Charles E. Perry

 1960s

 1970s

 1984

 

  Century 21

Charles E. Perry, February 8, 1946 (Bismarck, ND) - June 28, 2018 (Grand Forks, ND)

VP candidate for Populist Party (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Robert E. Richards (b. 1926)
Popular vote: 996 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The far-Right anti-Establishment group Liberty Lobby had served as a haven for opponents of Communism and big government since the 1950s. It was also a safe place for anti-Semites, tax protesters, white supremacists, Holocaust deniers, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, Posse Comitatus, John Birch Society members, Christian nationalists, and alternative medicine advocates who opposed "Big Pharma." In an attempt to soften the image and broaden their appeal they took a distinct small-l libertarian populist stance in the 1980s and formed the Populist Party.

This Populist Party had no relation to the party of the same name that existed nearly a century earlier, but their platforms did share a nationalist / anti-immigrant / pro-tariff policy with racist undertones. The newer version of the Populist Party also opposed the personal income tax and advocated the elimination of the Federal Reserve. The original Populist Party was aiming for the agricultural labor force where the modern Populist Party was trying to connect with an angry white lower middle class that felt abandoned by the major parties. And they denied they were racist or anti-Semitic in spite of the track record of many leading Party activists.

Their 1984 Presidential nominee was Bob Richards, a noted pole vaulter and decathlete in the Olympic Games 1948-1956 (and first athlete to appear on the front of a box of Wheaties), and VP nominee was Freedom of Health Choice activist Maureen Kennedy Salaman. Both were celebrities in their own professional territories but neither had run for political office before-- but they were photogenic like right out of a 1950s toothpaste ad, and knew how to work with the press.

Acting as an umbrella party for the extreme Right in many respects, the new Populist Party absorbed what was left of the American Independent Party and ran under that label in California and Rhode Island. In Kansas it was with the Conservative Party, in Wisconsin the Constitution Party.

It could be argued that by 1984 the Republican Party itself had co-opted a lot of the issues previously advocated by Christian nationalist political parties of the past, except in more subtle ways. One major difference from the Reagan administration and the Populist Party was the latter's antipathy toward large corporations and desire for the U.S. to stay out of foreign military conflicts.

Salaman's place on the ticket is interesting and challenges the notion that New Age-type beliefs are strictly in the realm of the Left (although in her case the same sort of modern metaphysical notions and disdain for professional expertise were adapted to fit into a Christian model). She was continuing to promote distrustful views against the medical establishment that were expressed earlier in the 1950s and early 1960s by the American Vegetarian Party, particularly with 1960 AVP running mate Christopher Gian-Cursio. Today we see this same subculture expression in the anti-vaccination movement.

Salaman actually lacked any accredited education in the field of nutrition but she was a master in promotion and activism. The Internet-based Quackwatch.org ("Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions") has included her in their profiles of subjects.

Charles "Chuck" E. Perry of New Salem, ND was the running-mate on the ballot only in West Virginia, where he was filed as a stand-in prior to Salaman's nomination. Perry's political history as a Democrat and advocate for farmers suggests he might have been more at home with the 1890s traditional Populist Party than the 1980s Populist Party, although he was definitely in tune with the economic anti-corporate and pro-tariff views of the modern incarnation of the Party.

The Party did not give itself a lot of time to campaign as third parties go having named their ticket in August. But it was enough of a spell for Richards to start distancing himself from the Liberty Lobby and claim they had little influence, a move that did not sit well with a segment of the Party base.

The Populist Party was on the ballot in 14 states, with Salaman as the running-mate in all but West Virginia where Charles Perry was the VP. The Richards/Perry ticket placed third out of five in West Virginia with 0.14% of the vote.  Richards placed third in only two other states, Kansas and Rhode Island.

