Bobby Baker
Bobby Baker was a prominent figure in U.S. Senate politics, known for his rise from a small-town background in South Carolina to becoming a key political operative in Washington, D.C. Born in 1928, Baker began working at a drugstore at a young age and became a Senate page at just 14, quickly earning a reputation for reliability. He developed close relationships with influential senators, particularly Lyndon B. Johnson, who referred to him as his "right arm." Baker's political career flourished as he held various positions, including assistant secretary to the Democratic minority and secretary to the Senate majority leader.
However, Baker's ascent was marred by scandal. By the early 1960s, he faced allegations of influence peddling and corruption, leading to a Senate investigation and a subsequent criminal conviction for theft and tax evasion. His legal troubles culminated in a prison sentence, though he was paroled after serving part of his term. Baker's case became a significant issue in the 1964 presidential campaign, with opponents using it to question the ethics of President Johnson's administration. After his political downfall, Baker transitioned to the real estate and hotel business and passed away in Florida on his eighty-ninth birthday.
Bobby Baker
- Born: November 12, 1928
- Birthplace: Pickens, South Carolina
- Died: November 12, 2017
- Place of death: St. Augustine, Florida
Aide and secretary to U.S. Senate Democrats
Also known as: Robert Gene Baker (full name); Little Lyndon; Lyndon Junior
Early Life
Bobby Baker, the son of a mailman, grew up in the small town of Pickens in northwest South Carolina. When he was eight years old, Baker began work in a drugstore. He was admired by his teachers as someone who could get things done. In 1942, at the age of fourteen, Baker, through the offices of US Senator Burnet Maybank (Democrat from South Carolina), became a page in the Senate in Washington, D.C. As a page, Baker joined a corps of twenty-two teenage boys who wore dark blue knickers, attended a special school in the Capitol, and ran errands on the floor of the Senate, filling inkwells and snuffboxes in the chamber.
Through hard work and hustle, Baker earned the reputation of a reliable page, and senators asked for him by name. By frequently visiting with Senate parliamentarian Charles Watkins in his office, Baker learned the traditions and procedures of the upper house. Baker so ingratiated himself with the senators that, at sixteen, he was named chief page, and at eighteen he was given a title on the Senate staff so that he, unlike other pages, could remain on the Senate payroll even after Congress had adjourned for the year.
Political Career
The Senate became Baker’s home. He graduated from high school there. Baker earned a degree from George Washington University and attended law school at night at American University. In 1948 he married a senator’s secretary. His wedding reception was held in the Capitol and was attended by five senators. By the time he was twenty-one, Baker was one of the best-known Senate staffers, and many senators talked to him freely. He developed a shrewd knowledge of the personal and professional lives of individual senators.
In 1949, a newly elected senator from Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson, befriended Baker and sought his advice on where true power lay in the Senate. Baker flattered Johnson, who purportedly thought of him as a son and invited him to dinner parties attended by senators and journalists at the Johnson residence. Johnson referred to Baker as his strong right arm. The indefatigable Baker worked so hard for his mentor that he was given the nicknames Little Lyndon and Lyndon Junior. In 1951 Baker was appointed assistant of the Democratic cloakroom, a role that freed him from the status and duties of a page and gave him an opportunity to spend much of his time in the Senate cloakroom, where he learned even more about the members.
The information Baker gained gave him insights into how senators were likely to vote on a particular bill. Such knowledge was indispensable to Johnson, who had become assistant majority leader (Democratic whip). Johnson instructed Baker to know the whereabouts of every Democratic senator at all times and to have a phone number where each senator could be reached. Baker’s job was to round up senators to vote for measures favored by the party leadership. The precision of Baker’s preliminary head counts was remarkable. In addition, his doing favors for senators and others won him power and prestige in the Capitol. Baker’s hard work was rewarded by his being made assistant secretary to the Democratic minority in 1953 and secretary to the Senate majority leader (who was Johnson) in 1955.
Johnson also used Baker to solicit money for the party by cajoling or subtly threatening donors and to deliver funds from Johnson to other senators. Baker called himself the “official bagman” for Senate Democrats. From 1957 to 1960, Baker furthered his influence by serving as secretary-treasurer of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.
In the mid-1950’s, Baker helped the Intercontinental Hotels Corporation establish casinos in the Dominican Republic. This assignment brought him in contact with organized crime figures, and he subsequently worked with known mobsters in establishing the Serv-U Corporation, which provided vending machines for companies working on federally granted programs.
In 1960 Johnson was elected vice president, and Baker continued as his secretary and political adviser. In 1961 Baker returned to the Senate to work for the new majority leader, Mike Mansfield (Democrat from Montana), but during the administration of President John Kennedy, he was more closely associated with Robert Kerr (Democrat from Oklahoma). Most notably, Baker assisted Kerr in defeating the administration’s medicare bill in July, 1962.
In 1963 rumors circulated that Baker had used his official position to enrich himself. His salary as Johnson’s assistant was $19,600, yet his net worth was $1.7 million. Baker was investigated by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who discovered Baker had links to Texas oil tycoon Clint Murchison and several Mafia bosses. Evidence also emerged that Baker had been involved in procuring “party girls” for a number of congressmen and even President John F. Kennedy. Other allegations about his “influence peddling” in the press and by Republicans forced Baker to leave his job on October 7, 1963.
Legal Action and Outcome
The Senate Rules Committee investigated the allegations against Baker in 1964 and 1965 and found that he had accepted payments for influencing legislation and had acquired vending contracts for his Serv-U Corporation from aerospace firms working for the government. The Rules Committee’s report found Baker “guilty of many gross improprieties.”
In January, 1967, a U.S. District Court found Baker guilty of seven counts of theft, income tax evasion, and fraud, including his accepting large sums of “campaign donations” intended to buy influence with various senators but which Baker had kept for himself. In January, 1971, he was sentenced to serve three years in prison, but he was paroled in June, 1972. He went into the real estate and hotel business and died in St. Augustine, Florida, on his eighty-ninth birthday.
Impact
The Bobby Baker scandal was a major campaign issue in the 1964 presidential elections. The unsuccessful Republican candidate Barry Goldwater characterized the scandal as typical of the ethics of Johnson and his cronies. Goldwater maintained that the Baker affair hurt Johnson more than any other campaign issue.
Bibliography
Baker, Robert Gene, with Larry L. King. Wheeling and Dealing: Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator. New York: Norton, 1978.
Caro, Robert A. Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. New York: Knopf, 2002.
Genzlinger, Neil. "Bobby Baker, String-Puller Snared in Senate Scandal, Dies at 89." The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/obituaries/bobby-baker-string-puller-snared-in-senate-scandal-dies-at-89.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2018.
Rowe, Robert. The Bobby Baker Story. New York: Parallax, 1967.