They quite litterally ruled the state with a political machine supported by revenues from moonshiners and brothels. Those "businesses" paid off the machine to keep the dry laws in place (giving the moonshiners a monopoly) and to not crack down on their other activities. This scheme was broken when in 1966 Claude Kirk became the first popularly elected GOP governor in state history. He immediately began a clean-up by ousting 17 county sheriffs. In four years, Kirk broke the financial underpinnings of the Democratic Party's racist and corrupt political system.