Russell Long, senator for 32 years, dies

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Russell B. Long, a Louisiana Democrat who greatly influenced the nation's tax laws during more than 32 years in the Senate, died last night. He was 84.

Sen. Long suffered apparent heart failure at his Washington home and was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, his family said.

The former senator was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1995 but remained active. He and his wife, Carolyn, had gone to a movie earlier last night, said his granddaughter, Audra Snider.

Sen. Long was the only person ever preceded in the Senate by both parents. His father, the legendary Huey P. Long, was assassinated during his Senate term in 1935; Rose McConnell Long served out her husband's term.

Russell Long first was elected in 1948 — one day before turning 30, the minimum age for serving as a senator. He won by 10,000 votes, but no opponent ever came that close again.

Sen. Long was considered a master at Senate debate; it often was said that he was one of a handful who actually could change a vote by the force of his arguments. He knew Senate rules, and his unpolished, sometimes-stuttering manner of speech and his corn-pone humor often lulled an adversary into complacency.

But most of all, Sen. Long knew tax laws. He began serving on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee in 1953 and was chairman from 1966 until Republicans gained control of the Senate in 1981. Sen. Long was able to argue the finest points of tax law with corporate executives or the "liberal reformers" he sometimes disdained.

"He knows the tax code about as thoroughly as the pope knows the Lord's Prayer," one of those "reformers," Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., once said.

Sen. Long often was accused of using his influence on tax matters to benefit the oil-and-gas industry, a source of much of his personal wealth. But he defended his votes as aiding a major economic force in his home state.

He was a champion of tax breaks for business in general, remarking on one occasion, "I have become convinced you're going to have to have capital if you're going to have capitalism."

He told Louisiana state legislators that they ought to do away with business taxes to lure more jobs. Business and industry continue to pay the bulk of state taxes.

Sen. Long's proudest accomplishments in the tax laws were the earned-income credit, which rewards poor, working families for staying off welfare rolls; the provision allowing a taxpayer to earmark $1 of taxes for a presidential campaign-finance fund and a 1975 provision allowing a tax break for businesses that help workers buy a share of the company.

As much as any other piece of legislation, that last provision reflected Sen Long's admiration for his father, who was elected Louisiana governor and then senator on a platform of "every man a king."

"My father was the greatest man I ever knew," Sen. Long once said. But he conceded that he and his father had different ideas about populism. "He wanted to tax it away from those who had it," the younger Long once reflected. "I wouldn't keep anybody rich from getting richer."

Russell Long's Democratic colleagues elected him assistant majority leader in 1965. By his admission, he began drinking heavily and often was seen drunk on the Senate floor. That and his stubborn defense of Sen. Thomas Dodd, D-Conn., against allegations of campaign-fund irregularities led to Sen. Long's defeat by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., for the No. 2 leadership job in 1969. The drinking stopped later, and Sen. Long retained much of his power.

He retired in 1986 to a Virginia farm and did some lobbying work.

Sen. Long was born in Shreveport, La., and received his bachelor's and law degrees from Louisiana State University.

He was a naval officer during World War II and later served as executive counsel to an uncle, Earl Long, a two-term governor.

Sen. Long is survived by his second wife, the former Carolyn Bason; two daughters from his first marriage, Rita Katherine Long and Pamela Long Wofford; a brother, Palmer; and a sister, Rose Long MacFarland.