1933 - 1937: Al Smith / Cordell Hull (Democratic)
1961 - 1965: Lyndon Johnson / Frank Lausche (Justice)
1974 - 1977: John Sparkman / Curtis LeMay (Justice)
1977 - 1985: Bob Casey / Edward Hanrahan (Justice)
defeated, 1932: Herbert Hoover / Charles Curtis (Republican)
1937 - 1941: Huey Long / William Lemke (Justice)defeated, 1936: Al Smith / Cordell Hull (Democratic), Hamilton Fish / Frank Knox (Republican)
1941 - 1949: Huey Long / Sheridan Downey (Justice)defeated, 1940: Robert Moses / Hatton Sumners (Democratic), Frank Knox / Warren Austin (Republican)
defeated, 1944: Charles W. Sawyer / Millard Tydings (Democratic), John Winant / W. Kingsland Macy (Republican)
1949 - 1953: James Forrestal / Kim Sigler (Republican)defeated, 1948: George H. Earle / Willis Mahoney (Justice), Rose Long / Claude Pepper (‘Louisiana’ Justice)
1953 - 1960: Sheridan Downey / George Long (Justice)defeated, 1952: James Forrestal / Kim Sigler (Republican)
defeated, 1956: Thomas E. Dewey / John J. Rhodes (Republican), Joe McCarthy / Thomas Werdel (Independent Justice)
1960 - 1961: Sheridan Downey / Martin Dies (Justice) 1961 - 1965: Lyndon Johnson / Frank Lausche (Justice)
defeated, 1960: Thomas E. Dewey / Henry Cabot Lodge (Republican)
1965 - 1973: Lyndon Johnson / Pat Brown (Justice)defeated, 1964: Thomas E. Dewey / Harold Collier (Republican)
defeated, 1968: Pete McCloskey / Dan Evans (Independent - Reform in some states)
1973 - 1973: Pete McCloskey / Howard J. Samuels (Reform)defeated, 1972: Speedy Long / Roy Elson (Justice)
1973 - 1974: John Sparkman / vacant (Justice)1974 - 1977: John Sparkman / Curtis LeMay (Justice)
1977 - 1985: Bob Casey / Edward Hanrahan (Justice)
defeated, 1976: Tom Hayden / Paul Findley (Reform)
defeated, 1980: Tom Hayden / Bob Carr (Reform)
1985 - present: Malcolm "Mackie" Long / Charlotte Whitford (Justice)defeated, 1984: Tom Hayden / Bob Woodward (Reform)
Mackie Long's ascension to the Presidency in 1984 astounded Washingtonologists, disturbed foreign governments and delighted millions of voters who were nostalgic for the good ol' days with the Kingfish. One of the accepted rules of American politics was that Presidents clung onto power until they were knocking at deaths door; Lyndon Johnson only retired from frontline politics after he had smoked a hole in his chest after twelve years as President (and even then he was instrumental in leading the successful impeachment and imprisonment of Pete McCloskey), John Sparkman was already an old man when he was thrust into leadership, Sheridan Downey only lived another six months after his retirement, and Huey Long himself had to be dragged out of the White House after years of hard drinking and numerous assassination attempts had left him barely functioning. Bob Casey was affable, genial, at the peak of his power, relatively young and, most importantly, healthy - all that made his announcement in 1984 that he would not be seeking re-election that more shocking. While rumors of a palace coup, internal politicking and shocking scandals spread like wildfire, those close to Casey would only say that the Big Man (as he had become popularly known) was tired of intraparty politics and after eight years of getting what he wanted to get done done, was looking forward to spending his fifties and beyond with his family back home in Pennsylvania.
Malcolm Long (mononymously referred to as "Mackie" by most) was to most Washingtonologists little more than an amusing factoid. The son of Senator Russell Long and grandson of Huey, Mackie was in many senses the second coming of the Kingfish. While he bore little physical similarity to Huey (Mackie was tall where he was short, thin where he was fat), Mackie was boisterous, charismatic and ruthlessly ambitous; his background seemed tailor-made for a career in politics. While Mackie spent few years working out on the oil fields thanks to his good relationship with his uncle Palmer (one of America's first "energy barons"), he was part of the first wave of recruits to join up with the Army after President Johnson formally began the war in Panama, served a single tour as a DCO, before heading back stateside to work as a legislative assistant to Senator Alfred J. Jensen of North Dakota. Mackie, at the age of 26, had an impeccable resume and the most famous family name in all of America; at the age of 27, he became one of the youngest Mayors in American history after his election as the Mayor of Fargo.
