Historic Tidbit: The flamboyant yet fabled former Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, had a son who served in the Senate. Russell Long would win the seat a week shy of the Constitutionally minimum age of 30 in 1948. He would serve 38 years and rise to Chair the powerful Senate Finance Committee, where he’d become known as a force to be reckoned with on tax issues. While he’d never achieve the notoriety of his father, he’d still be a source of pride in the “Pelican State,” as voters would reward him with term after term with little opposition. And because Long’s mother, Rose McConnell Long, had briefly held the seat following Huey’s murder, Russell is to date the only individual to hold a seat in a body where both his parents served.
Pat Robertson, the evangelical ministry who often ignites controversy with his views and rhetoric, once had a pretty close role model. His father.
A. Willis Robertson, was a longtime politician from Virginia, a deeply religious man who culminated his career with three terms in the U.S. Senate. It came to a halt in a 1966 primary, when, post poll-tax, a State Senator named William Spong, riding a coalition from liberals and newly registered African-Americans, edged him out, one that also saw the unseating of House Rules Committee Chair Howard Smith, another longtime impediment to Civil Rights. He’d be the first member of the “Southern Manifesto” to lose his seat and his loss would signify the beginning of the still continuing transfer of power from rural to urban in the land of Jefferson.
Robertson came to power as part of the famous “Byrd machine,” the state’s former Governor turned Senator whose politics had ruled the “Old Dominion” with an iron fist for close to half a century. While the duo parted on some matters, their basic philosophy was the same. Both were members of the close knit-southern group of Senators often referred to as the “neanderthal caucus.”
Robertson himself had been in politics nearly all of his adult life. He won a seat in the Virginia State Senate at just 28 in 1915, and in an era when race was far from the forefront, was actually quite liberal. The Robertson Road Act provided money for localities to meet their transportation needs, and he worked to establish the state’s first highway department. Robertson was very much in favor of preserving natural resources and during his Governorship, Byrd appointed him to the Commission on Game and Inland Fisheries. Upon winning his Congressional seat in 1932, Robertson continued his environmental crusade. But he also opposed nearly all of FDR’s “New Deal,” making an exception for, as the Encyclopedia of Virginia points out, the National Recovery Administration and the Soil Conservation Act.
Robertson twice tried to become the Commonwealth’s Governor but could never win Byrd’s endorsement. When a Senate seat opened in 1948, Byrd stayed neutral and Robertson, after actually withdrawing from the race twice, eventually won the convention’s endorsement and the seat.
In the Senate, Robertson would rise to chair the Banking and Currency Committee and would author the Financial Institutions Act. He backed the Marshall Plan, which many, including Byrd, had opposed, as well as Adlai Stevenson for the Presidency. But his position on Civil Rights — and essentially any disputed social program, was solidly conservative, and that will ultimately seal Robertson’s place in history.
After the Supreme Court issued Brown vs. Board of Education, Robertson, like most of the southern caucus, signed the “Southern Manifesto,” but as the Encyclopedia notes, privately had reservations about the “advisability of closing public schools” in the 1950s,” fearing that it would hurt “from stem to stern.”
Still, Robertson’s opposition to Civil Rights was genuine enough that when Lyndon Johnson was in Virginia, he denied the President’s request for a meeting on the issue. But he opposed labor unions, much federal spending, and the “Great Society.” As a result, Johnson personally recruited Spong to seek the seat.
As the 1966 election approached, Robertson was turning 79. Many Democrats had hoped he would retire. He did not, though there seemed to be little standing in the way of another term. Enter Spong. The State Senator would be described by the New York Times as having “heavy, dark-rimmed tortoise-shell glasses and a low-key speaking style.” But they proved to be just the necessary ingredients.
Robertson cited his influence for Virginia but Spong said he voted against many of the programs. The duo got into a tit-for-tat over state politics, with Robertson trying to tie Spong to the Kennedy administration for having the backing of Kennedy’s State Chair, ex-Governor Battle. What especially hurt Robertson was his close association with the financial industry. The Chairman of the Manufacturers Trust Company had penned a letter urging his shareholders to reward Robertson with a cash “thanks” for his efforts on their behalf. Robertson hired a banking lobbyist to serve on his official staff, and Congressional Quarterly noted “quotas” were assigned to banking officials for Robertson campaign funds. Some employees said they were “pressured” into making donations. Robertson contended that “they simply think I know more about banking than any other member of the Senate or House.”
William Spong (findthedata.org)
Robertson returned fire by tying Spong in with the labor unions. Spiong said it totaled just $300. But age was an issue with voters as well, as Spong attacked Robertson’s absenteeism, which Robertson said was a myth when it came to legislation that impacted Virginia. “Any value that (Robertson’s) seniority might have has been diminished by his absenteeism. The people of Virginia deserve a full time, not part-time senator.” In that vein, Robertson sought to display the benefits of his seniority, but Spong said he voted against many of the pertinent programs critical to the Commonwealth. Robertson responded that his position on Appropriations “comes in handy when we go to get the money…if we pay the taxes, I’m there to get what’s coming to us.”
Robertson was also hurt by the age of his ideas. In attacking Robertson’s opposition to the 17th Amendment, which gave voters the right to elect their Senator’s, Spong said Robertson was “living in another century.” At the end of the day, with change slowly coming to the “Old Dominion,” that became the issue at hand. Robertson himself acknowledged he “got into a little more of a race than I had anticipated.”
Primary night was startlingly close. Byrd had recently resigned his seat for health reasons (he’d die a few months later), and would be replaced by his son. The younger Byrd narrowly escaped defeat. Howard Smith would come up a few hundred votes shy in his bid for a 19th term. And ditto with Robertson. Complete returns showed him trailing by 764 votes, and a recount narrowed it to 611 votes. Robertson congratulated Spong and vowed to back him in the general election, which he won. While Alabama’s Lister Hill had escaped defeat by fewer than 10,000 votes in the 1962 general election, Robertson would become the first of the “neanderthal caucus” to actually be unseated due to the winds of change.
Robertson would not have lived to serve a full term even had he won. He died in 1971 at 84.