Interview with Gaylord Nelson, March 25, 1985

Partial Transcript: Born and raised in Clear Lake, Wisconsin. Father a country doctor and strong La Follette supporter. Mother politically active at a time when a few women were. Father chairman of Polk County Progressive Party; supported Democrats nationally, including Woodrow Wilson.

Partial Transcript: On the way home his father asked him if he thought he would get into politics. He responded that he would like to, “but I was afraid that Bob La Follette would solve all the problems before I got old enough; and then there wouldn't be anything for me to do.” In 1958, his father, just days before his death, asked, “'Do you think that Bob La Follette left enough problems behind for you to tackle now that you're running for governor?'”

Partial Transcript: Also passed literature, etc.

Partial Transcript: Always Democrats at the national level.

Partial Transcript: The La Follettes picked the progressive Republican slate to run against the Stalwarts. The Republican primary winners were virtually assured of winning the general election, except in a few heavily Democratic areas in Milwaukee.

Partial Transcript: “They never were Republicans.” In 1932, the La Follettes endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Albert Schmedeman, as did Nelson's father.

Partial Transcript: “I was with the La Follette progressives.”

Partial Transcript: The Progressives had done so poorly in 1944, “they barely got on the ballot.... So they had to do something.” Nelson's father was chairman of the Polk County delegation to the 1946 Progressive convention. The delegation was instructed first, to keep the Progressive Party; second, that failing, to go to the Democrats; and “thirdly and most importantly, do whatever young Bob La Follette says.”

Partial Transcript: Had not really spent much time in Polk County for eleven years, because of college and the army, but “I still came very close in that election.... By the time the election came, I didn't care whether I won or not because the Beggs and Lawton law firm had invited me to come down to Madison. That's where I wanted to go anyway.”

Partial Transcript: Some have speculated that the Progressives would have joined the Democrats if Bob La Follette had remained silent.

Partial Transcript: Went to college at Eau Claire for a short time on a basketball “athletic scholarship” and lived with the coach. Switched to River Falls during his first semester and stayed there only a few weeks. Returned home. Worked on WPA projects the rest of that school year. Then went to San Jose State where his sister had gone and where his aunt taught. Returned home each summer. Graduated 1939. Other than some peace activities, very little politics at San Jose State. “But when I went to Madison, there sure was.” On the Madison campus, the Young Progressive Club was the largest, followed by the Young Democrats, and then the Young Communist League. Nelson was president of the Young Progressive Club in 1940. Had maybe 350 members. Monthly speakers. Remembers Andy Biemiller speaking once on health insurance, “socialized medicine.” Got involved in campaigns. With Miles McMillin, Roland Day, and John Lawton, he campaigned for Bob La Follette and Paul Alfonsi in 1940.

Partial Transcript: Wallace's son was an officer of the Young Democrats and also a member of the Young Progressive Club. “When Wallace was coming, we wanted to be sure that that big showing for him had a good La Follette input.” Young Progressive Club handled the literature for the event; put La Follette literature inside all the Wallace literature and placed it on every seat in the Stock Pavillion. State Democratic ticket walked off the platform when they could not convince Wallace to delete praise of the “great La Follette tradition.” Young Democrats Nelson knew were “Roosevelt Democrats” but they did not like La Follette because his presence prevented a strong Democratic party in the state.

Partial Transcript: Old Bob's widow had a role in stopping Sol Levitan's ambitions for the Progressive gubernatorial nomination, according to Levitan's biography.

Partial Transcript: People other than the La Follettes' hand-picked candidates would run in the Progressive primary. “But they did have a very powerful voice and their support was very important.”

Partial Transcript: Gaylord not in attendance, but did sell some NPA buttons.

Partial Transcript: Returned to Wisconsin in June 1946. Was on the Progressive Republican slate for Assembly, and was defeated in the primary by a stalwart Republican. Subsequently joined Lawton and Beggs law firm in Madison. Was always a Roosevelt Democrat. "If the La Follettes weren't going to have a Progressive movement, there wasn't a home for us in the Republican party." Bob Tehan as Democratic National Committeeman was a "vital force" in seeking and inviting Progressives to take over the Democratic party. Julia Boegholt was also very active as Committeewoman.

