By campaigning against the hypocrisy of Oklahoma's prohibition law, Tulsa's redheaded, young (then 32) J. Howard Edmondson won the 1958 gubernatorial runoff primary, brashly upset the Dry-favored candidate slated by the old guard Democratic machine. Elected Governor, he got prohibition repealed by referendum, went on to push for such general reform measures as legislative reapportionment, a patronage-free highway committee, a merit system for state employees. Still popular with the voters, he might have won most of his proposals had he not continued to snub the old political hands and to make a big to-do about his cabinet full of novices in...
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