DeLesseps Story Morrison - Morrison and Louisiana Politics

Morrison and Louisiana Politics

Following the 1948 gubernatorial election, in which Morrison had endorsed former Governor Sam Houston Jones, the gubernatorial winner, Earl Kemp Long, convinced the legislature to enact a series of measures to punish New Orleans for its support of Morrison. Long's brother, Huey Pierce Long, Jr., had used similar tactics in his feud with then New Orleans Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley. Long had the legislature pass laws which limited the city government's control over taxation, control over the police and fire departments, operation of the port, and civil service appointments. Long's anti-Morrison constitutional amendments, however, were defeated. Moreover, the support of the Old Regulars for Long's punitive measures further eroded the machine's support among New Orleans voters.

Morrison had a longstanding ambition to become governor of Louisiana, and he ran unsuccessfully for that office three times. Each time he ran, he was strongly opposed in the northern half of the state because of his perceived liberal views, particularly on race (though he was a declared segregationist), and his Roman Catholicism.

In the election of 1956, Morrison lost to Earl Long. The acerbic Long ridiculed Morrison as a "city slicker" out of touch with residents of small towns and rural areas. Long laughed at his opponent's unusual first name deLesseps: "Ole De la Soups is the only man that can talk out of both sides of his mouth, whistle, and strut all at once." Trailing both Long and Morrison in the 1956 primary were Fred Preaus of Farmerville, the choice of outgoing Governor Robert Kennon, Francis Grevemberg, the former state police superintendent, and James M. McLemore, the Alexandria auction-barn owner who ran his second consecutive unsuccessful race on a strictly segregationist platform.

Three LSU scholars described Morrison, as he launched his second bid for governor, accordingly:

"Morrison was different from the typical anti-Long candidate inasmuch as he had demonstrated liberal proclivities, particularly in giving support to the national Democratic Party and his attitude on labor and race relations. In many respects, Morrison seemed to represent the combination that Louisiana voters had unsuccessfully groped for over a long period of time: respectability and integrity in combination with a welfare-state programmatic outlook. . . . Morrison was faced with two awesome handicaps: he was from New Orleans, and he was of the Roman Catholic faith. The traditional suspicion of the 'big-city' counted against him in many areas of the state, and the predominantly Protestant north Louisiana sector has long contended that no Catholic could or should be governor of the state."

In the election of 1959-60, Morrison lost to former Governor Jimmie Davis, a singer of both popular songs and gospel hymns. He polled 414,110 votes (45.5 percent) in the runoff to Davis' 487,681 (54.1 percent). Davis was endorsed in the runoff by the third-place candidate, segregationist William Monroe Rainach of Claiborne Parish. Morrison was endorsed by the fifth-place candidate, Bill Dodd, but Dodd's showing had been insufficient to help Morrison that much. Rainach later expressed disappointment with the second Davis administration.

In the primary runoff, Morrison's lieutenant governor choice, then Alexandria Mayor W. George Bowdon, Jr., lost his race to Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish, a former Speaker of the Louisiana House.

In the election of 1963-64, he lost to Public Service Commissioner John Julian McKeithen from the small town of Columbia in rural Caldwell Parish. In the 1964 primary, Morrison ran with the Houma (Terrebonne Parish) attorney Claude B. Duval, who sought the office of lieutenant governor. Duval, a longtime personal friend of Morrison's, also lost and was defeated by his St. Mary Parish neighbor, C.C. Aycock, who ran as an independent that year, meaning that though he was a Democrat, he was not allied with a gubernatorial slate of candidates. Two other Morrison-backed candidates were State Representative Jack M. Dyer of Baton Rouge for insurance commissioner and then Mayor Raymond Laborde of Marksville for custodian of voting machines. Dyer lost to Dudley A. Guglielmo, and Laborde fell to the incumbent Douglas Fowler of Coushatta in Red River Parish. Laborde had argued for the abolition of the office, which was finally ended in 2004.