ABSTRACT
Walter Kohler's remarkable success in the 1951–53 initiative phase can be understood in terms of strong and successful, even bold, legislative proposals advanced in an easy-going, low-key manner. This chapter shows Kohler's legislative record on major agenda items defined by the 1950 Republican Party platform and Kohler's January 1951 message to the legislature. Kohler's victory on dividend taxation, though an improvement in policy, was a defeat in terms of his relations with other officeholders and party volunteers who had worked to elect him. Kohler left more lasting scars, and did more damage to Republican officeholders, by a second act of leadership. His support for a proposal to reapportion the state legislature based on up–to–date population figures would cost his party seats and his own administration needed allies. As the legislators began to devise actual plans, however, more of the Republicans were inclined to cooperate with some form of redistricting.
