Interesting tidbit of history found here, from forgotten primary opponents to semi-forgotten general election opponents.  Nixon won re-election against a Liberal “Hollywood” Democrat with the meme “The Pink Lady” — or, “Pink right down to her underwear”.  Apparently he just took the line from the primary run.

In May 1950, just weeks before the primary election, Boddy labeled Douglas the “Pink Lady” by implying that she was aligned with Communists and was part of a group of “red hots” trying to seize control of Democratic county committees in the state. Boddy and Douglas ran a bitter primary campaign, leaving Douglas, the Democratic victor, badly wounded in her race against the winner of the Republican primary, Congressman Richard Nixon. Boddy came up with the idea of comparing Douglas’ voting record to that of leftist Congressman Vito Marcantonio of the American Labor Party—a tactic that was seized on by Nixon and his campaign manager, Murray Chotiner in the final election.

On June 6, 1950, Douglas beat Boddy at the polls largely on the strength of her popularity with African-American voters. She garnered 889,000 votes to Boddy’s 532,000. Nixon, who had crossed-filed in both parties in the primary, won 1,060,000 votes. Douglas lost to Nixon in the November general election.

Oddly, leafing through Boody’s political record, it strikes me that his eccentricities were further afield than Douglas — giving a “fair hearing” for EPIC and Technocracy — at least this makes him more easily brandished as “Red”dish “Pink”.

And granted, the general thrust of the campaign was in place and this was how Nixon was going to run against Douglas regardless, but the specifics — our election history is sort of littered with this — see Gore assisting Bush against Dukakis, see Yorty assisting Reagan against Brown.

In terms of Nixonian history, I’m always a tad curious about the Republican Primary opponent for the 1962 Governor’s race — Joseph C Shell — reportedly Nixon was stunned by the difference between travelling the state in 1950 and in 1962 and now being yelled at by Shell supporters and called a, yep, Commie.

As for this question:  What in the hell were Democrats doing with Tricky Dick?   Republicrats – Apparently an interesting job of Nixon beforehand to win the 1948 Democratic Primary against an opponent this site can’t even be bothered to drag up a photograph for with a lousy name  — he spent the previous year fading his Party identification in his literature in order to prop up a Non – Partisan image.  Of course, we fall into the land of “appealing to Open Minded, Common Sense Democrats” against the Socialists and RadLibs taking over the Democratic Party, or Zell Miller Land, but it’s the common appeal of things, I suppose.
The repsonse:  Who knows? They didn’t after this to my knowledge, though. is amusing enough — see Labor non support for McGovern.

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