governor. Party tickets were not run at that time, and Handley ran a separate campaign for office, advocating a significantly different platform than Craig, who was calling for many progressive reforms. Thanks in part to the popularity of Dwight Eisenhower, Handley won a landslide victory and defeated his Democratic opponent E. Spencer Dalton by 230,420 votes. In his role as President of the Senate, Handley became an early opponent of Governor Craig. Craig submitted a plan to reorganize the state's 141 agencies into eleven departments centralized under his leadership, a reversal of the reorganization Handley supported during his first term as a senator. Handley was able to kill all debate on the bill in the Senate and prevent it from passing. The short legislative sessions allowed Handley to focus most of his attention on his statutory offices, serving as the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commissioner of Commerce. He successfully attracted a number of companies to expand and move operations to Indiana, providing thousands of new jobs. He also used his position to build a considerable political base of support. A scandal in the state highway department was discovered just before the 1956 state Republican Party convention. It was found that three governor-appointed commissioners had accepted bribes to influence their decision in assigning construction contracts. Handley publicly blasted Governor Craig and blamed him for the scandal. Craig had been in a constant battle with the Republican leadership during his term, and they had largely prevented him from gaining control of any of the state's patronage system. Craig later accused Handley, Jenner, and others of purposely attempting to derail his reform agenda and using the bribery scandal, in which Craig was found to be uninvolved in, to tarnish his reputation to end his political career. Governor Campaign At the state convention, Handley ran for the nomination to run for governor with the backing of Senator Jenner. Although Craig tried to block his nomination, Handley was able to overcome his opposition and win the nomination. In the general election, his opponent was Democrat Ralph Tucker. The central election issues were the bribery scandal, the impending state budget deficit, and reform of the state health institutions. Handley also repudiated past governors who had taken federal grant money for selling out control of the state to the federal government. He said "Hoosiers refuse to stand in line in front of the treasury in Washington with