Partial Transcript: Floyd Wheeler was the presumed candidate; but he and his law partner, Norris Maloney, decided that would constitute a conflict of interest since they represented all the Rural Electric Cooperatives in the state and there was a lot of legislation pertaining to them. Nelson, with several of his friends, drew up petitions asking him (Nelson) to run. “A fairly transparent proposition.”

Partial Transcript: Defeated his opponent for attorney general because of the latter's public intoxication.

Partial Transcript: Progressives ran in the Republican primary in 1946 in Dane County and won. Democrats tried to get state senator Fred Risser to run as a Democrat in 1948, but he stayed with the Republicans since his fellow Progressives had won as Republicans two years previous. Bill Evjue, editor of the Capital Times, repudiated Risser because he would not run as a Democrat, even though Risser's record in the Capital Times roll call was excellent. Miles McMillin wrote Nelson's news releases, then wrote stories based on the news releases, “and then he'd write an editorial endorsing what I said.” Narrowly won on the coattails of gubernatorial candidate Carl Thompson and presidential candidate Harry Truman. Did not expect to win. In Dane County the Democratic slate in 1948 wiped out the Republican slate of former Progressives who had been elected in 1946, except for the clerk of courts. Nelson ran in 1948 because “It was an opportunity. I was interested in running for office.” Also, “a lot of the key people in pane County who really counted were friends of mine, who were active--Lawton and McMillin and Esther Kaplan and my sister Janet Lee....” No one else was very interested because Risser looked unbeatable.

Partial Transcript: “Roosevelt was doing everything the Progressives were advocating. And the national issues were so dominant.” Weakened by not having a presidential candidate to head the ticket every other election.

Partial Transcript: Nelson served as co-chair because chairman Jerry Fox “didn't want to be out organizing. I wasn't interested in patronage.” Fox and Bob Tehan “were trying to get rid of the influence of the old conversative Democrats. So they made me co-chairman with Jerry Fox, and he'd handle patronage and me organization.” Apparently Henry Maier was also considered for co-chair. DOC was formed “to organize the state.”

Partial Transcript: Nelson recalls a meeting at the home of Julia Boegholt with Tehan, McMillin, and probably Fairchild also in attendance. Tehan was calling long distance to come up with “prestigeful names” to fill the slate. “And then I heard Tehan say, 'Yes, yes. I can guarantee you you won't win.'”

Partial Transcript: Generally were only interested in patronage. President Roosevelt allotted half the patronage jobs to Democrats and half to Progressives, and the Democrats did not like that. Most remained inactive after 1948, but most liked what was happening in the party “because for the first time they were becoming a credible party.”

Partial Transcript: Nelson very active in this. Party paid for his gasoline. “...For all practical purposes, Dane county ran the organizing of the state.” “The women in Dane county were a vital part of it all.... They got out the mail. They did all the nitty-gritty work.” There were people outstate who were active in their own areas, but the people who were organizing things statewide were from Dane County. For the most part, the local contacts were former Progressives. Nelson estimates he visited half of Wisconsin's counties doing this organizing work.

Partial Transcript: Selected by the delegates to the national convention. Later changed so that they were elected by the state convention.

Partial Transcript: The enthusiasm stands out in Nelson's mind. “A whale of a convention.” Nelson knew almost every person there. Twenty years later he only knew about twenty percent of the delegates to a convention.

Partial Transcript: “Wisconsin is a volunteer state. Patronage is of no consequence.” This is better than states where the governor makes many appointments. “Volunteers are there because they believed and they philosophically shared a viewpoint of the party. And therefore they organize and work and are enthusiastic. And you can no way buy that.”

Partial Transcript: When Nelson was first elected to the state senate, there were so few Democrats, sometimes there was no Democrat available to second his motion for a roll call. Proposed legislation, debated the issues. “If something good came along, that was good politics, the Republicans would take it, steal it, of course, because they had every committee chair.”

