Janice Jordan

Janice Jordan, 1964 (Ojai, Calif.) -

VP candidate for Peace and Freedom Party (2004)

Running mate with nominee: Leonard Peltier (b. 1944)
Popular vote: 27,607 (0.02%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 1998, The Peace and Freedom Party of California lost their status as a ballot qualified party in California after failing to attain the minimum 2% vote requirement for any statewide candidate. But in 2003 after considerable effort they regained their ballot qualification. Having skipped the 2000 Presidential election, in 2004 they passed over independent Ralph Nader and Socialist Walter F. Brown to nominate Leonard Peltier.

Peltier, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa who was previously active in the American Indian Movement (AIM) had been in prison for almost three decades in 2004. He was convicted of aiding and abetting the 1975 shooting at point blank range of a couple of FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation, SD. Peltier became a fugitive but was arrested a couple months later in Alberta. His case quickly drew controversy while gaining  supporters contending he is a political prisoner and the "Free Leonard Peltier" movement was born.

Agitation to create a Peltier Freedom Party and run him for President had been around even before the previous election in 2000 and disorganized write-in efforts had been promoted that year. Apparently there was some buzz in 2003 of the Peace and Freedom Party endorsing an all-convict ticket of Mumia Abu Jamal for President and Leonard Peltier for VP. Momentum had been building for Peltier to the point where in Feb. 2004 he selected his attorney Barry Bacharach as his running-mate which was serious enough that a button had even been produced.

In March 2004, the same month Peltier won the PFP Presidential primary, his civil rights lawsuit against the FBI for constructing an "officially sanctioned campaign of misinformation and disinformation" was dismissed. 

By the time of the convention on Aug. 1, 2004 Peltier was easily the choice but the Party substituted Bacharach with proven PFP candidate and activist Janice Jordan.

In an interview with Third Party Watch in 2006, Jordan explained how she gravitated to the Peace and Freedom Party--

In 1990, I witnessed the United States Congress declare "Operation Desert Shield" against a poor country, a country of people of color-Iraq. Looking at the sea of wealthy European-American male faces in Washington DC, many of whom were Democrats disgusted me. I grew up in a Democrat stronghold, however at that moment I knew the party wasn't for me anymore. I searched out another political party and I found the Peace & Freedom Party.

Jordan's statement of acceptance as the 2004 VP nominee mirrored the Party platform--

Statement by Janice Jordan

I am honored to be the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party of California, the only socialist and feminist party with ballot status in the most populous state in the United States. I have lived in California all of my life, and been active from a very young age in social justice, human services and environmental issues.

The current situation of international violence and occupation could have been avoided through dialogue and diplomacy, approaches that Leonard Peltier and I take pride in as social justice and human rights advocates. There is only one political party in power (the Republicans and the Democrats) in the United States, and unfortunately diplomacy, justice, civil rights and human rights take a backstage to unregulated military spending, unchecked human rights violations and police crime. The United States is not a leader in democracy or freedom; it has alienated itself from the rest of the world and from many of its own people.

Over the years, I have worked to end the disproportionate incarceration of poor people and people of color; the rise of homelessness among women, men, children and families (especially veterans); rampant military spending; police brutality; and the environmental destruction of reservations. I continue to fight for low-cost housing availability, livable wages, free speech, free healthcare, access to higher education, social security safety for seniors, same-sex marriage rights, and medical marijuana, in coalition with local and national grassroots groups and organizations. Government policies to benefit the working-class and working poor should be a priority not a problem. Healthcare, education, jobs and a livable wage are rights, not privileges.

One or two people cannot cure the ills created over centuries of abuse and neglect. However, Leonard Peltier and I intend to listen to communities that have been overlooked and ignored, and to advocate that each person has the right to live a healthy, productive and safe life in the richest country in the world. Working for effective change will happen by voting your conscience, not your fear.

Only on the ballot in California, the Peltier/Jordan ticket finished with 0.22% of the popular vote in that state.

Election history:
1996 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1998 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
2000 - Mayor of San Diego, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2001 - San Diego (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
2006 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated

Other occupations: activist, writer, social worker, physical education teacher

Notes:
Winner of 1996 elections was Duncan Hunter.
Opponents in 2006 were Arnold Schwarzenegger (winner), Peter Camejo, James E. Harris, and Art
 Olivier.
Washington State trivia alert!!!-- Peltier was co-owner of an auto body shop in Seattle ca1965-1972.
 In July 2000 the Washington State Democratic Party passed a resolution in support of executive
 clemency for Peltier.

