Early Twitchings

With preliminary grunts, tentative shouts and nervous harumphs, the nation's politicos shook off the winter's torpor. Most active were those in the South, where the Democratic primaries are the only elections worth winning. But everywhere last week, there were twitchings in the body politic:

P: In Alabama, eleven candidates had declared for Big Jim Folsom's job (Alabama governors may not succeed themselves). Most conspicuous were Judge Elbert Boozer, who moves about with a $20,000 trailer built as a replica of the state capitol, complete with desks, radio telephones and a copper dome raised and lowered pneumatically; Eugene ("Bull") Connor, Birmingham's police commissioner, whose political views are enshrined in his remark: "I ain't going to let no darkies and white folks segregate together in this town"; and Gordon Persons, Public Service Commission chairman, who will campaign by helicopter.

In Georgia, a disorganized opposition to Governor Herman Talmadge included a 400-lb. state representative named C. O. ("Fat") Baker and a pretty, public nurse who once won a county election with the slogan: "You kiss the babies, I'll put their diapers on." Former Acting Governor Melvin E. Thompson was also in the running early (the Atlanta Constitution commented: "fustest with the leastest."). P: In Florida, Senator Claude Pepper was in the fight of his long political life with young (36) Congressman George A. Smathers. A personable war veteran with the backing of conservative money, Smathers centered his attack on Pepper's support of the welfare state and his sponsorship of the Townsend Plan ("a better plan than the social security act," says Pepper).

P: In Michigan, young (39) Governor G. Mennen ("Soapy") Williams, determined to succeed himself, was mixing with the common folk and earning a reputation as the best square-dance caller ever to stand alongside a fiddler ("Lady go gee, Gent go haw, Right allemande, just Pa and Ma"). Williams danced the polka with the Poles in Hamtramck, the czardas with the Hungarians in Ecorse. The Republicans, a bit breathless, felt a good deal like wallflowers. P: In California, Jimmy Roosevelt wound up a two-week "dry run" in his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor. On street corners in 51 Northern California towns, lanky Jimmy had tilted his head, flashed the family grin, hacked away at the Republicans' Governor Earl Warren. Orated Jimmy: "Thanks to my father and mother, I feel I've had the soundest possible political training."

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