Election history:
1986 - US Senate (ND) (Independent Nonpartisan League) - defeated

Other occupations: farmer, officer with the United Plainsmen Association, farmers' rights activist, assistant to ND State Tax Commissioner, ND Tourism Dept., ND Highway Dept., ND Governor's Office, North Dakota Citizens Against ABM

Buried: Beaulieu Cemetery (Cavalier County, ND)

Notes:
Was a campaign manager for James R. Jungroth's independent bid for the US Senate (ND) in 1974.
Ran as a write-in in 1986
Attended the Democratic national conventions of 1968 and 1972
While a student at George Washington University he had a job running the elevator in the US Senate.

Maureen Kennedy Salaman

Maureen Kennedy Salaman, April 4, 1936 (Glendale, Calif.) – August 17, 2006 (Atherton, Calif.)

VP candidate for Populist Party (aka Independent aka American Independent Party aka Conservative Party aka American Populist Party aka Constitution Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Robert E. Richards (b. 1926)
Popular vote: 65,328 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The far-Right anti-Establishment group Liberty Lobby had served as a haven for opponents of Communism and big government since the 1950s. It was also a safe place for anti-Semites, tax protesters, white supremacists, Holocaust deniers, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, Posse Comitatus, John Birch Society members, Christian nationalists, and alternative medicine advocates who opposed "Big Pharma." In an attempt to soften the image and broaden their appeal they took a distinct small-l libertarian populist stance in the 1980s and formed the Populist Party.

This Populist Party had no relation to the party of the same name that existed nearly a century earlier, but their platforms did share a nationalist / anti-immigrant / pro-tariff policy with racist undertones. The newer version of the Populist Party also opposed the personal income tax and advocated the elimination of the Federal Reserve. The original Populist Party was aiming for the agricultural labor force where the modern Populist Party was trying to connect with an angry white lower middle class that felt abandoned by the major parties. And they denied they were racist or anti-Semitic in spite of the track record of many leading Party activists.

Their 1984 Presidential nominee was Bob Richards, a noted pole vaulter and decathlete in the Olympic Games 1948-1956 (and first athlete to appear on the front of a box of Wheaties), and VP nominee was Freedom of Health Choice activist Maureen Kennedy Salaman. Both were celebrities in their own professional territories but neither had run for political office before-- but they were photogenic like right out of a 1950s toothpaste ad, and knew how to work with the press.

Acting as an umbrella party for the extreme Right in many respects, the new Populist Party absorbed what was left of the American Independent Party and ran under that label in California and Rhode Island. In Kansas it was with the Conservative Party, in Wisconsin the Constitution Party.

It could be argued that by 1984 the Republican Party itself had co-opted a lot of the issues previously advocated by Christian nationalist political parties of the past, except in more subtle ways. One major difference from the Reagan administration and the Populist Party was the latter's antipathy toward large corporations and desire for the U.S. to stay out of foreign military conflicts.

Salaman's place on the ticket is interesting and challenges the notion that New Age-type beliefs are strictly in the realm of the Left (although in her case the same sort of modern metaphysical notions and disdain for professional expertise were adapted to fit into a Christian model). She was continuing to promote distrustful views against the medical establishment that were expressed earlier in the 1950s and early 1960s by the American Vegetarian Party, particularly with 1960 AVP running mate Christopher Gian-Cursio. Today we see this same subculture expression in the anti-vaccination movement.

Salaman actually lacked any accredited education in the field of nutrition but she was a master in promotion and activism. The Internet-based Quackwatch.org ("Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions") has included her in their profiles of subjects.

The Party did not give itself a lot of time to campaign as third parties go having named their ticket in August. But it was enough of a spell for Richards to start distancing himself from the Liberty Lobby and claim they had little influence, a move that did not sit well with a segment of the Party base.

The Populist Party was on the ballot in 14 states, with Salaman as the running-mate in all but West Virginia where Charles Perry was the VP. They placed 6th nationally, which was fairly amazing considering how far they came in such a short time. In two states where they ran under the names of "host" parties they placed 3rd: Kansas (Conservative) and Rhode Island (American Independent). Strongest popular vote percentages (and the party they were listed under on the ballot) were in Idaho 0.56% (Populist), California 0.41% (American Independent), Kansas (Conservative) and North Dakota (Populist) 0.35% each, and Washington (Populist) 0.30%. All of them states west of the Mississippi River.

