Two Unsuccessful Races
In 1962, Folsom again ran for governor against his one-time protégé George C. Wallace, but he was defeated. A sardonic slogan emerged during that campaign, referring to Folsom's reputation for taking graft: "Something for everyone and a little bit for Big Jim." Folsom sometimes referred to "the emoluments of office" and once told a campaign crowd, "I plead guilty to stealing. That crowd I got it from, you had to steal it to get it.... I stole for you, and you, and you."
Folsom's campaign was also damaged by a television appearance where he appeared to have been seriously intoxicated and unable to remember his own children's names. Both the appearance and the supposed "slogan" hurt him with the image-conscious middle class.
Folsom ran again for governor in 1966, when he faced three other leading Democrats in the primary, former U.S. Representative Carl Elliott, former Governor John Malcolm Patterson, and Attorney General Richmond Flowers, Sr. However, the primary winner was none of those candidates but the surrogate for outgoing Governor George Wallace, his first wife Lurleen Burns Wallace. In the general election Lurleen Wallace handily defeated the Republican nominee, James D. Martin, an one-term U.S. representative from Gadsden.
Folsom never again was elected to public office.
Read more about this topic: Jim Folsom
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