Bryan Marcellus Miller, August 23, 1900 (Caldwell, Idaho) - October 18, 1984 (Boca Raton?, Fla.)
VP candidate for Constitution Party (aka Constitution Party of the USA) (1960)
VP candidate for Tax Cut Party (aka American Party aka America First Party) (1960)
Running mate with nominee (Constitution): Merritt Barton Curtis (1892-1966)
Running mate with nominee (Tax Cut): Lar Daly (1912-1979)
Popular vote (Constitution): 1401 (0.00%)
Popular vote (Tax Cut): 1767 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (Constitution and Tax Cut): 0/537
The campaign (Constitution):
The Constitution Party national convention held April, 1960 in Indianapolis nominated retired Marine Corps General Merritt Curtis for President.
The selection for VP took several ballots. Bryan M. Miller, who owned a welding company in Arlington, Va. was nominated over Party chair Curtis Dall (FDR's former son-in-law, a stockbroker, and a well known Right-wing conspiracy theorist). Miller's political credentials for such an honor were never made clear. Many sources claim Dall was actually chosen as the running mate but the evidence does not bear that out.
Party spokesmen outright said they were attempting to force the election into the US House.
Dall, in his role as Party Chair, made the following statement which was published in the
Princeton Alumni Weekly:
The Constitution Party of the U.S.A. is growing rapidly. It is well established in about 20 States. Soon it will become the real opposition party; the party of all conservatives, by combining many scattered groups of citizens who are dismayed in beholding the basic similarity of both Republican and Democratic parties. This country was built by sound Constitutional principles which can preserve it for the benefit of its present and future generations against snide encroachments by the present United Nations set-up, from depredations by the Frankfurter Supreme Court, from ill-advised Executive Fiat, and from other attempts to destroy our present form of Government which most of us hold dear.
Our platform is blunt and clear. It is a "Made in America" product for tax-paying Americans, and not one which will appeal to starry-eyed "what will Europe think" free-wheelers!
Our two candidates, Merritt B. Curtis, Washington, D.C. for President (a retired Marine Corps General) and B.M. Miller of Arlington, Va., a sound successful business man for Vice President, can be counted on to turn the tide once more towards a sound and solvent U.S.A. for the benefit of all.
To complicate matters, Gen. Curtis was also the VP nominee for the Texas Constitution Party, running with Charles Loten Sullivan.
The Curtis/Miller ticket made it to the ballot in one single state-- Washington. Members of the Party's Washington State branch at the Seattle convention in Sept. 1960 said they would concentrate all their funds for their national ticket rather than nominate candidates for local statewide offices.
They placed a very distant 4th out of 5 in the Evergreen State with 1401 votes (0.11%). Even though they were the only Right-wing third party on the ballot, there were several counties where they had zero votes. Nixon edged a thin victory there with 50.68%, a testimony to his campaign's ability to keep the Washington conservatives in the Republican column.
The campaign (Tax Cut):
Four delegates met in a hotel in Lansing, Michigan to place the name of US Sen. Frank J. Lausche of Ohio ("The Democrat with a small 'd'") as the Presidential nominee for the newly formed Tax Cut Party. "I believe in the two-party system," Lausche responded, "I don't subscribe to the development of splinter parties."
So feeling pressed for time, the tiny party scrambled and approached Lar Daly.
Lawrence Joseph Sarsfield Daly, better known as Lar Daly was a colorful perennial candidate known for frequently wearing an Uncle Sam costume while campaigning. Although generally a conservative of the nationalist Christian segregationist bent, he was not too particular about which of the major parties to use as a springboard for public office-- which he never obtained.
Some of Daly's proposals involved shooting certain elements of the population on sight and dropping atomic weapons on America's foes.
1960 was unusual for Daly on two accounts. First, it was one of the very few times in his decades-long office-seeker career that he ran under the label of a third party. Second, he was able to force television networks to give obscure candidates "equal time," citing Section 315 of the Communications Act. You can bet that was quickly amended after the 1960 election.
Exactly how and when Bryan M. Miller became Daly's running mate is sort of a mystery although his name comes up in the press as the VP choice shortly after the convention. Several sources cite Gen. Merritt B. Curtis (see above) as Daly's running mate. But in Michigan, the only state where the Tax Cut Party made it to the ballot, it was Miller's name in the VP slot, not Curtis.
In Michigan the Daly/Miller ticket placed 5th out of 7 with 1767 votes (0.05%).
Election history: none.
Other occupations: railroad welder, welding shop owner, inventor
Buried: ?
Notes:
Sometimes called B.N. Miller, Bryan A. Miller, B. North. Miller, Byron M. Miller
Was granted a patent for an Oxy-acetylene burner in 1933.
Living in Boca Raton, Fla. in 1977.
Was red-haired and freckled.
First VP nominee to run simultaneously in two parties with different Presidential nominees.
Probably named after William Jennings Bryan during the 1900 campaign.
Both of the tickets with Miller were endorsed by the John Birch Society
