Huey Long, a radical populist and former governor of Louisiana, ascended to become the Democratic presidential nominee after Franklin D. Roosevelt choked to death on his food at a convention. Long enacted radical income redistribution measures to curb poverty and crime. He initiated many lavish and impractical public works projects in the poorest areas of rural , where much of his base of support was located. He was accused of building for himself dictatorial powers as he centralised power in his hands. The degree of centralisation reached a point never before anticipated in American politics. He chose Howard Scott to be his Vice President in order to balance the ticket with a ‘Yankee’ and to obtain the services of the experts associated with him, most of whom had a command and control and