Partial Transcript: Discussion of and anecdotes about the Army's segregation.

Partial Transcript: Would introduce bills which Republicans would bottle up in committee, thereby giving the Democrats campaign issues. “That kind of trench warfare went on for a long time.”

Partial Transcript: Four people ran. “A gambler's chance--Wiley's up, the party's growing, and a crack at the U.S. Senate.” “Dan Hoan was a good old warhorse who just liked to get into campaigns, talk his philosophy.”

Partial Transcript: Nelson did not want to run because he was up for election as state senator and did not think a Democrat could win the U.S. Senate seat. There was a poll of the party to determine a preferred candidate. Eddie Mesheski in Milwaukee had the ballot box and “for some reason or another, nobody could get him to open it up.”

Partial Transcript: Eventually the results of the poll leaked, with Nelson or Fairchild as the winner. Dane County people favored Fairchild over Henry Reuss, who had announced his candidacy. Fairchild finally announced at the last minute and there was a furious effort to get his nomination papers signed. There were only about four days in which to get the papers printed, circulated, and filed. In the general election, Nelson was surprised that Fairchild beat McCarthy so strongly in the.heavily Catholic south side of Milwaukee. Nelson preferred Fairchild over Reuss because Reuss at that time “didn't have any reputation statewide.... We were looking for prestigeful people and names.” Fairchild was obviously the strongest candidate. Anecdote about a campaign fundraising event in Milwaukee. “I counted it up. It was tremendous. Jerry Fox says, '...I've been around a long time. Just cut it in half.' And he was right.... We got half of what everybody promised.”

Partial Transcript: Corcoran, a lumberman in Burnett County, seemed to be the only prominent Democrat at the time who had a lot of money. Nelson was visiting Corcoran once when Bob Tehan called and Corcoran agreed over the phone to give one thousand dollars to pay a particular party bill. Corcoran “appointed all the precinct people in his county. Just appointed them. Everyone of them then was a woman on the grounds that they'd do some work and their husbands wouldn't.” For the state convention, Corcoran would rent a bus for them and also pay for their rooms. Corcoran had Nelson speak to a dinner he had for the party workers in his county. He took over a steak house for the evening; dinner and all drinks were on him. Nelson was impressed with the check for six hundred fifty dollars that Corcoran wrote out to pay for the evening. He gave ten thousand dollars to the 1932 Roosevelt campaign. “A very intelligent and a very gracious gentleman.” Never finished high school.

Partial Transcript: Ben Saltzstein of Milwaukee, “an active, interested Democrat and a man of considerable means.” John Reynold's father-in-law, the founder of Thorp Finance.

Partial Transcript: Warren Sawall, Horace Wilkie, Miles McMillin, Jim Doyle, and Nelson “would kind of follow Joe as a 'Truth Squad.'” Anecdote about McCarthy speaking in La Crosse and the “Truth Squad” stationed outside with a loudspeaker “exposing McCarthy's record. And the only thing that ever happened is people came up there who were on McCarthy's side to denounce us.” Nelson was not involved in the “Joe Must Go” movement.

Partial Transcript: Nelson opposed pre-primary endorsements. Wiley was re-elected in 1956 in large part because his party had repudiated him by endorsing Glenn Davis. The party preferred Davis because he was more conservative. Famous photograph of Wiley and his wife dejectedly leaving the Republican convention after the endorsement of Davis. That photo, which appeared on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal, won Wiley many votes. Also, Davis made some mistakes, like attacking Wiley for promoting the purchase of Israel bonds. This outraged many Jews so much that Democrats crossed over and voted in the Republican primary in order to defeat Davis; Esther Kaplan is an example of this. “That was one of the arguments against endorsement.... Who is the party to tell the public who the candidates should be?” Example of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party in Minnesota attempting to repudiate an incumbent by endorsing someone else; backfired. Nelson also had a practical reason for opposing endorsements. “The Capital Times was just wild against endorsement and they were my best supporters. So I wasn't going to take them on.... There was never a serious possibility that the Democrats would engage in pre-primary endorsements.”