Harold Handley, like Governor Craig, was born in 1909. Unlike Craig, he was raised in LaPorte. He went to the public schools there before going to IU in Bloomington where Craig and future Senator Jenner were also students. After IU, he went to work with his father as a salesman, but that was in 1932, so the Depression made sales tough. During a stretch of unemployment, he got into politics, forming the Young Republicans club in his county and unsuccessfully running for the state Senate. In 1940, he was elected to the Indiana Senate during a strong Republican year and worked with his colleagues to try to roll back some of the legislation implemented during the Democratic domination of the 1930s and to reorganize state government in an effort to wrestle away power from the governor.
In 1941, when the U.S. got involved in World War II, Handley resigned his position as senator and enlisted. He was assigned to a training unit and remained in the United States despite requests to be transferred. At the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He married a woman who lived near his base and, after the war, they moved back to LaPorte where he resumed his career in sales. In 1948, he was re-elected to his former Senate seat and became re-acquainted with U.S. Senator William Jenner. In 1952, Craig was a darkhorse candidate that won the Republican nomination for governor in spite of the party leadership. Jenner and other party leaders were able to get Handley nominated as lieutenant governor.
William Jenner
Jenner seems to have been a dominant figure in Indiana politics during this time. (For some reason, he puts me in mind of Senator Jesse Bright — the Senator from Indiana dominant in the 1850s who caused a rift in the Indiana Democrats and was ejected from the U.S. Senate after he introduced an arms dealer to Jefferson Davis.) Jenner was born in 1908, and, as mentioned before, he was at college with Craig and Handley. He got his law degree and practiced for a time in Paoli and Shoals, Indiana. He was elected to the state Senate in 1934 (at the age of 26) and served there until World War II. In 1942, he resigned his seat to serve in the war as part of the Air Corps. He was discharged in 1944 and — for a few weeks — served as U.S. Senate in the seat left vacant by the death of Frederick Van Nuys. In 1945, Jenner became the state Republican chairman. And, in 1946, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in his own right.
Jenner was apparently not too bothered by General MacArthur’s insubordination to President Truman and was given to conspiracy theories. When Truman fired MacArthur, Jenner said, “I charge that this country today is in the hands of a secret inner coterie, which is directed by agents of the Soviet Government. Our only choice is to impeach President Truman and find out who is the secret invisible government.” He contended that a communist conspiracy in the State Department was responsible for the fall of China and was a proponent of financial aid for Nationalist forces in China. In 1950, he famously accused General George Marshall of being a traitor and a friend to communists. In the 1952 campaign, he said that voting for Adlai Stevenson would allow the “Red Network” to operate safely. Even so, Eisenhower did not like him. At a Republican rally in Indianapolis with Eisenhower and Jenner in attendance, Eisenhower voiced support for the Republican ticket but failed to mention Jenner by name. When Eisenhower’s speech was finished, Jenner lept up and hugged Eisenhower so that the press could get pictures of him with Ike. Eisenhower later told Emmet Hughes that he “felt dirty from the touch of the man.”
Jenner did not like the European orientation of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. He was mad that we gave aid to socialist England and did not support the creation of NATO. In 1956, he said the Republican Party had been ruined by President Eisenhower. Senator Joseph McCarthy he apparently liked, however. When the Senate moved to censure Senator McCarthy, Jenner stood by him, maintaining that the censure movement was “initiated by a communist conspiracy.” At the end of 1957, Jenner had had enough. He surprised political observers and party leaders when he announced he would not seek re-election. He returned to his law practice and his interest in the Seaway Corporation, a land development company, as well as his four farms.
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