Above: Johnson / Below: Bellis
Derrick Christopher Johnson, July 1, 1965 -
VP candidate for America's Party (2000)
Running mate with nominee: Joseph Kidd Bellis III (b. 1955)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Joe Bellis, a former evangelical minister who worked in the computer software business in Kansas, started America's Party around 1998. The Party was considerably to the Right of the Republicans, which is the political camp where Bellis had previously resided.
With his slogan being: "Not a Lawyer! Not a Washington Insider! Not a Politician! Just an American, like you," Bellis invested $60,000 of his own dollars into the campaign.
Bellis' running-mate was Derrick Johnson, a graduate student at George Fox University in Oregon although apparently he was considered a resident of Vancouver, Wash. (Washington State trivia alert!!!). Johnson had initially aimed for the Republican Presidential nomination prior to joining America's Party in Dec. 1999.
Johnson's campaign webpage was headed with: Congressional Liberty Heroes-- Congressman Bob Barr, Congressman Ron Paul, Congressman James Traficant.
The following part of Johnson's introduction was filled with hot links that are no longer operable, but it does spell out his political platform and agenda:
Fellow Americans,
I encourage you to visit the news sites listed to the right (and the links below) and take time to get informed and ACTIVE about the issues that affect all of us. Particularly those issues that have to do with recent defense issues, federal land grabs, campaign financing scandals committed by BOTH parties, the unconstitutional “federalization” of law enforcement, enviromental “takings” of private land, judicial activism and the various confiscatory & ILLEGAL actions of our beloved federal bureaucrats. And, beware of the NRST (national retail sales tax) issue... see our “News & Info” page for more on this tax issue--we need tax reform or preferrably elimination, but the NRST is NOT the way to resolve this problem--UNLESS you wish to pay an unconstitutional 23 cents in taxes on every dollar you spend!!!!!
Reality dictates that THIS ROUND of elections will likely see one of the two major party candidates becoming President of the United States... but, I have not and will not back off until I have reached that office. How will that happen??? “Where God guides He provides” as someone close to me recently said, so perhaps now is not my time but sometime in the future it will be “my time” and I will take action on the things that other candidates & officeholders will not tackle. From crime (not gun-control) and the 2nd Amendment to government waste to “glo-bull warming” to family and defense issues, I will be “on the job” and doing the RIGHT THING for not only these issues, but also every thing else that I encounter as President (or VP). You can count on that... this much I can promise and deliver on.
So, take heart, keep praying for America and stay involved & informed. Do not give up hope, for hope and a vision for the future are what we need to see us through these uncertain and tempestuous times. The Constitution is STILL the supreme law of the land, defend it and prize it, for it is OUR only protection against bureaucratic and political tyranny--something we are perilously close to experiencing.
Derrick C. Johnson
Candidate for President of the United States
Please Support Political Unity In A
Culturally Diverse America...
The Bellis campaign came to an abrupt halt after it appeared Pat Buchanan would secure the Reform Party nomination. Said Bellis in a press release: "In January 1999, I made a promise to the American people regarding this goal. I stated that if Pat Buchanan or Alan Keyes achieved ballot access for the November 2000 election, I would end my campaign. I am an honorable man." Bellis endorsed Buchanan for the general election in Aug. 2000.
Bellis later ran for US Congress and the US Senate variously in the Libertarian and Reform parties.
Election history:
1994 - US House of Representatives (Ore.) (Republican) - primary - defeated
2000 - Republican nomination for US President - withdrew
Other occupations: US Army, marriage and family therapist
Notes:
Currently in Nevada.
