Shortly after the cooling of the Earth, I, then a much younger man, worked in two statewide campaigns in Ohio, during which lifelong friendships were forged and many colorful characters were met. No character was more colorful than “Jumpin’ Joe” Ferguson, who in 1970, at the age of 78, was returned by Ohio voters to the state auditor’s office, which he had previously occupied from 1936 to 1952.

Ferguson — a short, energetic man — earned his nickname by forever bobbing up and down on his toes, apparently to establish eye contact with his taller colleagues. In 1950, Jumpin’ Joe was the Democratic challenger to U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft, an Ohio icon nationally known as “Mr. Republican.”

During that campaign, Ferguson was asked his position on the two tiny Chinese Nationalist islands then belonging to Taiwan but coveted by the communist bosses of mainland China.