Complex sentence: An odd coalition of Republicans and Democratic reform voters catapulted Rockefeller into the governor's office, as he defeated a segregationist Democratic former Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, James D. Johnson of Conway, who preferred the appellation "Justice Jim".
Split into simpler sentences: An odd coalition of Republicans and Democratic reform voters catapulted Rockefeller into the governor's office. He defeated a segregationist Democratic former Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, James D. Johnson of Conway, who preferred the appellation "Justice Jim".