part of the agreement between the men, Fannin, who had received assistance from Williams during his 1958 run for governor, promised to help Williams in his run. As he began campaigning, Williams took a leave of absence from his position at KOY. This was done to avoid violating a 1959 change to the equal-time provision of the Fairness Doctrine and to allow him to campaign full-time. His opponents during the Republican primary were Arizona House Speaker John Haugh and former Arizona Attorney General Robert Pickrell. Haugh's political power was based in the southern section of the state. Williams was aided in Maricopa County by his increased name recognition from his time as mayor of Phoenix. Pickrell would quickly fall out of contention as the campaign developed. Williams and Haugh meanwhile ran on virtually identical platforms with both men promising to work more closely with the state legislature than the sitting governor. Results of the primary gave Williams a narrow victory over Haugh, with Pickrell finishing a distant third. Campaign for the general election quickly turned nasty with the incumbent, Sam Goddard, accusing Williams of running a "scurrilous" campaign predicated on "invective and accusation and character assassination." Williams responded by claiming Goddard had "made more mistakes in twenty months than all the other governors since statehood" and accusing him of "behaved like a petty tyrant scolding his subjects." Mudslinging continued for the course of the campaign with both candidates questioning the qualifications of the other. Williams used self-deprecating humor to deflect his opponent's attacks and as election day approached claimed "For the past two months Sam Goddard has been so busy thinking up new names to call me he's forgotten to talk about the issues." In addition to his own victory, Williams saw his party do well in races for the state legislature. This resulted in Republicans winning control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in Arizona history. As governor, Williams kept a relatively low profile. As explained by the Arizona Republic, "... partly because the state constitution doesn't give the governor very much power. But it's more because Williams is neither charismatic nor flamboyant. He is basically a team player who believes in appointing good men to top posts and then allowing them to run their departments." Politically, he was a hard-line conservative who worked to minimize taxes, balance the state budget, and provide a