Arthur Charles Olivier

Arthur Charles Olivier, August 24, 1957 (Lynnwood, Calif.) - 

VP candidate for Libertarian Party (aka Independent) (2000)

Running mate with nominee: Harry Edson Browne (1933-2006)
Popular vote: 384,532 (0.36%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Harry Browne, the 1996 Presidential nominee of the Party, was making a try in 2000 as well. Although Browne was viewed as part of the Establishment Libertarians (for want of a better term) he still had some spirited challengers within the LP. It didn't help that some of the divisions from 1996 had erupted into outright civil war four years later. Accusations of conspiracies and unethical behavior directed toward the Party leaders and staff by the insurgents flew thick and fast. It was the first time the LP ever had the same nominee for two consecutive elections.

Browne would emerge as the official choice of the Party. In an equally spirited contest, Art Olivier was chosen by the Party as the running-mate. The Party was experiencing a bit of civil war and the Arizona chapter went so far as to nominate their own Presidential ticket of L. Neil Smith and Vin Suprynowicz.

Although his position was officially nonpartisan, Olivier was one of the few Libertarians to have actually been elected to public office. As a member of the Bellflower (Calif.) City Council and later Mayor, he was given a real life opportunity to put some of his political philosophy into practice, mainly in efforts to privatize government services and cut taxes.

The 2000 campaign seemed to generate more drama and interest within the Party itself than with the voters on the outside. The Libertarian Party was experiencing the inevitable growing pains of an expanding organization. Nearly 30 years old in 2000 and with a fairly consistent platform in all that time, it was obvious they were here to stay and it was now taken for granted they would be on the ballot of most, if not all the states in Presidential elections.

The Libertarian Party popular vote in 2000 was not the lowest point in their Electoral history but it was still a disappointment from Browne's stated goal of a million votes. In all fairness they were up against two other third party candidates with star power, Ralph Nader of the Greens and Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party. On the ballot in 49 states, the Browne/Olivier top results were: Georgia 1.40% (they placed third), Alaska 0.92%, Colorado 0.73%, Indiana 0.71%, Idaho 0.70%, Wyoming 0.66%, Massachusetts 0.61%, Virginia 0.55%, Nevada 0.54%, Washington-South Dakota-Oklahoma 0.53% each.

Olivier's political career became more interesting after he ran for VP. He made two attempts for Governor of California as a Libertarian, but in 2007 changed his registration to Republican in order to support Ron Paul in the Presidential primaries. In his most recent campaign, for California Assembly, he switched to running as a Democrat in 2010.

He became a 9/11 Truther and produced a motion picture entitled Operation Terror (2012) outlining his vision of how the 2001 terror attacks took place.

In 2013 Olivier stated the Boston Marathon Bombing was a staged event. It seems he regarded the Ukraine crash and Sandy Hook as false flag happenings as well.

Olivier wanted to make a movie about (Washington State trivia alert!!) Rachel Corrie in 2014 and went to Iran to seek funding because, as he told an Iranian journalist in an interview: "The movie houses are owned by Jewish entrepreneurs and many of them are Zionists." In the same interview he also said "America was founded by Freemasons" ... "Largely Jewish groups own the media" ... "You still have freedom of speech in the United States as long as too many people don't hear it" ... suggested Andrew Breitbart's untimely death was possibly a murder by some intelligence agency ... and, said there was an attempt on his life when he was a Bellflower City Councilperson but did not go into detail.

At the same time as the above mentioned interview he attended the 2nd International New Horizon Conference in Tehran, a gathering devoted to exposing the "Zionist control" of US media and politics. Among the attendees were other 9/11 Truthers, as well as a host of other conspiracy theorists.

As recently as Oct. 2019 Olivier gave an interview where he expressed a complex and esoteric cosmic view involving secret societies, the planet Niburu, the End Times, Ley Lines, numerology, Sandy Hook, secrets of Fátima, the Second Coming, astrology, the Great Tribulation begins May 9, 2020, and on Jan. 20, 2023 a third of all mankind will be killed probably in a nuclear war, the Illuminati, Saturn worship, Israel could be nuked Dec. 25, 2021, Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, quantum levitation, UFOs, and the Denver Airport.

A look at Olivier's recent Facebook entries has examples of how he views Covid-19 through the same esoteric lens.

Election history:
1990 - California State Assembly (Libertarian Party) - defeated
1992 - Bellflower (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1994-1997 - Bellflower (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan)
1998-1999 - Mayor of Bellflower, Calif. (Nonpartisan)
2002 - Governor of California (Libertarian Party) - primary - defeated
2006 - Governor of California (Libertarian Party) - defeated
2010 - California State Assembly (Democratic) - primary - defeated

Other occupations: engineer, realtor, freelance Internet web site developer, film producer, screenwriter

Notes:
Was a write-in in the 2002 election.
2006 opponents included Arnold Schwarzenegger (winner), Peter Camejo, and James E. Harris
In case you were wondering about a conflict of interest here I am not the same Steve Willis who
 served as Harry Browne's Road Manager. The other Steve Willis also apparently lives here in the
 Pacific Northwest these days, down in Portland (PNW trivia alert!!)