago, but added, 'I never dwelled on it.

'After it was over, it was over and it was time to move on to something else.'

He did admit, however, 'that we knew if Wallace made race an issue, we'd lose — there was no way to out-Wallace Wallace on that issue' and that once the runoff began Wallace 'pulled out all the stops.'

Bill Stewart, former chair of the political science department at the University of Alabama, where he is also a professor emeritus, filled in some of the more graphic details of that infamous runoff, even using some of the same terms.

'Oh yeah, I remember that campaign very well,' Stewart said last week. 'There was a rumor campaign that Brewers' daughters had been impregnated by blacks, which at that time was about as bad as it got for some people.

'But then he [Wallace] also ran ads in the newspapers across the state saying don't let the ‘black bloc vote' choose our next governor because Alabama would change to something we wouldn't even recognize,' he said. 'He pulled out all the racial stops.'

Stewart, who is working on a book about contemporary Alabama politics, said in his research he ran across a recent publication by Kerwin C. Swint titled 'Mudslingers,' and subtitled 'The Top 25 Negative Political Campaigns of All Time.'

'The book gave the 1970 Wallace-Brewer race the dubious distinction of being the dirtiest campaign in American history,' he said.

Yes, dirtier than the Jesse Helms-Harvey Gantt 'white hands' North Carolina Senate race in 1990, the Edwin Edwards-David Duke 'Vote for the Crook — It's Important' 1991 governor's race in Louisiana, and even the George W. Bush-John McCain 'he's got a black baby out of wedlock, you know' Republican presidential primary in South Carolina in 2000.

Wallace's tactics against Brewer worked in that racially polarized era and he won the runoff, although by less than 1 percent. That sent Wallace on to another run at the presidency and to that parking lot in Laurel, Md., where he was gunned down in 1972 by Arthur Bremer. The race-baiting, 'segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,' Wallace was confined to a wheelchair and was in almost constant pain until his death in 1998.

But for one twist of fate that did not have to be Wallace's destiny — nor that of Brewer, Alabama, and the rest of the nation, where President Richard M. Nixon adopted many of Wallace's tactics into the 'Southern Strategy' that flipped the South from solid Democratic to almost uniformly Republican, Stewart said.

'There was a third candidate in that 1970 primary — Charles Woods, of Dothan,' he said. 'He got barely enough votes to sent it into a runoff, but I believe if it had just been between Brewer and Wallace, Brewer would have won.'

<p>Those of a certain age and political predilection remember the 1978 campaign for governor of Alabama in which 'The Three Bs' were supposed to fight it out for the highest office in the state.</p><p>They were former governor Albert Brewer, Attorney Gen. Bill Baxley and Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley, all Democrats, of course, in those days of the 'Solid South.'</p><p>But a funny thing happened on the way to the governor's mansion that year. A pug-nosed former Auburn football player with no political experience but plenty of money made by inventing vinyl-coated barbells came out of nowhere to beat all three of them. That would be Fob James, who was also elected governor again, this time as a Republican, in 1994.</p><p>Baxley, who lost to James in the '78 runoff, and Beasley would remain active in elective politics for several more years (they are both very successful trial lawyers now), but for Brewer, that race was his last hurrah in partisan politics.</p><p>However, Brewer, 82, has remained active in the political and civic life of Alabama. For the past few years he has been the Distinguished Professor of Law and Government and professor emeritus at Samford University, where he also served as chairman of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, the state's first nonpartisan think tank.</p><p>For those of an even older age and passion for politics, however, Brewer's 1970 race for governor against George Wallace, who had run his wife in his stead in 1966 because Wallace was constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term, will be remembered as one of the seminal campaigns in Alabama history, not to mention one of the dirtiest. Yes, even more so than the ones Karl Rove ran for judicial candidates in the 1990s.</p><p>Brewer, who had been something of a protege of Wallace's when he was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1954 and had worked well with him as lieutenant governor, led Wallace in the three-man '70 Democratic primary.</p><p>But in the runoff, which was tantamount to victory in those days, Wallace, who had already run for president once and needed Montgomery's Goat Hill as a power base, threw everything he had at the always courtly former attorney from Decatur.</p><p>I had Brewer in our studios earlier this week for a Town Hall segment for our Web site. Although he was in town to talk to the Rotary Club about the current state of affairs in Alabama politics, I felt I had to ask him about that 1970 runoff, for the historical record if nothing else.</p><p>Brewer said 'you don't have a choice' in coming to terms with an experience like the one 38 years ago, but added, 'I never dwelled on it.</p><p>'After it was over, it was over and it was time to move on to something else.'</p><p>He did admit, however, 'that we knew if Wallace made race an issue, we'd lose  there was no way to out-Wallace Wallace on that issue' and that once the runoff began Wallace 'pulled out all the stops.'</p><p>Bill Stewart, former chair of the political science department at the University of Alabama, where he is also a professor emeritus, filled in some of the more graphic details of that infamous runoff, even using some of the same terms.</p><p>'Oh yeah, I remember that campaign very well,' Stewart said last week. 'There was a rumor campaign that Brewers' daughters had been impregnated by blacks, which at that time was about as bad as it got for some people.</p><p>'But then he [Wallace] also ran ads in the newspapers across the state saying don't let the black bloc vote' choose our next governor because Alabama would change to something we wouldn't even recognize,' he said. 'He pulled out all the racial stops.'</p><p>Stewart, who is working on a book about contemporary Alabama politics, said in his research he ran across a recent publication by Kerwin C. Swint titled 'Mudslingers,' and subtitled 'The Top 25 Negative Political Campaigns of All Time.'</p><p>'The book gave the 1970 Wallace-Brewer race the dubious distinction of being the dirtiest campaign in American history,' he said.</p><p>Yes, dirtier than the Jesse Helms-Harvey Gantt 'white hands' North Carolina Senate race in 1990, the Edwin Edwards-David Duke 'Vote for the Crook  It's Important' 1991 governor's race in Louisiana, and even the George W. Bush-John McCain 'he's got a black baby out of wedlock, you know' Republican presidential primary in South Carolina in 2000.</p><p>Wallace's tactics against Brewer worked in that racially polarized era and he won the runoff, although by less than 1 percent. That sent Wallace on to another run at the presidency and to that parking lot in Laurel, Md., where he was gunned down in 1972 by Arthur Bremer. The race-baiting, 'segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,' Wallace was confined to a wheelchair and was in almost constant pain until his death in 1998.</p><p>But for one twist of fate that did not have to be Wallace's destiny  nor that of Brewer, Alabama, and the rest of the nation, where President Richard M. Nixon adopted many of Wallace's tactics into the 'Southern Strategy' that flipped the South from solid Democratic to almost uniformly Republican, Stewart said.</p><p>'There was a third candidate in that 1970 primary  Charles Woods, of Dothan,' he said. 'He got barely enough votes to sent it into a runoff, but I believe if it had just been between Brewer and Wallace, Brewer would have won.'</p><p>A twist of fate, indeed.</p><p></p><p>Reach Tommy Stevenson at tommy. stevenson@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0194.</p>