Stewart Alexis Alexander, October 1, 1951 (Newport News, Va.) -
VP candidate for Socialist Party of the United States of America (aka Liberty Union Party aka Independent aka Socialist Party USA) (2008)
Running mate with nominee: Brian Patrick Moore (b. 1943)
Popular vote: 6,582 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The top three contenders for the Presidential nomination of the Socialist Party at the 2007 convention were Brian P. Moore, Eric Chester (1996 VP nominee), and Stewart Alexander. The Florida-based Moore won the prize on the third ballot, with Alexander of California granted the running-mate position. Moore and Alexander were also competitors on the California ballot for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination (along with Gloria La Riva and Cynthia McKinney among others) but Ralph Nader emerged as the victor in that one.
Darcy Richardson served as Moore's campaign advisor.
The Moore/Alexander ticket won the coveted ballot line for the Liberty Union Party in Vermont.
The platform was long and cumbersome as per usual. There was special emphasis on ending the military adventures started by the George W. Bush administration as well as the resulting social, civic, and economic negative ripple effect throughout the country.
In the course of his early campaign for the Presidential nomination, Alexander provided an almost too-much-information mini-biography that included among his struggles the fact he had been briefly jailed in a domestic dispute 2003-2004 in a case where the charges were eventually dropped.
The Party was largely ignored by Big Media until the McCain/Palin ticket bestowed them with a gift. Using tried and true Red-baiting tactics, the Republicans attempted to paint Obama as a "socialist." Suddenly the press wanted to know what a real Socialist thought about this and Moore had a last minute surge of unusually broad coverage for a Left wing third party. This provided him with an opportunity to clearly delineate the differences between the Socialists and the Democrats to a wider audience than usual.
In spite of the media coverage, the popular vote for the SPUSA had declined by more than 4,000 since the previous election. On the ballot in 8 states and registered write-ins in several more, the Moore/Alexander ticket had their best percentages in Ohio and Tennessee (0.05% each), Vermont (0.04%), New Jersey and Wisconsin (0.02% each), Colorado and Iowa (0.01% each).
Election history:
1989 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
2006 - Lt. Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
2007 - Socialist Party of the United States of America nomination for US President - defeated
2008 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US President - defeated
2010 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - primary - defeated
2012 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US President - defeated
2012 - Green Party of the United States nomination for US President - withdrew
2012 - US President (Socialist Party of the United States of America) - defeated
Other occupations: US Air Force Reserve, grocery clerk, contractor, radio talk show host, auto sales, activist with the Florida Consumer Action Network,
Notes:
1989 opponents included Tom Bradley (winner), Maria Elizabeth Munoz.