Election history: none

Other occupations: nutritionist, alternative medicine lobbyist, author, lecturer, publisher, television and radio host, President of the National Health Federation

Buried: Oak Hill Memorial Park (San Jose, Calif.)

Notes:
Findagrave lists her burial place in two different cemeteries in California both called "Oak Hill
 Memorial Park."
Buried in the same cemetery as Sylvia Browne, William Henry Eddy, and Paul Masson.
Her son Sean David Morton, an alleged psychic and "America's Prophet" is currently serving time in
 federal prison for various financial crimes including tax fraud.
Member of the Knights of St. John.
According to her daughter, Salaman was a member of the John Birch Society.

Christopher Gian-Cursio

Christopher Gian-Cursio, February 5, 1910 (Rochester, NY) - July 26, 1985 (Rochester, NY)

VP candidate for American Vegetarian Party (aka Vegetarian Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Symon Gould (1894-1963)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

He was the founder of the American Vegetarian Party, but in the three previous elections Symon Gould had placed himself in the role of running-mate. In 1960 he finally stepped up to the position of Presidential nominee.

The VP choice was Christopher Gian-Cursio, who has the distinction of being the first hyphenated surnamed running mate in American history. Gian-Cursio was a Miami-based naturopathic practitioner and chiropractor who was a professional associate with the better known Herbert M. Shelton, who had served as the AVP's Presidential nominee in 1956. And, like Shelton, Gian-Cursio had experienced years of finding himself in court under charges of practicing without a license. Shelton himself likened Establishment efforts to haul them into court with that of the Gestapo. Gian-Cursio was sentenced to a year in prison in 1947 when two of his patients died. Shortly after the 1960 election, Gian-Cursio would be convicted of manslaughter in Florida for the 1963 death of a patient and sentenced to five years of incarceration.

Beyond dietary policy the AVP endorsed the protest methods being used at the time by Martin Luther King. Said Gould, "The American Vegetarian Party endorses all forms of protest on the part of Negroes, especially the passive, non-violent kind, and takes special note in endorsing the Gandhian method of protest illustrated by the 'sit down' strike, especially that Mahatma Gandhi subscribed to the vegetarian ethical ideals in his procedures."

After the election Gould told the press he thought the Party polled half a million votes and he personally spent three hundred dollars on the campaign. On Gian-Cursio's role, Gould said, "He did an outstanding job, especially around Miami." I could not find any evidence that Gian-Cursio campaigned at all and his nomination did not seem to be counted as an important milestone or credential in his life by his followers or foes.

Gould's post-election summary included, "The 2-Party system is too limited for this big country. We're big enough to be exposed to all sorts of philosophies. It's a pity that we find it so difficult to have our names listed on Big City voting machines. We must depend on places where the voters mark their ballots or can write in the candidates of their choice."

Since they were not on any ballots and no votes for AVP were recorded it is difficult to ascertain the strength of their poll numbers. But Gould's guess of half a million is probably off by several zeroes.

"We face the future with confidence," Gould concluded, "I'll be 70 in 1964 when we try again." He wouldn't make it.
   
Election history: none

Other occupations: naturopathic practitioner, chiropractor, author, lecturer

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Rochester, NY)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Louise Brooks
Purchased Warner Castle in Rochester, NY in 1944 to use as a sanitarium called The Castle of Health.
  The building and land became part of a city park in 1951.
Moved from Rochester to New York City in 1952. Living in Miami, Fla. by 1960
Radio comedian Fred Allen appeared as a character witness in a 1947 trial on behalf of Gian-Cursio
 It didn't help.
Described by the press in 1947 as "a suave, dark man with a small mustache."