| | In 1952, a small anti-Parr faction in Duval County blamed Parr for the bungled assassination in 1952 of 21-year-old Jacob Stokes "Buddy" Floyd, Jr., who was engaged to be married. Buddy's father, "Jake" Stokes, Sr., was an outspoken opponent of the Parr machine. He was active in the former Freedom Party, a collection of [[World War II]] veterans who challenged the ''Partido Viejo.'' The senior stokes was an attorney in Alice in Jim Wells County, who said that the bullet which killed his son was meant for him. Mario "Turk" Sapet was convicted of the Floyd murder, but his accomplice, Alfred Cervantes, escaped and was never apprehended. Dudley Lynch said that the evidence against Parr in the Floyd case was both highly circumstantial and highly incriminationg."<ref name=freshs/> | | In 1952, a small anti-Parr faction in Duval County blamed Parr for the bungled assassination in 1952 of 21-year-old Jacob Stokes "Buddy" Floyd, Jr., who was engaged to be married. Buddy's father, "Jake" Stokes, Sr., was an outspoken opponent of the Parr machine. He was active in the former Freedom Party, a collection of [[World War II]] veterans who challenged the ''Partido Viejo.'' The senior stokes was an attorney in Alice in Jim Wells County, who said that the bullet which killed his son was meant for him. Mario "Turk" Sapet was convicted of the Floyd murder, but his accomplice, Alfred Cervantes, escaped and was never apprehended. Dudley Lynch said that the evidence against Parr in the Floyd case was both highly circumstantial and highly incriminationg."<ref name=freshs/> |
| − | In 1948, Parr received national attention as a principal backer and benefactor of of Lyndon Johnson, then the [[U.S. Representative]] from Texas' 10th congressional district, who was running in the Democratic [[primary]] that summer for the U.S. Senate against the [[conservative]] former [[Governor]] Coke Stevenson (1888-1975) of Junction in Kimble County. Parr had in 1942 and 1944 engineered a lopsided margin for Stevenson, but in the Senate race, he was approached by Johnson, who relished the support of the Suth Texas ''patrons," or political bosses operating machine counties. Stevenson led in the first primary with 39.7 percent of the votes cast, compared to Johnson's 33.7 percent. In the runoff between Stevenson and Johnson on August 28, Parr ordered 202 additional votes, all but two of which were cast for Johnson, to be added to the amended runoff vote count for Box 13 in Jim Wells County. Johnson won the nomination by eighty-seven disputed votes statewide.<ref>Dudley Lynch, ''George Parr,'' pp. 58-59.</ref> As the Democratic nominee, Johnson had no probable dispatching [[Republican Party|Republican]] Jack Porter, a Houston oilman who became active in the 1940s in the long-range goal of transforming the state GOP from “a patronage club” into a competitive political force. Johnson polled exactly two thirds of the vote, 702,985; Porter, 349,665.<ref<"Houma Jackson "Jack" Porter (1896-1986), "Key Republican in Texas in the 1950s Is Deat at 90, ''[[The New York Times]],'' December 10, 1986.</ref> | + | In 1948, Parr received national attention as a principal backer and benefactor of of Lyndon Johnson, then the [[U.S. Representative]] from Texas' 10th congressional district, who was running in the Democratic [[primary]] that summer for the U.S. Senate against the [[conservative]] former [[Governor]] Coke Stevenson (1888-1975) of Junction in Kimble County. Parr had in 1942 and 1944 engineered a lopsided margin for Stevenson, but in the Senate race, he was approached by Johnson, who relished the support of the outh Texas ''patrons,'' or political bosses operating machine counties. Stevenson led in the first primary with 39.7 percent of the votes cast, compared to Johnson's 33.7 percent. In the runoff between Stevenson and Johnson on August 28, Parr ordered 202 additional votes, all but two of which were cast for Johnson, to be added to the amended runoff vote count for Box 13 in Jim Wells County. Johnson won the nomination by eighty-seven disputed votes statewide.<ref>Dudley Lynch, ''George Parr,'' pp. 58-59.</ref> As the Democratic nominee, Johnson had no probable dispatching [[Republican Party|Republican]] Jack Porter, a Houston oilman who became active in the 1940s in the long-range goal of transforming the state GOP from “a patronage club” into a competitive political force. Johnson polled exactly two thirds of the vote, 702,985; Porter, 349,665.<ref<"Houma Jackson "Jack" Porter (1896-1986), "Key Republican in Texas in the 1950s Is Deat at 90, ''[[The New York Times]],'' December 10, 1986.</ref> |
| | All of the additional voter names essential to Johnson's nomination were signed in the same blue ink and in the same handwriting. According to the presiding election judge, copies of the voter signatures needed for verification were stolen, amid allegations of fraud. Stevenson long attributed his failure to defeat Johnson for the Senate nomination as “the stuffed ballot box.” In subsequent years, Stevenson supported primarily Republican candidates for national and state office, including U.S. Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]], who ran against President Johnson in 1964 and made an especially weak showing in Texas as well as nationwide. | | All of the additional voter names essential to Johnson's nomination were signed in the same blue ink and in the same handwriting. According to the presiding election judge, copies of the voter signatures needed for verification were stolen, amid allegations of fraud. Stevenson long attributed his failure to defeat Johnson for the Senate nomination as “the stuffed ballot box.” In subsequent years, Stevenson supported primarily Republican candidates for national and state office, including U.S. Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]], who ran against President Johnson in 1964 and made an especially weak showing in Texas as well as nationwide. |