Gerald Long

Infobox_State Senator
name= Gerald I. Long
caption= Gerald Long
office= Louisiana State Senator from District 31 (Grant, Natchitoches, Rapides, Red River, Sabine, and Winn parishes)
term_start=January 14, 2008
term_end=
preceded=Kenneth Michael "Mike" Smith
succeeded=Incumbent
birth_date= birth date and age|1944|07|9
birth_place= Winnfield in Winn Parish, Louisiana, USA
death_date=
spouse= Rose Landry Long (married 1966)
children= Andrea Phillips, Pamela Jordan, and Richard Gerald Long (born 1976)
party= Republican
religion= Baptist
occupation= Educator; Businessman
footnotes=Gerald Long is the first member of the Long political family to have been elected to office as a Republican.

Gerald I. Long (born July 9, 1944), is a rare Republican member of the traditionally Democratic Long political dynasty in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Specifically, he is a third cousin of the late Governors Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and Earl Kemp Long. [ [http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080114/NEWS01/801140315 The Town Talk - www.thetowntalk.com - Alexandria-Pineville, Louisiana ] ] He was elected on October 20, 2007, to the Louisiana State Senate District 31, which includes Grant, Natchitoches, part of Rapides, Red River, Sabine, and Winn parishes in the north central portion of the state. He took office on January 14, 2008. Long and State Representative Rickey L. "Rick" Nowlin are the first two Republicans since Reconstruction to represent Natchitoches Parish in the Louisiana legislature.

Long political dynasty

Gerald Long is the only Long family member holding high office in Louisiana. Most Longites remained in the Democratic Party over the years. Another exception was the late Secretary of State W. Fox McKeithen, who switched parties and won four statewide elections as a Republican. Fox McKeithen's father, the late Governor John McKeithen, was a leading Long figure in the 1960s and 1970s, but the McKeithens were not relatives of the Longs.

Long and his twin brother, Carroll Long, were the last of eight sons born to Rubin Ray Long (1900-1966) and the former Ruby Smith (1906-1984). Rubin Long was originally a sharecropper in Winn Parish. Long's paternal grandparents were Thomas Jefferson Long (1861-1948) and the former Mary Ella Wright (1864-1902). Gillis William Long (1923-1985), a former U.S. representative from the defunct Eighth Congressional District of central Louisiana, was also a paternal grandson of Thomas Jefferson Long and hence Gerald Long's first cousin. An older brother, Jimmy D. Long (born 1931) served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1968-2000 as a Democrat from Natchitoches. In that capacity, Jimmy Long became known as a leading legislative authority on education, an area which would also become important in Gerald Long's career as an educator and a motivational speaker. Another brother is Dr. William Jackson "Bill" Long (born 1940), a former planning commission executive in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish, who was the publisher of "The Louisiana Business Journal" and a former weekly newspaper in Pineville known as the "Red River Journal". Gerald Long is also a distant cousin of former Pineville Mayor Floyd W. Smith, Jr., whose mother was a Long. Floyd Smith now resides near his native Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish. [ [http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=jimmy+d.+long+of+natchitoches+genealogy&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt&u=www.libertychapelcemetery.org/files/family/long02.html&w=jimmy+d+long+natchitoches+genealogy&d=XbIjkOxsOMgC&icp=1&.intl=us Yahoo! Search Results for jimmy d. long of natchitoches genealogy ] ]

Education, work history

Like his brothers, Long was educated in the Winn Parish public schools. He graduated from Winnfield Senior High School in 1962 and entered Northwestern State University in Natchitoches on a football scholarship. He obtained his bachelor of science degree in education in 1966, the year of his father's death. For the next four years, Long taught in Terrebonne and Vernon parishes. He also coached at Leesville High School in Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish in western Louisiana.

Long left teaching to become an insurance agent, a representative of the State Farm Company. He is a lifetime member of the President’s Club, which is earned by fewer than 2 percent of insurance agents nationally. While in the insurance business, Long was for nine years a volunteer for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Northwestern State. FCA, a national organization devoted to college, high school and junior-high students, attempts to instill moral and spiritual values in young people to prepare them for their future. In July 1999, Long retired from business to serve full time as the FCA representative for Rapides, Grant, Winn, Natchitoches, Sabine, and five other parishes. In the summer of 1966, Long married the former Rose Landry. The couple has three grown children, Andrea Phillips, Pamela Jordan, and Richard Gerald Long (born 1976). They also had eight grandsons as of November 2007.

Long has spoken before schools, civic organizations, churches, and senior citizens organizations. He has also been an interim Baptist pastor for four churches in the Natchitoches area. He is considered both a fiscal and social conservative. [For this and the preceding three paragraphs, see: http://www.longforsenate.org/about.html]

Election to the state senate

In the 2007 campaign, Long defeated the Democratic State Representative Thomas Taylor Townsend, a nephew of former State Senator Donald G. Kelly of Natchitoches who had unseated Jimmy Long in the 1999 jungle primary for the Louisiana House. Townsend, who ran to the political "left" of Long, did not seek a third term in the House but instead sought the open Senate seat, which was vacated by Democrat Kenneth Michael "Mike" Smith of Winnfield. [ [http://www.enlou.com/officeholders/senatedistrict31.htm Louisiana State Senate - District 31 ] ] Long procured 20,609 votes (54 percent) to Townsend's 17,699 (46 percent). Long won five of the six parishes in the district, having lost only in Natchitoches, the home of both candidates. He even won in Red River Parish, one of only two north Louisiana parishes that did not support Republican Governor-elect Bobby Jindal in the October 20 primary. [ [http://www400.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcmp&rqsdta=10200720012967 Louisiana Secretary of State-Election Results by Parish Inquiry ] ]

References