Long was a fervent critic of a toll bridge being constructed across Lake Pontchartrain by incumbent Governor Oramel H. Simpson, instead promising a toll-free bridge. Long developed novel campaign techniques, including the use of sound trucks at mass meetings and radio commercials. His stance on race was unorthodox. Unlike other southern demagogues, Long was, according to T. Harry Williams, "the first Southern mass leader to leave aside race baiting and appeals to the Southern tradition and the Southern past and address himself to the social and economic problems of the present." The campaign sometimes descended into brutality. When the 60-year-old Simpson called Long a liar during a chance encounter in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel, Long punched him in the face.