Elizabeth Cervantes Barron, March 14, 1938 (Los Angeles, Calif.) -
VP candidate for Peace and Freedom Party (1980)
Running mate with nominee: Maureen Smith (b. ca1942)
Popular vote: 18,116 (0.02%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
In 1968, 1972, and 1976 the Peace and Freedom Party had been an entity with national electoral ambitions and joined political confederations to form umbrella groups. By 1980 in the face of the rising wave of conservatism, the Party retrenched and settled on making California their focus.
The nonbinding PFP California primary election drew an ecumenical list of Leftists. The winner was Dr. Benjamin Spock (Presidential nominee of the PFP-backed People's Party in 1972) and the runners-up were Gus Hall (Communist Party USA Presidential nominee 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984), David McReynolds (Socialist Party USA Presidential nominee 1980, 2000), and Deidre Griswold (Workers World Presidential nominee 1980). At the following convention, in which Spock was absent, the LA Times reported "after considerable bickering, party delegates turned to Maureen Smith as a 'unity candidate.'"
Her running-mate was Elizabeth Cervantes Barron, a teacher who had run for other offices and successfully racked up enough percentage points in votes in the 1970s to have the PFP qualify for the ballot in 1980.
Smith, a clerical worker from Santa Cruz County told the press she expected the campaign would be working with a budget of only $1000.
"By voting for us, we'll tell the powers that be that you're tired of Carter and Reagan and the other politicians serving the corporate interests of this country," Smith was quoted by the press. "The challenge of the 80s is to establish an alternative system for socialism and feminism ... We're for full employment and worker ownership of industry. We're for affirmative action to be competitive with a white, male dominated society ..."
The PFP platform included support for disarmament, graduated income tax, rent control, Gay rights, socialized health care and opposition to deportation of undocumented migrants and the draft. Smith said the PFP was "the only Left" party on the ballot. In California, the lone state where the PFP was on the Presidential ballot in 1980, she very well might have been correct, although a few folks in Barry Commoner's Citizens Party might argue otherwise. David McReynolds, the Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA and not on the California ballot, endorsed the Smith/Cervantes Barron ticket.
Smith said she would consider 50,000 to 100,000 votes a success, or 0.50% to 1%. The results fell a bit short of that where they earned 0.21% of the vote. Cervantes Barron was also running for the California State Assembly as the PFP candidate in the same election and finished that race with 5.85%.
In the event they had won the Presidential election the fact that both candidates were from the same state would have posed a probable Constitutional crisis.
Election history:
1974 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1978 - California Controller (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1980 - California State Assembly (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1994 - US Senate (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
2006 - California Controller (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
Other occupations: teacher
Notes:
Plays the piano.
Winner of the 1994 race was Dianne Feinstein.
Joined the Peace and Freedom Party in 1967.
