Jon Adam Greenspon, October 17, 1964 (Los Angeles, Calif.) -
VP candidate for Independent (2008)
Running mate with nominee: Bill Ingram (b. ca1957)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Bill Ingram, a trucker from Elk Mound, Wis., made his Presidential declaration to the FEC in July 2007 as an Independent. His semi was festooned with campaign ads and slogans, which along with his website was Ingram's primary form of electioneering. In case lightning didn't strike for the White House pursuit, he was also running as a write-in candidate for US Congress at the same time.
Meanwhile, in a story that apparently started in Barstow, Calif. but shifted to Manhattan, Mont., Jon Greenspon of California filed with the FEC as a Presidential candidate for the Reform Party on May 24, 2007. He refiled as an Independent about three months later.
2008 must have been the big year for independent tickets to merge since it seemed to have taken place quite frequently. Greenspon, now in Montana, became Ingram's running-mate on June 24, 2008. The VP assured the press the team were not extremists, "We're more what the experts would consider Reagan centrists. We're so America can have a voice in its own government." The fact that by 2008 Reagan would be equated with centrists sort of illustrates how far to the Right the Republican Party had journeyed since the 1980s.
A sample from the Ingram/Greenspon website--
Bill Ingram
and
Jon Greenspon
Independent Candidates for an Independent America
First, We'd like to do something completely un-politician in style. We're going to tell you up front what not going to be done during this campaign. We're not going to promise to cut taxes, or anything that CANNOT be accomplished by the President himself. We'll be happy to work with Congress, but ultimately some of this is their show.
Campaign promises should be made that can actually have a chance of being kept.
During the first 178 hours, not days or weeks, We intend to:
Go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Stop unchecked earmark spending in the United States Congress
Put the Southern US Border Fence on a fast track to protect American citizens, and
Give America back to the people.
The people don't have the time, inclination or need for our 44th Presidential administration to worry about inauguration parties, appeasing the corporate structures that helped them get into the Oval Office, or giving in to the backroom deals made to attain this venerable post. We need action and results. In these United States, there can only be one special interest group to answer to - "We The People."
We plan to serve you, not political action groups. Together we can return America to a country that Abraham Lincoln claimed "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it." It is that time to exercise our rights.
Join us as we give America back to Americans.
William "Bill" Ingram and Jon Greenspon
Although their platform could be best described as Right of center, Ingram's view on abortion was that of a true independent--
Abortion is one of the most controversial and evenly divided issues in this country. I know this will come up so here is my view.
I honestly could care less one way or the other on this issue. I do not agree with abortion, but I do not believe that I have the right to make that decision for someone else.
Here is how I will deal with the abortion issue. If I am presented with a "clean" bill on abortion, meaning a bill that has no earmarks or pork added to it. This bill has to be about abortion and only abortion. It can not be clouded with money for our troops, educations, bridge repair, etc. It must be a clean bill. If the Senate and Congress can agree on a bill on abortion to which they will personally take responsibility, I will sign it, no matter which way it goes.
In late October, only a week or so before Election Day, Ingram announced he was suspending his Presidential campaign in order to run as a write-in candidate for the Wisconsin State Assembly.
After the election Greenspon prepared for his 2012 Presidential run in the Republican primaries. In a Youtube presented in 2009 he was part of presenting an interesting concept, as explained in the introductory text:
Jon Greenspon running for President of the United States will do his part to make BRING HOME THE POLITICIANS a reality.
What is it?
It's relocating US Representatives and Senators to our State Capitals and State Representatives and Senators to our City Halls/Courthouses in our districts to securely telecommute for no less than 75% of their terms while we surround them.
Election history:
2008 - US President (Independent) - withdrew
2012 - Republican nomination for US President - withdrew
2012 - Mayor of Bozeman, Mont. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
Other occupations: US Marine Corps, truck driver, communications engineer
Notes:
Quit the 2012 Presidential race in order to run for Mayor of Bozeman, Mont.
