C. C. Aycock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (January 13, 1915–January 6, 1987), a conservative Democrat from Franklin in St. Mary Parish, was the only three-term lieutenant governor in modern Louisiana history. He served from 1960-1972. Very few lieutenant governors in Louisiana have moved directly by election to the governorship; one exception is current Democratic Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. Aycock in fact failed miserably in his only bid for governor in the 1971 Democratic primary.

Aycock was born in Franklin to Clarence A. Aycock and the former Inez Crask. He received his law degree in 1937 from Loyola University in New Orleans. He won the Bronze Star while serving in Europe in World War II. He practiced law in Franklin.

In 1945, Aycock married the former Elaine Champagne. They had six children.

Contents 1 Speaker of the Louisiana House, 1952 2 Election as lieutenant governor, 1960 & 1964 3 Endorsing Goldwater for president, 1964 4 McKeithen blocks Aycock's aspirations, 1967 5 Running for governor, 1971 6 Aycock remembered 7 Trivia 8 References

[edit] Speaker of the Louisiana House, 1952

Aycock was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1952 and, though a freshman member, was tapped by incoming Governor Robert F. Kennon as his choice for Speaker. In Louisiana, House Speakers routinely have the recommendation of the governor regardless of the separation of powers between executive and legislative branches. He was reelected to the legislature in 1956 but was not recommended for retention as Speaker by Kennon's successor, Earl Kemp Long. Aycock was associated with anti-Long elements within the Louisiana Democratic Party.

[edit] Election as lieutenant governor, 1960 & 1964

Aycock first won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1959-1960. At that time, under the Louisiana Constitution of 1921, the lieutenant governor presided over the state Senate. In the 1974 Constitution, senators chose a "Senate President" to preside over the body, with a ceremonial President Pro Tem in the second position. These Senate presidents usually have the recommendation of the governor.

Aycock and then Mayor W. George Bowdon, Jr., of Alexandria led the primary field in December 1959 and went into a January 1960 runoff. Losing candidates included sitting Governor Earl Long, who was actually waging his third campaign (the last two unsuccessful) for lieutenant governor and then Gretna (the seat of Jefferson Parish) Mayor William "Bill" White, who was running on the ticket with State Auditor William J. "Bill" Dodd, then of Baton Rouge. Aycock was Jimmie Davis' choice for lieutenant governor; his intraparty rival, George Bowdon, was the choice of the runoff loser, then New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr.

Aycock then defeated Republican Clark C. Boardman (they coincidentally both had the double initials "C.C."), a retired engineer from Monroe in the general election held on April 19, 1960. Aycock polled 392,421 votes (83.2 percent) to Boardman's 68,186 (14.4 percent). (A third candidate, Vaughn L. Phelps of the Louisiana States' Rights Party, received 11,299 votes, or 2.4 percent). Boardman, who did not wage an active campaign, was the first Republican in modern times to seek the lieutenant governor's position. Not until 1987, eleven months after Aycock's death, did a Republican, Paul Hardy of St. Martinville in St. Martin Parish, win the position, which has been reserved almost exclusively for Louisiana Democrats.

In December 1963--January 1964, Aycock ran as an "independent" Democrat, meaning that he did not align himself to any gubernatorial candidate. He might have favored Robert Kennon, who was seeking a comeback as governor and who had made him Speaker, but he preferred to make his race alone. He was thrust into a runoff with Chep Morrison's next choice for the position, attorney Claude Berwick Duval of Houma from Terrebonne Parish. Duval, a distinguished "old-school" orator, was as conservative as Aycock, but he, like his gubernatorial ticket mate Morrison, fared poorly in central and northern Louisiana. In 1968, Duval entered the state Senate for the first of three terms with his former rival, Lieutenant Governor Aycock, as the presiding officer. Duval and Aycock also had something else in common: they came from adjoining south Louisiana parishes, and both were in the anti-Long tradition of Louisiana politics.

[edit] Endorsing Goldwater for president, 1964

In the fall of 1964, Aycock endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, rather than his fellow Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson. Governor John Julian McKeithen, many of whose backers also vote for Aycock for the second position, remained neutral in the presidential race. The states' two powerful Democratic senators, Allen J. Ellender of Houma and Russell B. Long of Baton Rouge, however, endorsed the Johnson-Hubert H. Humphrey elector slate. Goldwater won Louisiana's ten electoral votes: he was only the second Republican to do so in modern times, the other having been Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.

