It was the fall of 1979, and dozens of conservative activists gathered at the storied Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. They were clearly excited about the presidential candidacy of their hero Ronald Reagan and upset that fellow conservative icon and Illinois Rep. Phil Crane might draw votes from him in the Republican primaries.
But that wasn't the reason for the conservative conclave or the 1980 presidential contest. This was about a race for Congress five years early, in which Massachusetts lawyer and good-as-Goldwater conservative J. Alan MacKay waged an improbable race for Congress in the Bay State's 12th District and was left in debt.
When MacKay died on Dec. 3, his candidacy, his conservatism, and his downright goodness were recalled by his legions of friends.
Two years after liberal Democrat Gerry Studds won his first term over moderate Republican William Weeks by just over 1,000 votes, MacKay ran to show the GOP establishment what a true conservative could do. The answer was "much worse," as Studds won by a 3-to-1 margin over MacKay.
In the so-called Watergate year of 1974, it was out of the question that a Republican — much less a conservative — could take out Studds. It was also not surprising that it took MacKay more than five years to finally retire the bills from his quixotic campaign.
But he was helped to do so by such conservative icons as journalist M. Stanton Evans, National Conservative Political Action Committee Chair Terry Dolan, former Young Republican National Chair Roger Stone and then-wife Ann, and direct mail mogul Richard Viguerie. They roasted MacKay about everything from his modest showing at the polls to his straight-line way of living and dealing with life's problems.
And to no one's surprise, MacKay loved it all.
"Alan had an unlimited capacity to work toward objectives but he undertook that work in such a patient way that it startled those to whom he gave counseling in lawyering, and his wife and seven daughters," Randy Teague, his longtime friend and onetime top aide to Rep. Jack Kemp, R.-N.Y., told Newsmax.
Having graduated as valedictorian at St. Peter's Prep School in his native Jersey City (New Jersey), the young MacKay won a full scholarship to Holy Cross College and then a scholarship to Harvard Law School.
He took a position at the Cabot Corporation in Boston, where he worked aside the Cabots and Lodges and other Brahmin families. His conservatism was the polar opposite of their moderate philosophy but they never gave the partner who easily negotiated contracts with France and Algeria any grief about their differences.
But politics and the conservatism articulated by heroes of MacKay such as William F. Buckley, Jr, and Russell Kirk motivated him most.
"I met Alan in September 1962 at the first annual conference of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)," recalled Teague, adding that the two of them quickly became leaders in the organization of young conservatives. MacKay was national chair of the organization in 1971 and Teague was its executive director.
MacKay was one of the early supporters of the Fund for American Studies (then the Charles Edison Memorial Youth Fund) and, as secretary-treasurer, he worked closely with students who were academically qualified but needed help acquiring the tuition.
The internecine warfare of YAF and the purging of one faction of its board by another was something MacKay and his contemporaries faced and dealt with. A fellow YAF leader, David Keene (future head of the National Rifle Association), recalled that "Alan was calmer and more steady than most of us — hinting, quite perceptively, in contrast to the rest of us."
Other contemporaries noticed that MacKay was so unflappable that if the world ended, he would probably respond: "Thanks for letting me know. I'll catch it on the evening news."
This inner-calm may have come, friends of MacKay speculated, from his unconditional love for his wife of 62 years, Helen, their seven children, and 10 grandchildren. Or it may have come from his Roman Catholic faith, forged in the 1950s before the turbulent days of Vatican II. Wherever he happened to be in the world, he attended Mass daily.
Joseph Alan MacKay died at 88. He was universally remembered as a true gentleman and all-around nice guy — remarkable after a lifetime in advancing conservative causes in which he passionately believed.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.