Noted Political Scientist, Electoral College Expert Lawrence Longley Dies

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence Longley, a political scientist at Lawrence University, one of the nation's leading authorities on U.S. presidential elections and an outspoken critic of the electoral college died Wednesday (3/20) after a two-year battle with cancer. Longley was 62.

A member of the Lawrence University government department since 1965, Longley was a prolific chronicler of politics and political institutions. He was the author or co-author of more than 100 books and studies, including "The People's President" and "The Electoral College Primer 2000." That book's fictional opening chapter -- "The Election of 2000 is Not Quite Decided: A Fantasy," which was written in the spring of 1999 -- foretold of a presidential election crisis not unlike the real one that subsequently unfolded between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Longley was a long-time member of the Democratic National Committee and served as a member of the DNC's Executive Committee in 1996 and 1997. He also served as a U.S. presidential elector in both the 1988 and 1992 presidential elections, casting one of the 538 votes which actually elect the president. Locally he served as area campaign leader for presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart and Edmund Muskie during their bids for the White House.

His expertise on the electoral college and its process earned him a consultant's role to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee throughout the 1970s and 1990s. On numerous occasions, Longley was invited to Washington to testify as an expert witness or contribute research findings to U.S. Senate hearings on electoral college reform.

He appeared as an election day guest on NBC's "The Today Show" in 1976 and his calls for the abolishment of the electoral college earned him frequent interviews by media outlets around the country, including C-SPAN, National Public Radio, CNN and The New York Times.

Longley was twice awarded distinguished Fulbright lectureships, serving as the John Marshall Chair in Political Science at Budapest University of Economics in 1994-95 and the Thomas Jefferson Chair in American social studies at the Netherlands' Nijmegen University in the fall of 2000.

A native of Bronxville, N.Y., Longley earned his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and his master's and Ph.D. in political science at Vanderbilt University. In addition to his 37-year tenure at Lawrence, Longley served as a visiting scholar for a year at Northwestern University, guest lecturer in politics at Imperial College in London and taught in the Washington Semester Program of The American University.

He is survived by his wife, Judith, and two daughters, Rebecca Longley, Durham, N.C., and Susan Packel, Germantown, Md.