Linda Lorraine Smith, October 14, 1947 (Los Angeles, Calif.) -
VP candidate for American Political Party (1992)
Running mate with nominee: George Leonard Berish (b. 1947)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
George L. Berish, a Honolulu professional actuary, was nominated in a convention comprised of six people in the fall of 1991. Berish called his organization the American Political Party.
"It seems that more people don't vote than do vote," Berish said, "Government's response is to blame the voter. My response is the system doesn't produce the candidates different enough or interesting enough."
Berish promised "a return to more fundamental ethical concepts which hold that there is a universal meaning to what things and which conduct are 'good.'" He identified himself as pro-schools of choice, pro-abortion, pro-single federal sales tax rather than income tax, and minimizing the impact of cultural/ethnic identity on political decisions.
Berish selected Linda L. Smith, who had considerable public service experience at the federal and city level, as his running-mate. Smith, who was one of Berish's neighbors, explained her decision to become the VP: "George has a long-run view. He's seriously looking at the year 2000 ... I'm doing what I can to help him."
One syndicated newspaper piece stated, "Mr. Berish is seeking a party logo to go along with his platform. For the moment, he has imaginatively settled on the American Owl with the slogan, 'Whooo would you vote for?'"
Hawaiian officials would not place the ticket on the ballot because of the Constitutional provision that both candidates on the ticket cannot be from the same state. Throughout history using this rule has been unevenly applied, in 1960 the Henry B. Krajewski/Anna Marie Yezo ticket on the Poor Man's Party in New Jersey were denied ballot access due to the residential question even though Krajewski had run for President twice before under the same conditions.
While Berish solidified into an anti-Establishment quasi-perennial candidate as the years went on, Smith proceeded to work for Gov. Lingle of Hawaii, who had defeated Berish in the 2006 Republican primary.
Election history: none.
Other occupations: White House budget analyst, Director of Administration - White House Office of Management and Budget, Director of the Executive Secretariat in the US Dept. of Transportation, Director of the US Navy Automated Data Programming Dept. at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu City Finance Director 1987-1989, Pacific Allied Products 1989-2003, Senior Policy Advisor for Gov. Lingle (Hawaii) 2003-2010, Angel Capital Association, columnist
Notes:
Relocated to Nevada 2012.
Original surname: Hesselrode.
Worked in the administrations of Nixon, Carter and Reagan.
