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David Sholtz is a 46-year-old Brooklyn German who most surprisingly capped his career as President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce by getting himself elected Governor in 1932. In Tallahassee, Governor Sholtz's career was notable for the amiability he showed toward Florida horse and dog race-track owners. Following a series of articles written for Publisher Moe Annenberg's Miami Tribune by a onetime pressagent for Joseph E. Widener's Hialeah Park, named Ollie Gore, Florida's State Senate last May adopted a resolution for an investigation of the former Governor. It was killed by the House Resolutions Committee.
Florida Governors, like those of many Southern States, may not succeed themselves. Not in the least perturbed by his constituents' persistent curiosity about his personal bank account. Governor Sholtz reached a precipitous decision to run for the Senate last January, soon descended on the State with a retinue of press adviser and combined chauffeur & bodyguard.
Sholtz campaign schedule calls for half-a-dozen speeches a day—two in the morning, one at lunch, two in the afternoon, one at night. A sound truck with a 25-record library precedes him. Another accompanies him to broadcast his speech which lasts only 40 minutes, is always the same. Each of the three candidates by the time they stop touring next week, will have covered all the towns with over 500 population, in Florida's 67 counties. Driving between towns, diligent Candidate Sholtz makes a practice of stopping at every filling station, general store, to distribute his own campaign literature. Negroes cannot vote in Florida Democratic primaries bub whenever Dave Sholtz spies a white man on one of Florida's long, straight roads, he stops his car, gets out to say: "I'm Dave Sholtz. I want you to vote for me for Senator." It is said he could sell fur boots in Miami..
Sectionally, Dave Sholtz is weakest nearest .home, partly because of a row with Daytona Beach's lady mayor shortly before Sholtz left office in 1937. His votes will come from some of the State's industrialists and their hired help, remnants of his old machine and new friends picked up during his vigorous campaign.
Dave Sholtz on Franklin Roosevelt: "My good friend in the White House. . . . My good friend in the White House. ..."
Cracker Boy. Campaign literature which James Mark Wilcox distributes to his listeners includes a brochure modestly describing himself and his achievements. Excerpts: "Born in Willacoochee, Georgia, at the headwaters of Florida's Suwannee River on May 21, 1890. . . . Elected to Congress from the Fourth District in 1932; re-elected in 1934 and 1936. . . . Author of: 'Finance and Taxation Problems of Florida Municipalities.' ... He has frankly and sincerely opposed the Supreme Court Bill . . . the Black-Connery Bill ... the Reciprocal Trade Treaty with Cuba because of its injury to our Florida farmers. . . . Mark Wilcox is a cracker boy who has, by his ability, become an outstanding figure in the United States."