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Nunn absorbed politics by osmosis. His father, a lawyer and farmer, was mayor of Perry and a campaign manager for other, full-time politicians. His great-uncle was the legendary Carl Vinson, who served in the Congress for 50 years, 14 of those as the brook-no-dissent chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Politics, in other words, was everywhere.
After a brief stint as Uncle Carl's congressional counsel, Nunn returned to Perry and won election to the state house in 1968. Three years later his goal was to create a new congressional district, for which, naturally, he would run. But a man named Jimmy Carter was Governor, and Carter favored a different reapportionment scheme. Let down by Carter, whom he had supported for years, Nunn challenged the man Carter appointed to the U.S. Senate. "I was only 33 then," says Nunn, "a junior legislator. Even Uncle Carl said I couldn't win, but I felt I had to try. I gave up a seat I probably could have held forever and took a chance." And won.
That was in 1972, and Nunn proved then that he can play politics with the best of them. With Uncle Carl's help, Nunn visited Washington and was able to tell Georgians that if he was elected he would be put on the Armed Services Committee. I have "assurances," he said cryptically. By primary day, Nunn had the support of both arch-conservative Lester Maddox and black activist Julian Bond. After defeating Carter's man -- a Harvard-educated lawyer whom Nunn chided for being "too used to air-conditioned rooms in Eastern Ivy League schools" -- Nunn faced a conservative Republican in the general. The great coup, the stroke that many say put him over, was Nunn's enlistment of Alabama Governor George Wallace as a public supporter of his candidacy. Nunn's memory of that ploy is somewhat selective. "You have to keep the context in mind," says Nunn -- a "context" that also caused him to attack the "dictatorship created by lifetime tenure of federal judges." "After the primary," says Nunn, "Maddox was leaning toward supporting my Republican opponent, who was running an ad showing George McGovern with Coretta King over a line about how they were warming Georgia up for me. I counteracted that with Wallace. It was no big deal, and I didn't get involved in actually supporting Wallace for President."
Well, actually, Nunn was "talking up" Wallace for President -- and before the threat of Maddox's bolting was perceived. "Without George Wallace on the national ticket," said Nunn before the Senate primary, "the Democrats cannot win. I fervently hope he will be on the ticket."
Despite commendable work on race relations and the support of black liberals like Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, statements like these -- and a generally conservative voting record -- could cripple Nunn if he seeks the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. He considered running last year but pulled back primarily because his two children were still in school. "They'll have graduated by '92," says Bill Jerles, a Perry dentist and close friend. "Sam has those presidential thoughts in mind all the time."