Sonny the Dog
VP candidate for Finicky Party (1988)
Running mate with nominee: Morris the Cat II (ca1978-1997)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
I finally found the 1988 running-mate with Morris the Cat. It was Sonny the Dog. It took some digging (heh-heh, get it?). Yup I got the scoop on this one (bwhahahaha! [slaps his knee])
9-Lives cat food launched a commercial promotional campaign in Aug. 1987 using the Presidential race as a vehicle, nominating their orange tabby spokesfeline, Morris the Cat. Running as an independent (what would you expect? Morris was a cat after all) Morris enjoyed a higher national name recognition than several of the major party candidates early in the campaign season. The Leo Burnett Company handled the public relations.
The 1988 nominee was actually the second Morris the Cat. The original Morris died in July 1978 in his upper teens. Both cats were found in rescue shelters and in addition to being an advertising mascot, the popular Morris was also used to promote pet responsibility and raised money at charitable events for animal adoption agencies.
Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of 1984 Democratic Presidential nominee former VP Walter Mondale, was the spokesperson for Morris' first press conference. Seriously. You have to smile at this no matter what your place is on the political spectrum when you read her introduction: "May I introduce a candidate with the quiet demeanor of a Coolidge, the animal magnetism of a Kennedy, and with the honesty of a Lincoln, a candidate who may shed but will never shred, a candidate who stands four square behind the values of life, liberty and the pursuit of din-din."
There was a brief contest sponsored by 9-Lives in March 1988 to see if another cat could be the running mate with Morris, but that apparently did not get too far in terms of finding a suitable candidate. In April 1988 at an event in San Diego's US Grant Hotel called the Fur Ball, the Vice-Presidential nomination could be acquired when the vote was quite frankly bought with dollars donated to the San Diego Humane Society. You have to admire the total transparency here-- unlike some major and even minor parties we could name-- that money can quite frankly buy a nomination. The candidates were Sonny the Toyota-driving Dog, Tony the Llama (twice a candidate for Mayor of Ramona, Calif.), Spuds MacKenzie, Choplifter, Sandy the SPCA Dog, and KC the SPCA Cat. In an upset, Sonny supporters out-donated the odds-on-favorite Tony supporters, $465 to $181.
Sonny was used as a mascot for Toyota dealers in the San Diego area in the late 1980s. In local television ads he was frequently shown driving a pickup truck with a human passenger.
9-Lives withdrew Morris from the Presidential race in September. One spokesman explained why shortly after the election, "We thought Morris might win."
1988 would not be the last hurrah for Morris the Cat in politics. He ran again in 1992 and beyond.
Election history: none
Other occupations: dog
Buried: ?
Notes:
Not the first time a canine was a VP nominee, but it is the first time a cat and dog were on the same
ticket.
By a strange coincidence another Sonny in California, Sonny Bono, was elected the Mayor of Palm
Springs at the same time Sonny the Dog won the VP nomination.