Several other Democrats joined Aycock in supporting Goldwater: Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., former Governors Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles and Robert Kennon of Minden, Monroe Mayor W.L. "Jack" Howard, and Plaquemines Parish political "boss" Leander H. Perez. The Republicans held a rally at Tulane University in New Orleans to honor Goldwater and former Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as well as the defecting Louisiana Democrats, with then congressional candidate David C. Treen acting as master of ceremonies.

[edit] McKeithen blocks Aycock's aspirations, 1967

Aycock had planned to seek the governorship in the 1967 Democratic primary, but he ran into a major roadblock. In 1966, McKeithen proposed a change to the state's term limits law, and Amendment 1 was adopted into the state Constitution on November 8, 1966. The amendment allows a Louisiana governor to be elected to two consecutive four-year terms, but not a third-term unless he first sits out a term. When Aycock gauged how powerful McKeithen had become, he backed away from a gubernatorial challenge and ran instead for reelection as lieutenant governor, again without tying himself to any gubernatorial candidate. He had no serious opposition for his third term.

[edit] Running for governor, 1971

Aycock presumably could have had a fourth term as lieutenant governor for the asking, but he entered the 1971 Democratic primary for governor. The field was so crowded that the lieutenant governor never made it into the top tier of candidates, headed by then Congressman Edwin Washington Edwards of Crowley, State Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Shreveport, then former Congressman Gillis William Long of Alexandria, and former Governor Jimmie Davis, then of Baton Rouge. Aycock, the most conservative candidate in the field, finished in sixth place with 88,465 votes. Davis and Aycock, who had been the winning intraparty ticket in 1960, were opposing each other in 1971. As it turned out, they were never a serious factor in the race.

In 1971, the runoff featured the newer, more moderate candidates, Edwards and Johnston. Edwards narrowly won the second primary and then went on to defeat Republican nominee David Treen, then of Jefferson Parish, in the March 1972 general election.

[edit] Aycock remembered

Aycock never sought another office but returned to Franklin to practice law. He pushed for the name change of Southwestern Louisiana Institute to the University of Southwestern Louisiana (since University of Louisiana at Lafayette). He supported the French heritage movement and the Acadiana Regional Airport in New Iberia in Iberia Parish.

At the time of his death, he was serving in an advisory capacity with Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. He died in the first few days of 1987, another primary election year for governor and the other state constitutional offices.

Services were held at the Church of the Assumption in Franklin. Burial was in Franklin Cemetery. Survivors included his wife; three sons, Dr. Kenneth Aycock (born 1949), a dentist in Franklin, and Joseph "Jody" Aycock (born 1947) and Larry Aycock (born 1955), both of Lafayette; three daughters, Mrs. Dirk (Barbara) Ory (born 1946) of Thibodeaux, Mrs. Michael (Mary Margaret) Valse (born 1951) of New Iberia, and Mrs. Greg (Susan) Fleniken (born 1958) of Lafayette; two sisters; his stepmother, Amy Aycock of Franklin, and 13 grandchildren. Aycock was Roman Catholic.

Former state Senator Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr., a Lafayette Democrat, said that Aycock had "tremendous ability and patience with the Senate. The first thing he taught me was the rules [of the Senate]; then, if you are presiding and tempers get tight, give them [the members] the time to talk it out and not rush to judgment. He was such a fair man with the Senate."

[edit] Trivia

Ironically, while Aycock was lieutenant governor, one of the state senators was Jamar William Adcock of Monroe. Adcock attempted unsuccessfully in the 1971 Democratic primary to succeed Aycock as lieutenant governor. Adcock's wife's maiden name is Aycock, but there is no family connection between the Louisiana Adcocks and Aycocks.

[edit] References

• Billy Hathorn, "The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920–1980," Master's thesis (1980), James L. McCorkle, Jr., supervising professor, Northwestern State University at Natchitoches

• http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

• Glen Jeansonne, Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977

• "Former Lt. Gov. Aycock dies," New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 7, 1987

• "Services Set for fromer Lt. Gov. 'Taddy' Aycock," Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, January 7, 1987

• Aycock obituary, Lafayette Daily Advertiser, January 9, 1987

• "C.C. Aycock," A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. I (1988)

Preceded by: C. Russel Brownell, Jr. (D)

State Representative from St. Mary Parish Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (D) 1952–1960

Succeeded by: H.V. Fronden, Sr. (D)

Preceded by: Lorris M. Wimberly (D)

Speaker of the Louisiana State House of Representatives Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (D) 1952–1956

Succeeded by: Lorris M. Wimberly (D)

Preceded by: Lether E. Frazer (D)

Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (D) 1960–1972

Succeeded by: James Edward "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr. (D)