Huey P Long

One of the most fascinating politicians I have never met. He was the Governor from 1928 to 1932, He was supposedly a very corrupt Governor, with many stories attached to his term in office. He was a very powerful man, who eventually was looking to run for President against Herbert Hoover.
He became very popular in Louisiana because he ordered the building of thousands of miles of roads, built the first bridges across the lower part of the Mississippi (named surprisingly the Huey P Long Bridge, we wrote about how scary this bridge is to cross when we came to New Orleans last year). He also opposed the power of Standard Oil (LA is very rich in oil) and removed the Poll Tax, yes you had to pay a poll tax if you wanted to vote, surprisingly few poor people voted in the state elections, white or black.
He was very unpopular amongst other politicians and Standard Oil, because he removed power from them and gave it to himself as well as enfranchising many poor people. He also sacked many hundreds of public officials and replaced them with his family, friends and people who had supported him in his campaign.
Arguably his biggest enemy was the President himself, as he had eyes on that office. He was appointed to the Senate (national) in 1930, but did not take up the post until he finished his governorship in 1932. He made many deals with people in Washington, pushing his doctrine that there should be wealth and work for all (remember this was at the height of the depression and the official line was to make drastic budget cuts), so powerful did he become in Washington that Franklin D Roosevelt was forced to create his 'Fair Deal' programme of public works and job creation, which was intended to cut the ground from under Long's feet, yet only succeeded in increasing his popularity.
In 1935 he was assassinated in a crowded corridor of the Capitol Building in 1935, supposedly by a Doctor Weiss. who was the son-in-law of a judge who had been removed by Long. Dr Weiss was shot dead at the scene by Long's security men, there were 61 bullets holes in him, they made sure that he was dead. Long died two days later. Weis's gun was not recovered at the scene, because he was not carrying a gun and it was found in his car! There was no Autopsy. Later (years later) forensic evidence showed that the gun was not the weapon that was used to assassinate Huey P Long. He was actually killed/murdered by his own security staff, for reasons unknown (though check on the enemies he had made). So Huey P Long was assassinated by his own men in his own building, before he could declare himself as a presidential candidate.
Many people think that had he lived he would have won the election in 1940 and been president during the war. Oh by the way his foreign policy was that he was an Isolationist - America should not involve itself with any foreigners.
There were some very interesting politics in those days. I urge you to read more abut him and his family on Wikipaedia and his official Bio page. The award winning book 'All The Kings Men' is a thinly disguised biography of him.