Barry Morris Goldwater Jr., July 15, 1938 (Los Angeles, Calif.) -
VP candidate for Louisiana Taxpayers Party (2008)
Running mate with nominee: Ronald Ernest Paul (b. 1935)
Popular vote: 9,368 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
In 2008 Ron Paul was still a sitting member of the US House of Representatives for his district in Texas. Although he had indeed been a member of the Libertarian Party and was even their Presidential nominee in 1988, he always operated as a card-carrying Republican when holding public office, albeit somewhat as an outlier.
Rep. Paul had been running for President in the Republican primaries in 2008, usually standing out in the debates as being the most vocal candidate to oppose the foreign military adventures that had been initiated by the George W. Bush administration. By June 2008 it was obvious lightning wasn't going to strike and Paul dropped out of the race with not enough delegates to really make an impact.
Some call him conservative, or a libertarian Republican, but I have always thought of Ron Paul as a political party unto himself beyond conventional classification not unlike Ralph Nader. Paul enjoys a base of support that some commentators describe as a personality cult. Many of his followers refused to allow his campaign to die in 2008 and by November he was either a certified write-in or actually on the ballot in a couple states. Paul's role in all of this seemed to be mostly passive.
The Draft Paul movement resulted in write-in votes from five states: California (with VP Gail Lightfoot), Illinois, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. In California his name was associated with both the Republican and Libertarian parties, but in the other write-ins he was merely a Republican. He was also on the ballot in two states. In Montana he was listed under the Constitution Party with Michael Peroutka as his VP and in Louisiana under the Louisiana Taxpayers Party with Barry Goldwater Jr. as the running-mate. Paul earned a combined total of 42,426 reported popular votes (0.03%) in 2008.
The Paul/Goldwater ticket was an interesting combination of two political dynasties connected with conservative libertarianism. Ron Paul's son, Rand, is a US Senator from Kentucky, and Barry Goldwater Jr.'s father was basically the godfather of the modern American conservative movement. Barry Sr. was a leader in the US Senate and the Republican nominee in 1964.
Goldwater Jr. had endorsed Paul for the Republican Presidential nomination on Nov. 17, 2007. Having grown up in the era of his father (my own Dad was enthusiastic about Goldwater Sr. in 1964) it is somewhat eerie how closely Goldwater Jr. resembles and sounds like his Pop. After Sen. McCain won the nomination, Goldwater endorsed him, but with this qualification--
What Ron Paul is about is trying to get the Republican Party back centered on what it's supposed to be, it's real definition of conservatism, of libertarianism. That's what Goldwater was about. That's what Reagan was about. We kind of lost our way with the '94 election when the Republicans took over Congress, with the Christian Right moving in and the big spending. Ron Paul offers a true definition of liberty, a message. I'm supporting that message. You watch-- it's going to keep moving.
According to Trent Hill of Baton Rouge, who was one of the people instrumental in getting Paul on the ballot in Louisiana, some of the other VP options under consideration were Lew Rockwell, Gary Johnson, and Chuck Baldwin.
When Reason asked Hill in a Sept. 11, 2008 interview about Paul's involvement, Hill answered--
I have specifically avoided all contact with Ron Paul. He has neither encouraged nor discouraged this idea–- and I never gave him the opportunity to. Like most events surrounding Ron Paul, this was a grassroots effort that was completely out of his control. We have received confirmation from several Ron Paul staffers that Ron Paul will not have his name removed from the ballot, so we are relieved to get that news. At the onset of this effort, we were fairly confident that Ron Paul would not sue to have his name removed from the ballot–- we were far more concerned about the VP choice, and whether he or she might remove their name. Former Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr. was asked by one of our members at the Rally for the Republic if he would accept the VP spot and he was very happy about the effort and even suggested he might come to Louisiana to do some fundraising events or rallies.
As it was Goldwater was mostly involved with book tours promoting a monograph about his father entitled Pure Goldwater, co-authored with John Dean. He told political columnist Daniel Scarpinato he wasn't actually asked for permission to be on the ticket with Paul in Louisiana, "But that's OK."
You would expect that a team with such star power surnames and a combined amount of considerable political experience in US Congress would have garnered a huge vote in the Bayou State. But it didn't turn out that way. In the end, Rep. Paul endorsed Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party for President.
The Paul/Goldwater ticket placed third in Louisiana with 0.48% of the vote. It was Paul's second best showing among the states in 2008.
Election history:
1969-1983 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Republican)
1982 - US Senate (Calif.) (Republican) - primary - defeated
Other occupations: stockbroker, public relations executive, import-export business, financial services, member of the New York Stock Exchange
Notes:
Member of the American Numismatic Association
1982 opponents included Pete Wilson (winner), Pete McCloskey, Robert Dornan, Maureen Reagan, and John G. Schmitz
Interesting parallel. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. and Barry M. Goldwater Jr., both named after their politician fathers, were born in California in 1938 and both attempted and failed to be the US Senator for that state in 1982.
