Lubbock, Texas ? Preston E. Smith, the former Texas governor known for his assortment of polka-dot ties and his old-fashioned electioneering, died Saturday, a Texas Tech University official said.

Smith, 91, died three days after entering Texas Tech Medical Center with pneumonia, said university spokeswoman Sally Logue Post.

Smith, a Democrat who was elected governor in 1968 and served two terms, relied on personal contacts and direct mail.

“We didn’t have any money,” Smith said in a 2002 interview. “People. That’s how we got elected.”

Smith focused on education and criminal justice, pushing for the first comprehensive drug abuse program in Texas. He was also instrumental in passing the state’s first minimum-wage law.

Smith’s second term as governor was dominated by fallout from an influence-peddling scandal that resulted in the defeat of many long-term officeholders in the 1972 election.

Smith had been associated with Texas Tech for more than a decade, helping raise about $500 million.

Born March 8, 1912, Smith grew up one of 13 children of a poor tenant farmer.

When he was 8, Smith decided that he would one day become governor.

When he ran for lieutenant governor the first time, then-Lt. Gov. Price Daniel encouraged him to do something to be a little different, Smith said. He was staying at a downtown Dallas hotel and saw a sale on ties across the street. He bought three black and white polka-dot ties for $1 and the polka-dot design remained his trademark.

He estimated he had at one time as many as 2,500, as people sent them to him from all over the world.

Smith remained critical of modern-day electioneering.