Robert M. La Follette

As Wisconsin governor from 1901 to 1906, La Follette built the 'Wisconsin Idea': direct primary elections replacing party conventions, a railroad commission to regulate rates, heavier taxation of railroads and policy drafted with University of Wisconsin experts. Other states copied the primary and regulatory model, and Wisconsin's first state income tax followed in 1911 from the same reform coalition. He went on to the Senate and ran for president in 1924 as a Progressive, winning 17 per cent. Critics saw a political machine of his own in the reform movement.