William H. Avery (politician) - Entrance Into Politics

Entrance Into Politics

William Avery’s political career started on the Milford Reserve. “I came right back from college and took over the farm. I evolved as kind of a spokesman for the lower part of the Republican Valley as opposing the reservoir and being in that group I became acquainted with a lot of people over at Tuttle Creek who were opposing Tuttle Creek . So when it began to get heated up some, why I knew that group and we worked together rather effectively.”

What that group was trying to do was stop the Dam from being built. There had been a flood in 1935 and people in the Tuttle Creek area were much more concerned about losing their houses and land opposed to a water shortage. Due to his work in Tuttle Creek, Avery was pushed to run for office in thestate legislature. He believed that the local citizens believed they could have better representation, and Avery thought it was his job to fill that void. His opportunity came when citizens from Clay Center, Kansas sought him out to run for the Kansas House of Representatives. Avery said he would do it, as long as he did not have to go through a primary. “They gave a lot of reasons why they thought I should run. I said, “Okay, I’ll make a deal. If you will guarantee I won’t have a primary I’ll probably consider to run, but I don’t want to have to campaign at a primary and then possibly campaign in the general election.” They came back in about a week and said, “We got it fixed; you won’t have a primary.”

Avery had the advantage of being a Republican running in one of the largest Republican counties in the state of Kansas. He was also a third generation farmer who had attended college and came back to take of the family farm. These two factors helped in his attempt at becoming a legislator. “Clay County is one of the strongest Republican counties in Kansas, I think number one, two, or three, so I didn’t even have an opponent in the general election, and I didn’t have an opponent when I ran for my second term.”

Avery did have an opponent in his Clay County primary. He defeated prohibition candidate Ed Woellhof by 1983 votes to enter the Republican Party’s 1954 primary. The incumbent of the first district was Democrat Howard Miller who had defeated incumbent Albert Cole. Cole had gotten some signs crossed with Avery in regards to the Milford Reservoir. “In the Blue Valley and Republican Valley action, he’s opposed to Tuttle Creek and he’s opposed to Milford, and that made him pretty solid in this area. Then after the 1942 flood that came along, why there was a lot of damage downstream, and that revived the downstream support for the reservoirs. I knew Albert and I didn’t interrogate him very seriously on this, but he gave me the impression he voted against putting this money in for Milford and Tuttle Creek. But he didn’t get up and oppose it.”

This meant there would be a new representative from the First Congressional District of Kansas. For that man to be William Avery, he had to win the primary. Avery’s biggest competition in the primary was Doral Hawks, a Republican who had a strong hold on Topeka. The First Congressional District of Kansas consists of 13 counties which also encompass Shawnee Country; which is the county Topeka is located in. After the floods of 1935 and 1942 caused much damage to the city of Topeka, many citizens wanted the reservoirs built to help protect the city. Hawks was running under the platform of creating the reservoirs – an issue that seemed to impact the voting significantly. “The Republican Party’s 1954 primary, a five-way contest for what was then the Kansas First Congressional District, was quite close. Avery won a plurality with 40 percent of the votes cast (22,077), and Hawks came in second, receiving almost 37 percent (19,952).”

Now, William Avery was up against the incumbent. Howard Miller had been receiving much credit for accomplishments that he had not actually accomplished. “These Blue Valley Belles got a lot of publicity by campaigning for Howard Miller, saying he stopped Tuttle Creek. He didn’t, Dwight Eisenhower took it out of the budget, that’s what stopped it. He got the credit and was there and opposed it and Albert lost it.”

It did not matter; Avery defeated Miller and became the Representative to the First Congressional District of Kansas in 1955. Many of the Republican members in the United States House of Representatives were inexperienced, which allowed Avery to climb up the ranks quickly. In just his second term, William Avery was able to work in the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and the Rules Committee. Avery believed that he was seen more as a vote than a member, in regards to many of the older Congressmen. “They all said nice things and said they were glad I was there and that gave the Republicans one nearer to the majority than it was before. I don’t know whether my physical presence meant much to them but my being there meant something to them.”

Eisenhower had taken the Milford Reservoir out of the budget. Now, President Harry Truman had re-appropriated budget money to the project. Avery felt it was his obligation to get this taken out of the budget. He wrote and elegant speech and delivered it to Congress; to no avail. “Cliff Hope was the only congressman from Kansas that voted with me. The other four - Errett P. Scrivner, Edward H. Rees, Wint Smith, and Myron V. George - all voted for the reservoir. I was kind of mad at the time.”