James Buckley, a Conservative Party member who represented New York in the U.S. Senate for one term, has died.

Buckley, the brother of the legendary conservative journalist William F. Buckley, won a three-way Senate race in 1970 and was the rare politician to serve in Washington who was not a registered member of either the Republican or Democratic party.

A maverick member of the Senate, Buckley may be best known for challenging federal campaign laws that placed limits on donors. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which struck down new limits on independent expenditures and self-financed campaigns.

Sen. Walter F. Mondale, D-Minn., left, chief sponsor of the $2.95 billion child care bill, and New York Conservative Sen. James L. Buckley listen at the Capitol to Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., before the Senate voted on the proposal on June 20, 1972 in Washington. (AP Photo)

Buckley lost his re-election campaign to Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1976 and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut in 1980. He later was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia by then-President Ronald Reagan.

“He was elected because people were becoming concerned that government was losing with people,” current New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar told NY1 political reporter Bobby Cuza on “Inside City Hall” Friday. “He was a conservative type [of] populus. He was soft-spoken, but a strong individual.”

“This was an individual with great depth, great knowledge,” he added.

Buckley was 100 years old.