Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III, October 29, 1940 (Philadelphia, Penn.) -
VP candidate for United We Sit Party (1996)
Running mate with nominee: Pat Paulsen (1927-1997)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Perennial comedian candidate Pat Paulsen, who had been running for President off and on, mostly on, since 1968 would undertake what turned out to be his final campaign in 1996. In the primary season he had votes from both parties but as usual he struck out on his own as part of his stand-up comedy circuit. By this time the press was already observing that Paulsen's political following was generational, consisting of a certain subset of Boomers and older.
"I've been running for President since 1968," said Paulsen. "Since '68! It's my turn, isn't it?"
In this first election where the World Wide Web was available, Paulsen had a web page but some of his humor was still in the Ratpack era, such as his suggestion that the election be decided by a mud-wrestling match between Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Dole.
Some other planks in his platform:
Health care: "I don’t think we need to care for healthy people."
National debt: "Let the kids pay it--they still owe us rent and gas money."
Bob Dole's 15% tax cut idea: "I think we should just tip the government if it does a good job. Fifteen percent is the standard tip, isn't it? If they don't do a good job, give them less."
Clinton's claim that he smoked marijuana but never inhaled: "I smoked marijuana, but I never exhaled. I've still got a buzz on."
School prayer: "Kids should be able to go to school and pray they won't get shot."
Bill Clinton's record: "If Clinton's re-elected, he'll go down in history as one of the Presidents of the United States. I guarantee it."
Paulsen's choice for a running-mate in 1996 seemed to have a convoluted path. At first, a Petaluma, Calif. real estate agent and Paulsen business confidant named Skip Sommer claimed he was the original choice for the second spot. Sommer's tongue-in-cheek story in mid-1995 was that he was dumped in favor of Dan Quayle.
Later in the campaign Paulsen himself said that he considered incumbent Vice-President Al Gore as a running-mate "but I couldn't find him."
Meanwhile, Republican nominee US Sen. Bob Dole had selected US Rep. Jack Kemp as his VP. One of the politicians on Dole's public short list that had been passed over was US Sen. Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III of Florida, better known as Connie Mack. Paulsen crashed the meeting of the Florida delegation at the Republican convention and offered Sen. Mack the second spot on the United We Sit Party ticket.
"I came down here to talk to Connie Mack," Paulsen told the press. "Now that he's free, I wanted to see if he'd run with me. We'll certainly make a great ticket." Sen. Mack responded, "Pat said he was a little concerned that he's not as tall as I am. I said, well I'm not as funny as he is. So we'd make a pretty good team."
I never found a primary source recording a statement where Mack turned him down, so as tenuous as this ticket is I'm sticking with this profile if for nothing else it gives me chance to cover Paulsen's last hurrah.
Mack has a genealogy filled with public figures. He is the grandson of baseball player-manager-owner Connie Mack. His grandfather was US Sen. Morris Sheppard (D-Tex.), his great-grandfather was US Rep. John Levi Sheppard (D-Tex.), his step-grandfather was US Sen. Tom Connolly (D-Tex.).
Sen. Mack's voting record was conservative. The Our Campaigns website summarizes Mack's stand on the issues as "Anti Marijuana Legalization - Anti-Gay Marriage - Pro Alaska/Offshore Oil Drilling - Pro Free Trade - Pro School Vouchers - Pro-gun - Pro-Life - Pro-Missile Defense - Pro-Social Security Privatization."
Paulsen professed to be "in terrible shock" after being defeated, "I thought Id have a chance with the absentee ballots. I guess the exit polls have told me one thing-- it's time to exit." After earlier saying 1996 was his final race, he told reporters he was going to run in 2000.
Paulsen, who had been undergoing treatment for cancer since late 1995, died on April 24, 1997.
Election history:
1983-1989 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (Republican)
1989-2001 - US Senate (Fla.) (Republican)
Other occupations: banker, lobbyist
Notes:
Defeated Hugh Rodham in the 1994 race.
Catholic.
