Douglas Fitzgerald Dowd, December 7, 1919 (San Francisco, Calif.) - September 8, 2017 (Bologna, Italy)
VP candidate for Peace and Freedom Party (1968)
Running mate with nominee: Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Driven chiefly by Californians, the Peace and Freedom Party was organized in the mid-1960s and went national in an attempt to link together various contingents of the Left. At their Presidential nominating convention Aug. 17-18, 1968 in Ann Arbor, Mich. where Eldridge Cleaver was selected over Dick Gregory, a schism had already become obvious. Gregory would go on to outpoll Cleaver on Election Day.
Cleaver, the author of Soul on Ice and the Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, had little patience for the serious bickering that took place at the convention. When it came time to nominate a Vice-Presidential candidate, Cleaver suggested Youth International Party activist Jerry Rubin-- an idea that went nowhere as many considered Rubin to be too erratic, uncontrollable, and part of the Far Right of the Far Left. As the convention wrestled over this and other issues, Cleaver walked out in frustration and the matter was eventually left up to each state to select his running mate.
A member of the Socialist Workers Party took notes at this event and concluded:
Some Generalizations 1) The P&F movement is in a state of serious disarray. 2) The "coalition" with the Panthers had been badly shaken. 3) If Cleaver doesn't extricate himself from this mess soon he will rapidly and thoroughly discredit himself in the eyes of black militants inside and outside the BPP.
In April 1968, prior to being nominated, Cleaver was involved in a police shootout. Shortly after the election he felt obliged to jump bail and flee to Cuba.
The New York Peace and Freedom Party nominated Cleaver at their convention but struggled over the VP nominee decision which included Carl Oglesby who was a SDS leader and Jerry Rubin of the Youth International Party (Yippies). Enter stage Old Left, Doug F. Dowd a Cornell economics professor and mentor to Daniel Ellsberg, as well as one of Henry Wallace's 1948 Progressive Party managers.
As Dowd later recalled:
I just happened to be in New York the weekend on which they were having their convention, on the east side of New York ... And I thought, "well, as long as I'm here I may as well drop in on the goddamn convention before I go to Ithaca." So I go to the convention, which is a tawdry kind of thing in some creepy old hotel ... I walk in there: "Jesus Christ, Doug. Thank God you've come! You've got to be vice president!" "What are you talking about? .. I not only don't got to run for vice president, as I've told you I don't believe in this thing at all." "If you don't do it, Rubin's going to get it. Do you want Rubin to be running for vice president?" And they knew damn well I hated Jerry Rubin ... So I said, "Jesus, you've got to find someone else." "No, we can't find anybody else. It's too late. You've got to do it, Doug." So in order to keep Jerry Rubin from getting on this goddamn [ticket], I said "OK."
Rubin's supporters openly questioned whether a man who was in "a pinstriped suit with a martini in his hand" could be on the ticket. For his part, Dowd said the convention brought to mind "a bunch of little kids, high school kids, playing mayor for a day or convention for a day."
The newspapers reported that Dowd was a "stand-in" nominee who did not plan to campaign or serve in office if elected. But he did defend Cleaver in at least one long letter to the editor. As it happened the State of New York rejected the Peace and Freedom Party ticket from the ballot in late September on the grounds that Cleaver was too young to serve in office if elected. Around the same time the ticket had been invalidated, the name of Judith Mage replaced Dowd's in the court appeals.
No doubt the Cleaver/Dowd team earned some write-in votes in New York, but these were not recorded.
Election history: none
Other occupations: soldier (WWII), economist, university professor, author
Buried: ?
Notes:
"Most of the people of all the rich countries now work very hard – even harder – to pay for things that add little to the meaning or satisfaction of their lives. In doing so they contribute to a socioeconomic global system that has already ruined countless lives and that threatens to end all life. Many thoughtful and decent people think there is no reasonable alternative. But there is. And if not now, when?"--Douglas F. Dowd.
