Dan Moody - Part Two

Dan Moody - Part Two

By Ken Anderson Friday, 12 December 2008

On Jan. 20, 1925, Miriam “Ma” Ferguson was inaugurated as the first elected female governor in the United States. Immediately afterward, her husband, Jim, strode into the governor’s office, picked up an open Bible left by outgoing Gov. Pat Neff and tossed it aside with the comment, “Sunday School is dismissed. The Governor’s Office is now open for business.”

Indeed, it was open for “business.” Bribes for prison pardons, kickbacks on state textbook purchases and contracts to friends to pave state roads were part of this business.

As attorney general, Dan Moody had no criminal jurisdiction, but as the state’s lawyer, he could do something about the padded paving contracts. He went to court and proved that $32 million worth of such contracts had been awarded to Ferguson friends at three times their actual value. The judge canceled the contracts. Moody and Assistant Attorney General George Christian went to Kansas City and Dallas to try to recover some of the ill-gotten gains. When they came back, they returned to the state treasury $1 million in cash and securities that had already been paid on the fraudulent contracts.

Despite his relative youth, Moody was the logical candidate to run against Ma Ferguson in the 1926 governor’s race. Moody married Abilene newspaperwoman Mildred Paxton at the beginning of the election season. That caused his race to be dubbed the “Honeymoon Campaign.”

In one of the nastiest elections ever, Jim Ferguson, who made all of his wife’s political speeches, took the stump denouncing Moody as having a big head and attacked Mildred as a “lipstick” who would chase Moody around the Governor’s Mansion with a rolling pin. Moody kept the heat on about the Fergusons’ corruption.

Moody trounced Ferguson at the polls. In a crowded field, he fell just 1,700 votes short of winning the primary outright and then buried her with a 225,000-vote margin in the runoff. The El Paso Times and Herald joined the state’s newspaper chorus, cheering Moody’s victory by noting, “Texas has recovered her self-respect.”

The inauguration of Texas’ youngest governor was held on Jan. 18, 1927. It was an inauguration of firsts: the first outdoor ceremony, the first broadcast on radio (nationwide due to Moody’s notoriety) and the first where a sitting governor had been denied a second term by the voters.

Moody served two terms as governor. His reforms included ending the liberal parole policies of the Fergusons, reorganizing the state highway department and beginning a program of regular audits of state accounts. He was unable to convince the legislature to adopt a civil service program that would award state jobs on the basis of merit. His real accomplishment, however, was simply to restore honesty and integrity to the Governor’s Office. He left office in 1931 absolutely penniless.

Moody’s financial condition improved dramatically when he resumed his private legal career. For the next 30 years, he was a successful lawyer in Austin. His practice included several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Moody remained active in politics, but he never again held public office. In 1942, he made a last-minute decision to enter the race for U.S. Senate, but finished third.

Moody died May 22, 1966, in Austin after a long illness. He is buried in the state cemetery just 30 feet from Stephen F. Austin’s grave.

Moody is the only person born and raised in Williamson County to serve as governor. As for his place in Texas history, Texas Monthly magazine, in its issue wrapping up the 20th century, named Moody “Crusader of the Century.” The title is fitting for a man who dedicated his life to the rule of law and conquered some truly epic challenges of his time.

Read part one at more.impactnews.com/2537

Ken Anderson, former Williamson County district attorney and current judge, is the author of eight books dealing with law and history.