Kenneth Hood "Buddy" MacKay Jr. (born March 22, 1933) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 42nd governor of Florida for 24 days from December 1998 to January 1999, upon the death of Lawton Chiles. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 14th lieutenant governor of Florida from 1991 to 1998. During his career, he also served as a state legislator, a U.S. representative, and special envoy for the Americas. Early life MacKay was born to a citrus-farming family in Ocala, Florida, the son of Julia Elizabeth (Farnum) and Kenneth Hood MacKay. He served in the United States Air Force during the 1950s, and then attended the University of Florida, where he was tapped into Florida Blue Key and eventually received a law degree. MacKay was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame (the most prestigious honor a student can receive from UF) and was a member of The Board. He married Anne Selph in 1960; the couple has four sons. Political career MacKay was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1968, and to the Florida Senate in 1974. From 1983 to 1989 he served for three terms in the United States House of Representatives. In 1988 he received the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, but lost in a very close race for that office to Connie Mack III. Lieutenant governor MacKay won the 1990 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor on the ticket headed by former U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles, who had held the Senate seat MacKay had unsuccessfully sought two years earlier. They won the election and were re-elected in 1994, the latter campaign being a close contest against the Republican ticket headed by Jeb Bush. As lieutenant governor, MacKay was co-chair of the Florida Commission on Education, Reform and Accountability. He was regarded as the most significant and powerful lieutenant governor in Florida's history. MacKay was a strong supporter of the use of capital punishment, as Chiles was. When he was asked during the 1998 gubernatorial election campaign about his positions on use of the death penalty and electric chair in Florida, he replied: "I support the death penalty and support the use of the electric chair so long as it operates in a reliable fashion." However he suggested that Florida should change its mode of execution after Pedro Medina's botched execution, saying: "The last