Sid Salter
- Columnist Sid Salter reflects on the family of the former State Auditor who became the first Mississippi statewide elected official to change parties from Democrat to Republican.
The death last week of Patrick Hayes “Pete” Johnson of Clarksdale at age 76 brings to mind a very capable, affable and decent man whose life story chronicled an almost gothic illustration of how much Mississippi politics has changed over the last century – and then again, how much it really hasn’t changed.
Pete was at first blush everything he appeared to be – a successful Delta banker, lawyer and financial planner, a solid husband and father, and a young man filled with political aspirations and a strong work ethic.
And why not? His grandfather, Paul Burney Johnson, Sr., served as Mississippi’s governor from 1940 through 1943. Like the legendary James Oliver “Big Jim” Eastland – who Johnson appointed to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy after Mississippi U.S. Sen. Pat Harrison died in office in 1941.
Johnson and Eastland shared a connection to Scott County and the Hillsboro community. Eastland is buried in Forest’s Eastern Cemetery. Eastland’s first elective office was as a state representative from Scott County in 1928-32.
Eastland was defeated in the ensuing special election by Wall Doxey, but Eastland unseated Doxey in 1942 for a full Senate term and held the seat until his retirement in 1978. During the long reign of the Democratic Party in Mississippi, Eastland was considered by many the “godfather” of politics in the state.
Johnson, Sr., served as a Mississippi congressman in 1919-23, and while there was said to have been a friend and confidante of future President Franklin Roosevelt.
The elder Johnson was also notable for a long and bitter feud with Jackson Daily News Editor Major Fred Sullens. Sullens frequently savaged Johnson in his front page newspaper column in the JDN: “The Lowdown on Higher Ups.”
In the lobby of The Walthall Hotel on Capitol Street in Jackson in the spring of 1940, the story goes that Gov. Johnson caned Editor Sullens in the back of the head. The May 13, 1940 edition of Time Magazine chronicled the fracas as follows:
“Quick as a flash Johnson cracked Sullens across the back of his head with a cane, and blood splattered everywhere. The editor whirled, knocked away the cane, and pitched the 6 ft. 3 in., 195 lb., 60-year-old Governor across a chair, smashing it, dropped astride him, landing furious rights and lefts in his face. The embattled editor was hauled off, and trumpeting that it was ‘a cowardly attempt to assassinate me from the rear,’ was rushed to the hospital for scalp stitches. The Governor was put to bed at the Executive Mansion a block away.
“Next day the editor snorted in his front-page column: ‘When you help to overturn a man’s applecart, wreck his gravy train, expose his motives and frustrate his purposes, it is but natural for him to be indignant about it. However, . . . not even a rattlesnake will attack without warning.”
Some 20 years later, Paul Burney Johnson, Jr., Pete Johnson’s uncle, was elected governor of Mississippi from 1964-68, running on the slogan “Stand Tall With Paul!” The slogan was an attempt to paint himself as defending Ole Miss during the integration of Ole Miss by James Meredith in 1962. The slogan was related to a photo that purported to show then Lt. Gov. Paul Johnson, Jr., raising his fist to the federal marshals.
But Democratic primary opponent and former Gov. J.P. Coleman had an ad of his own with another photo from the same meeting which showed Johnson shaking hands with the federal marshals in Oxford. The advertisement read: “When the fist came down, the hand went out and Meredith went in.” Still, the voters elected Johnson, Jr.
Running like his forebears as a Democrat, Pete Johnson was elected Mississippi’s state auditor in 1987. He served ably and without controversy. During that term, Johnson became the first Mississippi statewide elected official to change parties from Democrat to Republican. He was considered the favorite for the GOP nomination to take on incumbent Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus in 1991.
But an unknown lifelong Republican contractor from Vicksburg named Kirk Fordice entered the race against Johnson. The GOP primary was a tight race with vote-rich Rankin County ground zero. The candidates battled almost house-to-house for votes, but Fordice prevailed. One of his most tireless campaign volunteers was a young former deputy sheriff named Phil Bryant.
