Wayne H. Babbitt

Wayne H. Babbitt (April 21, 1928 - August 6, 1994) ^[1] was a Republican politician in the U.S. state of Arkansas, who in 1972 became the only member of his party ever to oppose the reelection of entrenched Democratic U.S. Senator John L. McClellan.

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Family

Babbitt met the former Eleanor Joan Timmerman (March 1, 1926- April 29, 2005), in Omaha, and they married in 1946. The couple had three children, Mark Randall Babbitt of Little Rock; Holly Babbitt Longtin and husband Joey and Maureen Babbitt Watson, formerly Maureen Beldin, and her second husband, Gary Watson, both couples of Hot Springs, and two grandchildren. They were Episcopalian.^[2]

Republican activist

Some sources say that Babbit was born in Nebraska, where he obtained his Social Security number; others cite Iowa. He moved to Arkansas in 1957 to practice veterinary medicine and thereafter became involved in GOP politics. In 1963, he became the chairman of the Pulaski County (Little Rock) Republican Committee, The next year he ran for the Arkansas State Senate but lost to the Democrat Dan Sprick. He was also a delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, which nominated Barry Goldwater for the presidency. He was vice chairman of the Arkansas GOP in 1966 and withdrew from consideration as chairman in order to campaign actively for Winthrop Rockefeller as Arkansas's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

Governor Rockefeller first appointed Babbitt chairman of the state Livestock and Poultry Commission and then elevated him to state director for the Federal Housing Administration. U.S. President Richard M. Nixon then named Babbitt to head the Housing and Urban Development office in Little Rock. At HUD, Babbitt tried to extricate families from substandard housing and into clean homes at a time when urban renewal was not a uniform policy.

1972 Senate campaign

Babbitt resigned from HUD to run for the Senate. He declared his candidacy at the Sam Peck Hotel in Little Rock in April 1972.^[3]

John McClellan, meanwhile, ran into strong opposition in the 1972 Democratic primary. He only narrowly won his party's nomination, 52-48 percent, over the determined opposition of then U.S. Representative (and later Governor and U.S. Senator) David Hampton Pryor. Both McClellan and Pryor lived at the time in Camden, the seat of Ouachita County in southern Arkansas. Pryor had the support of organized labor and among many African American in the runoff election, but more conservative voters in small towns and rural areas throughout Arkansas managed to renominate McClellan for his last term in the Senate, a term that he would not live to complete.^[4]

As a Senate candidate, Babbitt vowed to tackle the continuing Vietnam War issue, the economy, and fight for better-paying jobs. Babbitt tried to appeal to Pryor supporters in the primary, but many were Democratic party loyalists even though they had rejected McClellan in the primary. Babbitt ran full-page "open letter" to Senator McClellan in various Arkansas newspapers. He questioned why McClellan did not retire in that he had reached the age of seventy-six in 1972. He cited McClellan's poor attendance record in the Senate, where he had cast votes only half the time on Senate roll calls in 1972 alone. McClellan missed the vote when his Arkansas colleague, James William Fulbright, brought forth a proposal to bring the Amtrak passenger train line into Arkansas. "Maybe at seventy-six years of age, you have grown tired of putting your votes on the record," declared Babbitt in one of the letters. He declared McClellan to havew been "a nineteenth century leader" misusing the advanatages of Senate seniority..^[5]

In the summer of 1972, McClellan suddenly became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the death of neighboring senator, Allen J. Ellender of Louisiana. McClellan seemed to resent the need to campaign against a Republican -- something he had never previously done -- to win his sixth term. Babbitt erred when he tried to tie McClellan to Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern of South Dakota when trying at the same time to appeal to Pryor supporters, many of whom also favored McGovern. Babbitt tended to dwell on certain minor issues. He even called a press conference with two Little Rock housewives to accuse McClellan of failure to alleviate drainage problems from Rock Creek in the southwestern part of the capital city.^[6]

Babbitt waged an active race, while McClellan refused to take part in the general election campaign. Babbitt spent less than $20,000 on his race. He campaigned in all Arkansas cities of at least a modest population.

Though Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew were coasting to reelection at the head of the national GOP ticket, the party practically abandoned Babbitt as well as senatorial nominees Gil Carmichael of Mississippi and Winton Blount of Alabama. Nixon decided not to alienate Senators McClellan, James O. Eastland, or John Sparkman by stumping hard for Babbitt, Carmichael, and Blount. His inaction left the southern GOP Senate choices with little chance of victory. An exception was in North Carolina, where Jesse Helms won the first of his five terms as a Republican, but there the Democratic candidate was not a Senate incumbent.

The Arkansas statewide Republican candidates fared poorly across the board. McClellan defeated Babbitt, 386,398 (60.9 percent) to 248,238 (39.1 percent). Babbitt won only two of the seventy-five counties, Searcy, in the northwestern part of the state, with 58.3 percent, and Garland, which includes Hot Springs, with 52.8 percent. In twenty-six other counties, Babbitt polled at least 40 percent of the ballots. Babbit also ran 14.5 percentage points ahead of his gubernatorial ticket mate, Len E. Blaylock of Perry County, also a Rockefeller associate.^[7]

Post-politics

After his political career ended, Babbitt purchased the Bush Caldwell Company and then creasted the companion National Custom Hollow Metal in Little Rock. He also practiced veterinary medicine in North Little Rock and throughout Pulaski County. At the time of his death he and his wife were living in Heber Springs in Cleburne County near Little Rock.

The Babbitts are interred in Rest Hills Memorial Garden in North Little Rock.^[8]

References

• Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, October 7, 1972, 2488
• Arkansas Democrat, October 3, 11, 1972
• Arkansas Gazette, November 2, 1972
• Election Statistics, 1972, Little Rock: Secretary of State
• [4]
• [5]
• [6]
• Suzi Parker, "Politician 'thrived on challenge'", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, August 7, 1994, p. 4B