Earl Long - "Uncle Earl"

"Uncle Earl"

The colorful "Uncle Earl" (so-named because of his relatives, including nephew and U.S. Senator Russell Long) once joked that one day the people of Louisiana would elect "good government, and they won't like it!" Beneath his public persona as a simple, plain-spoken rural Louisianan of little education was an astute political mind of considerable intelligence. Earl Long was a master campaigner, who attracted large crowds when his campaign caravan crisscrossed the state. He would not allow a local person to introduce him or his ticket mates at a rally. Only out-of-parish people could do the honor. Long reasoned that nearly any local person would have made some political enemies who might reject Earl Long just because that person's "enemy" was pro-Long. Long was determined to get every vote possible even if that meant forbidding the local leadership to introduce him when he came to town on a campaign swing.