Question About Hubert Humphrey And 1968

[Erc]

LBJ's influence was enough to secure Texas for Humphrey in '68, despite his absence from the ticket.

HHH has one of three strategies for regional-based VP selection:

1) A southerner--imitating Kennedy directly.  However, Humphrey's very strong civil rights record (dating from '48) & Wallace's presence on the ballot makes any Humphrey success hard, unless he really compromises his principles.  Humphrey, in real life, didn't crack 31% in any Southern state south of Virginia (excepting Texas)...placing third in every state but LA & MS (where Wallace's margin was so large it didn't really matter).   Making this up would be difficult, to say the least.

2) A Californian (or other Westerner).  Despite Nixon's nominal ties to CA, Nixon only won the state by three points.  Unfortunately, the Democrats didn't exactly have a deep bench in CA at the time.  The Democrats had no Senators (or notable former Senators) from CA at the time.  The best bet would probably be Pat Brown (Jerry's father), who had served eight years as governor from '59 to '67.  However, he'd just been defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan--and it's unclear whether someone who had just been thrown out of office would be an attractive VP candidate in the state.  On the plus side, however, there's the PR value of the man having beaten Nixon in the '62 gubernatorial race.

3) A Mid-Westerner...someone from Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, or any number of the very close states in that region.
Possibilities include:
Gov. Otto Kerner of Illinois -- in the end, would have been a negative, scandal-ridden addition to the campaign.
Sen. Stuart Symington of MO -- hard to say if he'd have helped to any major degree.