Former Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, who died of a stroke Monday just weeks after leaving public office, was a bridge to an earlier time in North Carolina politics symbolized by straw boaters, mail-order galluses, chewing tobacco and a shrewd eye for the finer points of pit-cooked barbecue, deep-fried hushpuppies and fiery spirits that came in Mason jars.
He was a political descendant of such mainstays of N.C. politics as the late Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Graham and the late Secretary of State Thad Eure. Like Graham and Eure, Long was something of a character. Always ready with a quip or a wisecrack, the portly Long stood out in a crowd because of his bright red ties and the ready smile on his face. He loved a good argument and would willingly argue either side just for the conversational exercise. He was, as Hubert Humphrey liked to describe himself, a "happy warrior." Eure liked to call himself the "Oldest rat in the Democrat barn" and after he died, Long adopted the same slogan.
Long was one of the first politicians I covered when I began my newspapering career in Alamance County in the late 1960s. Long's father, George, and grandfather had been in the legislature, and he was heading that way too, serving from 1971 to 1975. He succeeded former Insurance Commissioner John Ingram in 1985 and often opposed insurance rate hikes while commissioner.
Long has an unusual distinction in N.C. politics. Not many office holders are able to name their successors and see them get elected, but last year Long waited until practically the last minute to announce he would not run again -- and to help a key aide, former state Rep. Wayne Goodwin, win the Democratic nomination and succeed him in office.
These past few weeks have not been good for public figures from Alamance. Former Gov. Bob Scott of Hawfields died, and so did N.C. State Coach Kay Yow. Well, she wasn't from Alamance, having grown up right next door in Guilford County's Gibsonville, close to the county line, but Yow coached several years at then-Elon College, now Elon University, and she had strong ties to Alamance. And now Jim Long has died. These colorful North Carolinians enlivened politics, sports, culture and public life for decades, and we are all the richer for their achievements.