Of course, since Mackie was Mackie, he left North Dakota for the Capital at the first chance he got. Gerald Nye, the titan of North Dakota, had retired from the Senate in 1966 after it became clear that his cancer was not in remission, and his appointed replacement had left a vacancy for North Dakota's at-large seat. Herschel Lashkowitz, the previous Mayor of Fargo and a rival of Mackie's for control of power in the state, won the initial special election while Huey geared up for a run in '68 (fearing that he'd be seen as "too green" in '66). Representative Lashkowitz, believing he had the support of President Johnson, retracted state contracts awarded to APEX (Palmer Long's own oil fiefdom) and began auctioning them off to the highest bidder - Mackie went crying to daddy, who in turn used his own clout and personal friendship with the President to bring down the full wrath of the White House on North Dakota. Herschel Lashkowitz (Lashkowitz, what kind of name is that? Now Long, that's an American name!) was bombarded with smears, slurs and slander for three months straight, while every Justice politician in the entire state was let known that if they went against Mackie they would be finding themselves out of a job next election, or worse. Mackie became a political star overnight, with the growing student movement against the White House seeing in him a possible ally in Congress (admittedly, this was only because he was 30 while the rest of the Congress was mostly geriatrics) while he brought back memories of Huey's time in the Senate to the old fogies. Marvelous Mackie, slickbacked hair, hip clothes, brilliant white teeth, the most handsome man in Congress. Magnanimous Mackie, a charitable, gladhanding and genial politician who would listen to his constituents for hours on end. Mad Mackie, the fiery, raving populist from the Prairie - he was everything to everyone, and most Americans saw him as a possible President some day. But he had to wait for his turn.
Johnson's refusal to seek another term in '72 was a shock to everybody, including himself (a devastating heart attack on Christmas Day, 1971 convinced him that he wouldn't survive another term - Johnson would die on February 19th, 1975), meant that the Party was left in a lurch. Speedy Long, the self-proclaimed "Redneck Prince" of Louisiana, stepped into the void, and since Speedy had seniority over Mackie (and Russell didn't want the job), Mackie put his ambitions on hold in the name of family unity. He would regret this decision soon enough - Speedy Long would lose a rigged election to a hippy-dippy DA and a "cosmopolitan" intellectual after it became clear that the student movement wasn't just anti-war, but pro-democracy. While the mechanisms and institutions that controlled the levers of power moved into action to correct this grievous error, the Long name was disgraced within the Justice Party. It clearly didn't hold the same power it did in the past, and Mackie found himself on the outs with his colleagues in the House.
So if he couldn't hack it in the House, he would just join his father in the Senate. The 1974 North Dakota Senate Election was, for a time, the thing that had killed Mackie Long's political career. His first mistake was to challenge Quentin Burdick, a liberal, anti-impeachment Senator who was increasingly on the outs with Party leadership - but had the full-throated backing of the North Dakota's Farmers Union and the angry young men that elected Pete McCloskey. While Daddy Long did his best to help out his son, President Sparkman was sympathetic to Mackie's campaign (more out of dislike for Burdick than anything else) but had bigger problems to deal with (namely, a domestic insurgency across the entire West) and didn't have much of a personal relationship with Russell, and there's only so much a Senator from Louisiana can do for an election in North Dakota. Crowds followed Mackie wherever he went on the campaign trail, but instead of cheering his name, they pelted him with food and called him a fascist. Union farmworkers and sympathizers began attacking Long supporters out in the street, the states powerful Native American community refused to let Mackie speak out on the reservations, and a bomb believed to be connected to notorious terrorist (or freedom fighter, depending on who you asked) Leonard Peltier nearly killed him while he was driving along the 3. While the Justice Party was nominally pro-union, Mackie screamed to high-heaven about supposed Soviet/Indian/Chinese communist subversives in the NDFU working to get Burdick another term, which ended up further incensing the many voters who had a relationship with the NDFU, which was the biggest union in the state and the 'third rail' of North Dakota politics. The primary was landslide victory for Burdick, and Mackie, humiliated, served another term in the House before "retiring" in 1976.
Although there were rumors that President Casey would offer him a comfy position in his Cabinet, possibly Postmaster General or Presidential Secretary, Mackie didn't return to politics and was mostly seen holding host with tired old film stars like Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan on the late-night circuits. It was an ignominious end for the once rising star of American politics; his claim to fame outside the States was mostly as the "Long family member who has a shitty talk show." That talk show, ironically, would be the thing that would save his career. Happy Hour with Mackie Long was initially a bust, a cheaply made program on the American Television Network (ATN) with a wheelhouse of unamusing party games and joke-book level humor that failed to bring in younger viewers. Mackie, who had underwent significant plastic surgery as he entered his forties to try and keep his youthful looks, went out and bombed on a nightly basis and came close to breaking his contract with ATN and leaving the program entirely. That is, until Mackie deciding to go in a different direction on the night Bob Casey announced he would not be running for reelection - mocking the "tired old ideas and the tired old men of the so-called Justice Party," he railed against the aging gerontocracy that would most likely pick one of their one to succeed the outgoing President. The media ran wild with it, headline's of "Mackie's Back!" splashed across every newspaper in the country and the morning news desperately trying to book interviews with the suddenly in-demand Long. That gerontocracy he attacked took notice, too - clearly the popular mood was against an old hand taking over and it's not like Mackie was ever a rabble-rouser until now, so why not bring him into the fold? Mackie, ever ambitious, jumped at the offer and joined back in the party he had become famous for attacking.
So for the first time since 1949, a Long is President. The crowds at his inauguration were delirious, the domestic press was approving, and while international observers were troubled by this upjumped talk show host with a famous last name, they at least hoped that he was a man they could do business with. Mackie has openly encouraged comparisons to the Kingfish, but now that he's President he might be taking after his grandfather a bit too much - he's beefed up White House security and his personal bodyguard to extreme levels, has reportedly been losing sleep, and has begun talking about plots to bring him down, from both outside the Capital and within...