Maria Elizabeth Muñoz, April 2, 1957 (Los Angeles, Calif.) -
VP candidate for New Alliance Party (aka Independent aka More Perfect Democracy aka United Citizens Party) (1992)
Running mate with nominee: Lenora Fulani (b. 1950)
Popular vote: 73,652 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
For the second time in a row, the New Alliance Party nominated Lenora Fulani. Interestingly she ran in the Democratic Party primary in New Hampshire early in 1992 and was newsworthy for heckling Bill Clinton. Also for the second time Fulani won the Peace and Freedom Party primary in California only to be denied the final nomination at the convention. In 1988 the PFP actually melted down and did not have an official nominee, something they did not want to repeat in 1992. Many of Fulani's critics felt the NAP was a cult attempting to take over the PFP and was not actually a true Left wing movement. Fulani provided her own version of events in an article written in 2000:
By 1992, I was running for president for a second time. I sought the California Peace and Freedom Party nomination again. Ross Perot was running for president, too, and the two-party system was about to come face to face with his formidable independent challenge. In liberal and progressive political circles there was feverish concern about the presidential election. Rev. Jesse Jackson had run twice -- in 1984 and in 1988 -- raising and then dashing the hopes of black and progressive Americans that our political power could be expanded through the Democratic Party. But in 1992 Jackson did not run for a third time; instead progressives -- including African Americans -- were being primed to support Bill Clinton, who cut his teeth in national politics by playing the race card. He seized an opportunity to publicly upbraid Jackson to demonstrate that he wasn't sympathetic to black and liberal concerns. This was part of Clinton's strategy to win Reagan Democrats back into the fold. Black and progressive leaders, who had given the Democratic Party a political "blank check," had to figure out how to make Clinton "fly" for their constituents.
Mainstream liberals figured they'd have no problem because their constituents would still feel they had nowhere else to go. But, the left establishment (i.e. the old left) was worried that ordinary progressives and blacks might defect to independent politics. When I threw my hat into the ring again in 1992, the old left needed a candidate to face me down. What better choice than Jesse Jackson's former deputy campaign manager, Ron Daniels, to run as the "official progressive" presidential candidate, but under "black cover."
Daniels puttered around the country, getting on the ballot in only 10 states, and wheeling out every piece of trash the old left had manufactured against me for 15 years, announcing that his goal was to destroy me ... But nowhere was the confrontation between Daniels, the black puppet of the white fringe left and me, the black progressive trying to bring minority voters into the nascent independent movement, sharper than in the 1992 California Peace and Freedom Party primary.
This contest was a three-way between Daniels, myself and a Latina woman whom Daniels' supporters had recruited to siphon off Hispanic and female voters from me. In spite of his vicious cult-baiting, attempts to hijack the party and other forms of political garbage, I won the three-way preferential primary with 51 percent. Daniels polled 32.5 percent and the "planted" candidate 16 percent. Many of my voters came from the black and Latino registrant base -- which had continued to grow since 1988 -- and from white progressives who wanted the party to be more relevant.
But Daniels and his ultra-left political allies weren't done. They once again mobilized support at the state convention to reject the wishes of the membership and gave Daniels the Peace and Freedom line. Once again, these left leaders preferred to disempower the rank and file to pursue their own narrow goals. When the Perot movement hit it big, and 20 million Americans went independent, I was able to take my networks and followers into a new coalition with Perot voters. Peace and Freedom, its fringy ideologues and Ron Daniels were all left behind in the sectarian dust.
However Fulani did have a strong connection to the PFP in the course of her campaign. Her running-mate, Maria Elizabeth Muñoz, had already been running for various public offices as a member of the Party since 1986. Several sources cite this team as the first 100% ticket of women of color, but in fact in 1988 Fulani appeared on the ballot with Barbara R. Taylor in New Jersey and Wynonia Brewington Burke in Alaska-Arizona-North Carolina-Washington and Mamie Moore in Hawaii-Idaho-Indiana-Kentucky-Michigan-Minnesota-Mississippi-Pennsylvania-South Dakota.
Although Munoz had previously run under the Peace and Freedom Party in other elections, she had been allied with the New Alliance Party the entire time. She was introduced to the NAP while working in New York. Munoz returned to her native state of California ca1984. In 1986, while running for Governor, she mentioned the relationship between the PFP and NAP: "The Alliance has received a mixed reaction from the Peace and Freedom Party, and we do have our differences. But they recognize that what I am talking about is facing the community and drawing them into the democratic process. At a time when Right-wing and conservative forces are gaining ground around the country, I don't think we can afford to spend time debating the correct party line amongst ourselves. What we need is to build tools for empowerment."
Having recently lost her brother to AIDS, Munoz had a powerful personal story to relate in the course of advocating for victims of the disease.
Even though Fulani failed to gain the PFP nomination, in South Carolina she appeared on the ballot as before as part of the United Citizens Party.
It wasn't so much the NAP platform that drew criticism from groups on the Left, it was more about their methods. Several pundits and ex-members (including the 1984 NAP Presidential nominee) basically accused the New Alliance Party of being a totalatarian cult. Fighting these charges frequently made the Party expend their limited energy and resources entrenching in a defensive position.
Compared to the previous election, it was a disappointing result for the NAP, garnering only about a third of the votes they won in 1988. This would be their final national run for the Presidency and the Party itself would soon disband. It is difficult to conclude how much the Ross Perot third party run had cut into NAP's base, but by 1996 several former NAP leaders competed with other politicos for control of the network Perot had built.
On the ballot in 39 states plus DC and write-ins in seven others, the Fulani/Muñoz ticket placed sixth nationally. They placed 4th, after Perot, in District of Columbia (0.64%), Rhode Island (0.41%), Delaware (0.38%), and Mississippi (0.27%). Other states with their strongest popular vote percentages: Oregon (0.21%), Hawaii (0.19%), New York (0.16%), and Vermont (0.15%).
Muñoz seems to have vanished from the political radar after 1992.
Election history:
1986 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1988 - US Senate (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1989 - Mayor of Los Angeles (Calif.) (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1990 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1991 - Los Angeles (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1992 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - primary - defeated
Other occupations: counselor in a shelter for battered women, teacher
Notes:
Included in the 1986 race: George Deukmejian (winner), Tom Bradley, Matilde Zimmermann.
Pete Wilson was the winner of the 1988 race.
Tom Bradley was the winner of the 1989 race.
Included in the 1990 race: Pete Wilson (winner), Dianne Feinstein.
Also called Liz Munoz.
