Marshal Tanchuck
VP candidate for America's Third Party (aka Cool Rock Party) (2008)
Running mate with nominee: David Jon Sponheim (b. 1960)
Popular vote: 1 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
David Jon Sponheim's career as a perennial Presidential candidate began in 2008 when he co-founded, along with his partner Sarah Hart, America's Third Party. The 6'4" former Democrat was a transplanted Californian who moved to [Washington State trivia alert!!!] Oak Harbor, Wash. around 1994. While Sponheim set his goal at the highest elected office in the country, Hart ran for the Washington State Senate that year under the ATP banner.
An advertiser and Web developer, Sponheim campaigned on web and social media platforms that were still a bit novel in 2008: Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, BlogTV, Blog Talk Radio, Twitter. Apparently he also started producing daily political podcasts at this time.
The ATP campaign was a press release machine, an example below--
Home › Blogs › AmericasThirdParty's blog
David Jon Sponheim Launches the 60 Day Run to the Presidency
Wed, 09/03/2008 - 17:23 — AmericasThirdParty
As many of you know, we are using all of our resources to focus on the 2008 Election. It's an extreme long shot, but there is a chance we will gain National Appeal before the Election.
WHAT THE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW: Over 55% of possible voters, don't even vote! If you could get your friends, who don't currently vote, to write my name in, I can win this election. It's that simple! We are launching an incredible YouTube Campaign right now. It is a true "Edgy" Campaign to get National Exposure. We just released our new videos, designed to shock Americans into noticing our Independent Political Policies. We are in the Middle of the Political Spectrum, but we are willing to take chances. Average Americans, of all Races, are being held back from government. We are being Economically Oppressed! Lack of educational opportunities, no health care support, and countless other inequities persist. As a small business owner, I am barely surviving in our economic climate. Barack Obama made $1 Million in 2006. He has NO IDEA what Americans are truly experiencing. I am not afraid to be different than the 2 Major Candidates. You can count on me to Get Our Troops Home, Create a Strong Border Control, Build a Mag Lev Trans Continental Railway, Mobile Medical Units, and Renewable Energy Solutions. I offer leadership that will get things done. I am not beholden to Big Money like the 2 Major Candidates. Your Vote for me will set this Nation on a true course correction. I want our key industries to get the support they need. I want to lower your taxes by cutting government waste. I want to resolve our differences overseas, and get our Men home from Iraq NOW. I have a plan to help refugees in that region that will need assistance, but that plan will not place our Men in harm's way. Enjoy the site, we are just getting started. Our goals are set on 2008, 2012, and 2016. Enjoy America's Third Party, it's your Party, not owned by Corporate America. - David Jon -
Sponheim claimed an IQ of 185 and has felt compelled over the years to provide scans of his birth certificate, Selective Service documents (even though he was never registered during an active draft or lottery assignment), and high school reports.
Running-mate Marshal Tanchuck hardly made a blip in the ATP 2008 literature. Twelve years of web erosion has obliterated what little information that was made available.
The Sponheim/Tanchuck ticket were registered write-ins in Maryland, Minnesota, Utah, and Washington. The Beehive State was the only jurisdiction to report any popular votes for them, which added up to a sum of 1.
Sponheim has consistently attracted more negative and energetically hostile attention than most Presidential candidates in his write-in status level for some reason. Shortly after the 2008 election his sister Connie Bauer told Independent Reporter:
I didn't know he even was doing this until my cousin Susan told me and I was totally blown away by this because it's so ... I looked it up in psychology books and it’s called delusional psychosis. He needs some anti-psychotic meds in order to get himself straight again. This is what’s called grandiose or delusional psychosis.
I've been irritated by his baloney he's been handing out. He's scamming people and I am upset about that.
He is a smart man, but when I listen to him I hear very little public speaking experience, he is not well read and does not follow the news. This is a critical point when he is trying to build interest. Who is he interesting to? People who are in the same boat as himself. So a wider audience will not surface I believe.
The fact that he said he had no family the other night (on his live broadcast) really irritated me. He's got tons of family all over the United States — he just chooses to be really rude to them.
I've got pictures of David as a child, he and I together. He was at my wedding, so I've got him at the wedding. I've got access to all of David's history. Mom and Dad moved up to the Northwest to be near me and my baby, so David moved them (up here) because he was living with them through the age of forty.
He was always living off them; he never had to work much.
Among Sponheim's responses--
We've got ultimate attacks constantly, and this has been going on for some time. As you can see, it's even happening from my own family. And I told you guys about two or three months ago when it first started this would be happening.
It's gonna get worse. The attack on everything we're doing here, the amount of work we're doing right now is so focused and so intelligent for this country, that stupid, mindless, insipid people are our worst enemies. Einstein said that great spirits will always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds. And that's exactly what we’re dealing with here. I'm a brilliant person who has great, inventive ideas for America and there's really no reason why I can’t be your president, technically.
If I can identify a running-mate, I'll be covering Sponheim's future Presidential runs as well.
Election history: none
Other occupations: ?
Notes:
Sponheim also ran for the Washington State House of Representatives in 2014 as a Democrat.
