Former Sen. Walter “Dee” Huddleston, a Kentucky Democrat who served from 1973 until he lost to now-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 1984, died Tuesday at the age of 92.
Huddleston, who served in the Army during World War II, worked for several state radio stations and rose to become president of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association, and says he became interested in politics because candidates often wanted his support. He won an open state Senate in the Elizabethtown area in 1964 and rose to become majority leader.
Huddleston managed Lt. Gov. Wendell Ford’s 1971 bid for governor, and after the campaign won, Huddleston announced he would run for an open Senate seat. Huddleston had no trouble winning the Democratic nod and faced former GOP. Gov. Louie Nunn in November. Nunn was hurt by his successful push to raise the sales tax to solve the state's budget problems, and while Richard Nixon carried the state 63-35, Huddleston beat Nunn 51-48.
Huddleston was a reliable ally for Kentucky's coal and tobacco industries, and he helped save the tobacco price support program in 1982. The senator also used his post on the appropriations committee to secure funding for the Cumberland Gap tunnel. While Huddleston opposed abortion rights and pushed for a constitutional amendment to allow prayer in schools, he also backed the Equal Rights Amendment.
In 1978, Huddleston took a risk when he supported the Panama Canal treaties where the U.S. agreed to cede the Canal Zone to Panama. Huddleston said that issue caused him more problems than any other in 1978, but he won re-election 61-37 against GOP state Rep. Louie Guenthner.
However, Huddleston had a much tougher campaign six years later. The senator faced a primary challenge from former Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., who argued he'd be more effective than Huddleston. Brown ended up dropping out weeks before Election Day citing poor health, but Huddleston later said that the aborted primary had made him overconfident in the general election.
The GOP nominated Jefferson County Judge-Executive Mitch McConnell, who led the state's largest county and had been preparing for a campaign since he was re-elected in 1981. McConnell initially tailed badly in the polls, but political strategist Roger Ailes helped devise a memorable TV spot.
The commercial featured bloodhounds searching for an absent Huddleston, whom the hound "narrating" the ad declared was "missing big votes on Social Security, the budget, defense, even agriculture." The hounds ended up arriving at a Los Angeles pool and a beach in Puerto Rico where the ad said Huddleston had just delivered expensive speeches instead of doing his job. The narrator concluded, "We can't find Dee! Maybe we ought to let him make speeches and switch to Mitch!" Huddleston declared that the spot was based on a "false premise," but later admitted he hadn't taken it seriously enough.
McConnell also was aided by ads touting Ronald Reagan's endorsement. Reagan carried Kentucky 60-39 while McConnell unseated Huddleston 49.9-49.5, a margin of just under 5,200 votes. Huddleston never sought elected office again and became an executive at a D.C. consulting firm.