He does not know whose idea it was. He met with a group of six or eight in Madison--Thompson, Doyle, Wilkie, Virginia Hart. “The idea was that we had reached the point where if we could put somebody in the field to organize these counties and get ready.... And it was tied up to the McCarthy thing, too. In fact, I wouldn't have done it, but I really, as I look back on it, I had an exaggerated notion of the importance of Joe McCarthy.” An evil man who had a “deadly influence on many aspects of government and of life in this country.” Lucey thought of him at the time as a potential American Hitler, but realizes now his appeal was too narrow for that. Lucey felt the Democratic Party had the responsibility of eliminating McCarthy and McCarthyism from America. “So, when I took the job in January of '51 to be the party organizer, it was with the thought of preparing the party for that battle of the century when we would put our best and strongest candidate up against Joe McCarthy. And so it was very logical that once the primary was over and Tom Fairchild had defeated Henry Reuss that I should be asked to give up my party duties and become the campaign manager.” Lucey had great respect and some awe for party chair Jim Doyle and was concerned that his switch to the Fairchild campaign might not be considered appropriate. But Doyle said, “What's this all about. Our purpose was to beat Joe McCarthy and of course you ought to move up to take over the campaign.” Lucey had to recruit a replacement to run the get-out-the-vote and other things he was responsible for during the campaign as party executive director. He recruited John Gronouski, who was then a graduate student at the University. Lucey offered him the job over the phone simply on the recommendation of Esther Kaplan, without ever having met him. “And years later we used to laugh about it because he made an all-out effort to get out that vote, and of course what vote did he get out? He got out an Eisenhower vote.”
