William Bradford Krones, January 5, 1954 -
VP candidate for Independent (2008)
Running mate with nominee: John Gary Nettles III (b. 1949)
Popular vote: 391 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Lane DeGregory, a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, introduces us to John Gary Nettles, the Independent write-in candidate for President known as "Gary"--
The Man Who Would Be President doesn't have a cell phone. Or e-mail. Or a computer.
On the state's Division of Elections Web site, he lists a home address and number in Tarpon Springs. But a woman who answers says, "He doesn't live here. I just let him stay here for a while."
She doesn't know where he has gone, or if he will be back. And no, she is NOT going to vote for him.
Nettles, a retired teacher, repo man, and iron worker was a regular at T-Fly's Family Sports Bar & Grill in Tarpon Springs, Fla. It was there during a high level political discussion that he teamed up with insurance salesman Brad Krones to form a Presidential ticket.
Although Nettles described himself as a "bomb-throwing liberal" and Krones owned up to being "just right of Attila the Hun," the duo agreed on one thing for sure, "I don't want to vote for any of those major party guys."
Krones appeared to be the one who did most of the campaign footwork. He filed the paperwork to register as write-ins in Florida, and as it turned out they were the only ones to do so in the Sunshine State. He also assembled a poster that included a photo of Nettles with a beer in his hand: "Sickened by the clowns who are running for President this year? Send 'em a message that they won't forget. Vote Gary Nettles for President. We have no party affiliation. But we do love to party."
Florida seems to have a chronic problem with counting votes and 2008 was no exception. In a post entitled "Florida counting thousands of write-in votes for a pair of drunken idiots," The Independent Political Report commented--
A pair of cantankerous old drunks who spend a large amount of their time sitting around a bar in Tarpon Springs, Florida, are being credited with thousands of votes for President. Despite not appearing on the ballot in Florida, John “Gary” Nettles and his running mate, William Bradford “Brad” Krones, have apparently beaten Alan Keyes, Green candidate Cynthia McKinney, and candidates from the Boston Tea Party, Objectivist, Prohibition, Socialist, and other parties.
How? Well, they were the only qualified write-in ticket in Florida. And it seems that some counties are screwing up and reporting all of their write-in votes as votes for the Nettles/Krones ticket ... As of this morning, the Florida Division of Elections credits Nettles/Krones with 4,267 votes, all from a handful of counties. Most other counties correctly report 0 votes.
But in the end the official count was 391 votes, and they actually outpolled the Prohibition Party ticket who had made the ballot! They were also right on the heels of the results for the Objectivist and Socialist parties, who were on the ballot as well. In the event of a Nettles/Krones election victory there would have been a Constitutional problem since were residents of the same state.
Election history: none
Other occupations: insurance salesman
Notes:
Registered with the Independent Party of Florida
