his election paperwork the next day, on the final day petitions were accepted, with his papers signed by Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, a Republican, and by Downey campaign manager and 1946 Democratic senatorial candidate Will Rogers Jr. The publisher had been urged to enter the race by state Democratic leaders and by wealthy oilmen. He had no political experience; Democratic leaders had sought to draft him to run for the Senate in 1946, but he had declined. He later stated that his reasons for running were that the race would be a challenge, and that he would meet interesting people. Boddy, Douglas, and Nixon each "cross-filed", entering both major party primaries. Douglas called Downey's departure in favor of the publisher a cheap gimmick and made no attempt to reach a rapprochement with the senator, who entered Bethesda Naval Hospital for treatment in early April, and was on sick leave from Congress for several months. The change in opponents was a mixed blessing for Douglas; it removed the incumbent from the field, but deprived her of the endorsement of the Daily News—one of the few big city papers to consistently support her. Boddy versus Douglas For the first month of Boddy's abbreviated ten-week campaign, he and Douglas avoided attacking each other. Boddy's campaign depicted him as born in a log cabin, and highlighted his World War I service. The publisher campaigned under the slogan, "Manchester Boddy, the Democrat Every Body Wants." Boddy stated that he was fighting for the "little man", and alleged that the average individual was overlooked by both big government and big labor. However, his campaign, having a late start, was disorganized. The candidate himself had little charisma, and little presence as a public speaker. According to Rob Wagner, who wrote of the campaign in his history of Los Angeles newspapers of the era, Boddy "was all sizzle and no substance". The campaign calm broke off near the end of April 1950, when Boddy's Daily News and affiliated newspapers referred to the congresswoman as "decidedly pink" and "pink shading to deep red". At the end of the month, the Daily News referred to her for the first time as "the pink lady". Douglas generally ignored Boddy's attacks, which continued unabated through May. In a Daily News column, Boddy wrote that Douglas was part of "a small minority of red hots" which proposed to use the election to