Boomer "Red" Wolf
VP candidate for Independent (1984)
Running mate with nominee: Woofer D. Coyote (ca1979-1985)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Woofer D. Coyote was coyote/bulldog/German shepherd mix owned by Al Hamburg (1932-2014) of Torrington, Wyoming. Woofer was also registered with the FEC. Hamburg's thesis statement for the campaign: "Helping Woofer D. Coyote to run as President is my way of helping wildlife make their own protest against man's technology severing his dependence on nature as people pursue more comfort and wealth at the expense of wildlife and nature while forgetting that each plant and creature is linked in a chain that is also man's life line."
Boomer "Red" Wolf, the VP nominee, was an 80% wolf/20% dog mix owned by Norman Sholes of Sparks, Nevada. Hamburg explained, "Woofer had hoped to find a lady running mate as he supports the ERA and was a little disappointed when I told him that Boomer Wolf was a male, but I told Woofer that all other jobs on hs White House staff will be given to females."
There were obstacles. Sholes attempted to place Boomer on the ballot as an independent for Vice-President in the Missouri primary but was refused. In addition, Boomer was not allowed to campaign in Wyoming because it was illegal to own a dog-wolf cross that was more than half wolf.
Missouri Secretary of State James Kirkpatrick told both Hamburg and Sholes that, in the words of the press, the "requirements in the U.S. Constitution precluded animals from becoming president." Try as I might, I cannot find that part of the Constitution.
Hamburg pointed out that although Woofer was born about 1979, in dog years he was 35 and thus met the age qualification for President.
Hamburg himself was something of a perennial candidate in Wyoming since at least 1972 running for the US House, US Senate, and Governorship usually as a Democrat. In 1988 he was among the Presidential candidates for the Peace and Freedom Party and later that year he was the New Alliance Party opponent to incumbent US Rep. Dick Cheney. His erratic behavior and use of high publicity gimmicks frequently landed him in trouble on and off the campaign trail, including a felony conviction on a charge of forging names for the 1988 US House filing petition (he said he was framed). Less than a month before he died in 2014, Hamburg had lost the Democratic primary for US Senate.
He was also a military veteran (Korea and Vietnam) turned peace activist. In 1984 he encouraged acts of civil disobedience to thwart the placement of additional nuclear missiles in Wyoming. After Woofer's novelty began to wear off, Hamburg himself filed with the FEC for President running as a Democrat-- so the dog and owner were competitors for the same office! In 1984 Hamburg was also running in the Democratic primary for US Senate. And if that wasn't enough he made news when he tried to run a five-foot long bull snake named Sandra Snakey in the 1984 Democratic primary for the US House.
Woofer was killed in July 1985 after being hit by a car. Assuming his VP was still alive at the time, Boomer "Red" Wolf would have assumed the Presidency in the event they had won and the nation would have certainly been spared the Iran–Contra scandal.
Election history: none
Other occupations: dog
Notes:
Woofer Coyote is not connected with Woofer the Psychic Dog, the title character of a superb play from the same era written by Bryan Willis.
