Architect of the Biggest Upset

Nov. 5, an exuberant James Longley proclaimed that evening, had been "the best day of my life." But the next day was even better. Within 24 hours, the 50-year-old insurance executive, who in winning the governorship of Maine became the first independent to capture a statehouse since 1937, found himself a national celebrity.

Dozens of reporters invaded his modest ranch house in Auburn. Telegrams from Senators, Representatives and ordinary citizens came in by the hundreds. One man from Keokuk, Iowa, called to say that Longley had given him new inspiration to run as an independent next time round. Longley, who called his one-candidate party "Longley for Maine," had engineered the surprise of the entire election, seeming in the process to carry to the ultimate the trend toward rejection of the party professional.

The son of a streetcar conductor in Lewiston, Longley is the model of the self-made man, the kind of person who jogs a mile every morning, needs only three hours of sleep a night, and avows that Ayn Rand is his favorite author. A fervent believer in the virtues of hard work, Longley as a youth labored in a textile mill to support his widowed mother and five sisters and brothers. After graduating from Bowdoin College, he went on to build one of the biggest insurance agencies in the state.

Urged into politics by two friends, Common Cause Chairman John Gardner and the late Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, Longley became disillusioned by the ineffectiveness of both major parties. Running independently, he conducted his campaign with the same hard-driving efficiency that marked his business success. Dozens of college-age volunteers, many recruited by his two daughters, Sue, 18, and Kathy, 21, gave the campaign a populist image, while substantial financial support came from associates in the insurance business. Most important, his almost messianic pitch that efficient business-type management could shave $25 million from Maine's state budget was convincing enough to gain him a 40% plurality in the polls (compared with Democrat George Mitchell's 37% and Republican James Erwin's 23%).

Longley has vowed to solve Maine's chronic economic backwardness by skillful budget paring and attracting new business. But as an independent, he faces unusual difficulties. Maine's state bureaucracy is as entrenched as any in the country. Longley, who on election night allowed, "I'm still a Democrat," may indeed have to shed his independent elective mantle to win legislative votes for his program. Still, the Governor-elect remains confident. He has already vowed not to seek reelection, in the perhaps naive hope that this will improve his chances for accomplishment, and he feels that his power of persuasion will carry him through. "They say this is an impossible dream," he asserts. "But nothing is impossible if you involve yourself enough in it."

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