The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-24
Two Hours Before Election He Declines to Become
 a Candidate
DARK HORSE SETTLES
 THE SENATORIAL FIGHT
McMiIiin stays in the Race to the End But the Combination of Fusion- fists Defeats the Regular
 Democrat

Nashville, January 23.--Striking at
 the psychological moment today won
 for Luke Lea the United States sem
 atorship in the fight before the legis-
 iature over the seat soon to be made
 vacant by the retirement of James B.
 Frazier. At 10 o'clock this morning
 Mir. Lea said he would not allow his
 name to be used today. At II o'clock
 today the fusionists had decided to
 vote solidly for one candidate, but for
 whom they did not know. At 11:3o
 they had decided to drop B. A. Enloe,
 whom they had been supporting, and
 go over to Mir Lea, who had just
 given his consent to being put In the
 race. When the last name had been
 called on the roll call of the joint
 Der who had refused to vote went into
 the Lea column and later two were
 changed, giving him two more than the
 SC necessary to elect. MT. Lea Is 32 years of age and will have the honor
 of being the baby" senator and hold ing his first public office.
 Ills election came on tho eleventh ballot of the legislature and after one
 of the most complica ted fights in leg islative history. In the assembly are
 the regular democrats with 65 votes,
 the republicans with 34, and the inde- pendent democrats with B. Not only
 did candidates have the three factions to try to line up, but many other in- luences were at work including the prohibition question. Mir Lea received tl,, pendent democrats and the republicans
 and barely enough regular democrats to push him over the line. One of those republican votes was that of Represent
 tative Brown, who. with Representa- l lives Houk and Davis. also republicans,
 had refused to vote either with the re-
 publlcans or fusionists.
 | II was reared some time ago that the l man whom Benton McMlllin. regular dem- ooratic candidate would have to beat would be MT. Lea should he get into the
 race He could not control all of his votes and none of the fusionists
 Consequently when MT. Enloe withdrew this morning and MT. Lea was nominated the regular democrats nominated L. D. Tyson of Knoxville in an effort to keep the regular votes that McMillin could not  control from going to Lea, thus prolong- ing the battle. Tyson got Il votes, but they came from McMillin rather than from Lea's strength. McMillin boiled 4S, while his lowest to that time had been 5G and once he was within two votes of the goal.
 People here were on the qulvive today because 1t was expected that a senator would be elected this week and probably today, but they hardly knew whether to bc excited because they had seen combi- netion after combination fall through when it was supposed they had been sol idly lined up. Changes had come so rap idly no one knew what would happen from one hour to another. The statement | that Lea would not enter the race today was published today, and before the day was half over he had been elected. Such have been conditions since before the first ballot.
 When the final vote was taken the hall
 of representatives was damned with peo- pie as were the corridors leading to 1t. When it was announced that Lea had won an animated scene followed. The | many women in the crowd vied with the men in the noise making.