Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer sounds like a name conjured by a writer like Margaret Mitchell, who wrote “Gone With the Wind.” The very name makes one think of Southern aristocracy, and while Lansdale Sasscer lived in a Border State, he was certainly born to the manor. Sasscer was a resident of Marlboro, Maryland, and lived in the Digges-Sasscer House, a historic landmark. For decades, Lansdale G. Sasscer was recognized as one of the most influential and prominent men in the southern part of Maryland. Sasscer had a long political pedigree as well, having first been elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1922 when he was 27 years old. Reelected three times with ever-increasing majorities, Sasscer climbed up the ladder, becoming majority leader and then president of the state Senate in 1937.
Lansdale Sasscer was a resident of Prince George’s County, and through his long career and life, he witnessed it change from a largely rural area to a decidedly urban setting.
Lansdale Sasscer certainly looked the part of a statesman, nattily tailored and distinguished-looking with a full head of white hair. A lawyer by profession, Sasscer was a veteran of the First World War and kept significant interests, deeply involved in the banking industry as well as owning several tobacco farms in Maryland. Throughout his political career, Lansdale Sasscer was usually to be found on the side of the powers that be, and the biggest power that could be during Sasscer’s time in the Maryland State Senate was Governor Albert Ritchie, who apparently intended to be governor-for-life. Ritchie was upset in the 1934 election by Republican Harry W. Nice, and Sasscer played the role expected of the leader of the opposition, oftentimes ignoring the GOP chief executive’s legislative program or simply sentencing it to a quick and merciful death. Sasscer and his fellow Democrats tried to rule Maryland through the legislative process during the four years Harry Nice served as governor.
In 1938, Lansdale Sasscer joined a fractious gubernatorial primary which was dominated by Maryland Attorney General Herbert R. O’Conor and Howard Jackson, who was the mayor of Baltimore. Sasscer proved to be quite adept at maneuvering politically and did much to aid eventual nominee Herbert O’Conor’s election over Republican incumbent Harry W. Nice in the general election. When Congressman Stephen W. Gambrill was carried away by a sudden heart attack after having just been reelected to another term, Lansdale Sasscer was unanimously selected by the Democrats of Maryland’s Fifth Congressional District to be the nominee in a special election. Maryland was then, as now, a largely Democratic state, and Sasscer won a thumping victory over Republican A. Kingsley Love, winning just over 83% of the vote in the special election on February 3, 1939. Congressman Sasscer was renominated by an equally large margin when he ran for a full term in 1940. The Republican nominee that year, John Torvestad, fared little better than Kingsley Love, polling 29% of the vote and losing by more than 34,000 ballots.
As a congressman, Sasscer moved quickly to concentrate upon providing prompt service to constituents, answering his mail, remaining accessible, and extending every courtesy to the residents of his district. Sasscer paid especially close attention to road projects inside his own district. Another of the congressman’s pet projects was trying to get more Washington traffic through Baltimore’s Friendship International Airport. That helped Congressman Sasscer to entrench himself deeply inside Maryland’s Fifth Congressional District. 1942 was a year in which many Democratic candidates did poorly at the polls due to the growing dissatisfaction amongst the voters. The United States was deeply engaged in the Second World War following the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire. 1942 was the worst year for the United States during World War II, as things were not going as well as hoped. The Axis Powers of Germany and Japan seemed to score victory after victory. Even so, Lansdale Sasscer was easily reelected, beating John Torvestad in a rematch by 16,595 votes. Torvestad had managed to pull his percent up to a third of the vote with the remaining two-thirds going to Congressman Sasscer.
Lansdale Sasscer was routinely reelected every two years from his district and suffered from few political problems inside his own bailiwick. With reelection came seniority and having an affable nature, Sasscer won the respect and affection of many of his colleagues in the House. Eventually, Sasscer became the dean of Maryland’s congressional delegation in the House of Representatives. One contemporary described Lansdale Sasscer as “a thorough country leader in the old days and pretty well the leader of Southern Maryland while in Congress.” “He was easy-going and capable, accomplishing a good deal for that part of the country, working on things that make the State run,” that same colleague recalled.
During the 1952 Democratic National Convention, it was Lansdale Sasscer and former US senator Millard Tydings, along with former Maryland Comptroller E. Brooke Lee, who crafted a compromise that kept the delegates from Virginia in their seats. The Dominion State’s delegates had bitterly rejected the idea of signing a loyalty pledge and threatened to walk out of the convention. Many southern delegates had left the convention in 1948, causing a deep split in the Democratic Party. The Marylanders cobbled together a compromise that the Virginians found acceptable, keeping them from bolting the Democratic Party once again.
That same year, US Senator Herbert R. O’Conor announced he was not going to seek a second term, leaving the Democratic nomination open. Congressman Sasscer announced his own candidacy and was supported by virtually every member of Maryland’s Democratic Party establishment. Then George P. Mahoney announced his own candidacy for the senatorial nomination. Mahoney had blazed across the Maryland political landscape like a meteor when he ran his first statewide campaign in 1950. Mahoney had challenged Governor William Preston Lane inside the Democratic primary. Mahoney polled just over 50% of the votes while Governor Lane polled only 45% of the popular vote, but Maryland decided elections on the basis of a county unit plan, much like the national Electoral College. Mahoney garnered 191,000 votes to only 173,000 for Governor Lane. The bitterness of the contest caused Lane to lose the general election to Republican Theodore McKeldin.
George Mahoney, a successful contractor, had a flair for attracting publicity to himself as well as having the ability to pinpoint issues that spoke to working-class Democrats who flocked to his political banner by the thousands, much to the anguish of the “better set” of Democrats. Congressman Lansdale Sasscer was upset inside the Democratic primary by Mahoney. George Mahoney rolled up a majority of 22,000 inside the City of Baltimore alone, winning the nomination by just over 14,000 ballots. Sasscer had run quite well in many of the rural areas but could not overcome the deficit inside Baltimore and Baltimore County. Mahoney proved to be God’s perpetual gift to Maryland’s Republican Party. Mahoney would become a perennial candidate for statewide office but could never be laughed off in any campaign. When he won against a deeply divided field for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1966, it led to the election of Republican Spiro Agnew, who two years later was elected Vice President of the United States with Richard Nixon. Lansdale Sasscer, like William Preston Lane before him, became one of a number of Democratic candidates whose careers were ended by the political wrecking ball known as George Mahoney.
There were increasing signs of division when a Democratic organization in South Baltimore revoked its endorsement of Congressman Sasscer to support Mahoney. The dissidents signed a fiery statement charging, “The same leadership that led the party to defeat in 1950, costing us a governor and a United States senator, is attempting to force Lansdale G. Sasscer on us as a senatorial candidate.” The statement proclaimed “we reject and resent” the effort to make Sasscer the nominee. “Lansdale Sasscer is a discredited politician who has spent 30 years on the public pay roll,” the statement read. “During that time he grew to be the acknowledged boss of the Democratic organization in Prince George’s County.”
When Congressman Lansdale Sasscer first announced his candidacy for the US Senate on December 1, 1951, he was aiming to challenge Senator Herbert R. O’Conor for the Democratic nomination. Sasscer’s announcement sounded very much like what one would expect from a patrician candidate. “Over the period I have been in public office (29 years), I have helped others to obtain gubernatorial and senatorial nominations from the Democratic Party, and I have postponed my own ambitions for what I believed to be the best interest of the party,” Sasscer said.
“The present situation in Maryland, however, is such as to favor my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the senatorship,” Sasscer announced to the audience at a Democratic dinner.
One of the chief beneficiaries of Sasscer’s support had been Herbert R. O’Conor in 1938 when both men were seeking the gubernatorial nomination of their party. For the first and last time, Democrats voted for their first and second choice. O’Conor and Baltimore mayor Howard Jackson were virtually tied in the county unit count when Lansdale Sasscer threw his support to O’Conor, which proved to clinch the nomination for Herbert O’Conor.
“I believe I can bring the different factions of the party together and make certain a Democratic victory next November,” Sasscer insisted.
A coalition of powerful Democrats had quietly been plotting Senator Herbert R. O’Conor’s political demise. Several possible candidates were discussed to run inside the Democratic primary, including Sasscer, James Bruce, a former ambassador to Argentina and the son of former United States Senator William Cabell Bruce, and former U.S. Senator George L. Radcliffe, who had lost his seat to O’Conor in 1946. Also mentioned was Baltimore mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. (Nancy Pelosi’s father). Among those promoting a challenger to Senator O’Conor was Dr. Harry C. “Curley” Byrd, president of the University of Maryland and a highly politically ambitious man. Others included State Comptroller Millard Tawes, Congressman Sasscer, and H. Street Baldwin, head of Baltimore’s County Commission.
What the warring factions of Maryland’s Democratic Party did not anticipate was that Herbert O’Conor would refuse to seek a second term. On January 13, 1952, Senator O’Conor made the announcement that he would not run again. “It is readily apparent that some of my views are at variance with those espoused by others,” O’Conor acknowledged in his announcement. “In candor I must admit a lack of sympathy with certain programs.” The senator was referring to certain aspects of President Truman’s policies which he did not support.
O’Conor’s announcement caused many to believe Lansdale Sasscer was as good as nominated. In politics, many things can be likely, but few things are a certainty. Many of O’Conor’s supporters flocked to the candidacy of George P. Mahoney, who was allied with the senator. O’Conor had appointed Mahoney to Maryland’s State Racing Commission, which helped Mahoney launch his political career.
Two weeks later, George P. Mahoney, then Maryland’s Democratic National Committeeman, made his own announcement, saying he had decided to run for the United States Senate.
Once again, George Mahoney derailed the best-laid plans of Maryland’s Democratic establishment, winning the nomination through both the county unit and popular vote. Mahoney polled better than 14,000 more votes than Lansdale Sasscer received. Republican congressman J. Glenn Beall (pronounced Bell) defeated Mahoney in the general election.
Lansdale Sasscer had given up his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to run for the United States Senate, and his defeat in the Democratic primary ended his political career. Sasscer resumed his law practice and tended to his various business interests and nudged along his son and namesake, Lansdale G. Sasscer Jr., who won a seat in Maryland’s House of Delegates.
The former congressman remained an influential voice in Maryland’s politics and the Democratic Party for the remainder of his life. Sasscer suffered a fatal heart attack at his home on the evening of Thursday, November 5, 1964; he was 71 years old.
© RAY HILL
