Robert James Meucci Sr., October 27, 1943 -
VP candidate for Mississippi Taxpayers Party (aka US Taxpayers Party) (1996)
Running mate with nominee: Howard Jay Phillips (1941-2013)
Popular vote: 2,314 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The 1996 Presidential campaign for the US Taxpayers Party really begins with columnist, pundit, and speechwriter Pat Buchanan's bid for the Republican nomination. His surprisingly popular insurgent effort sounded the call for the forces of the rapidly growing hard Right and evangelical wings of the Republican Party. He called them his "Pitchfork Army" in the best of Populist demagogue traditions. Some of his critics called him "David Duke without the sheets" but the US Taxpayers Party really wanted Buchanan on their ticket and made no secret about it.
Howard Phillips, who basically was the US Taxpayers Party and had been the first Presidential nominee of the new party in 1992, watched as Buchanan gave Sen. Bob Dole a big scare early in the season but then bombed out on Super Tuesday in Mar. 1996 and suspended his campaign. This made Buchanan a free agent in the eyes of Phillips, who told a reporter, "My first choice is Pat Buchanan as an active candidate. My second choice is Pat Buchanan as an inactive candidate." The plan, if Buchanan was tied up, was to run someone else for President and still electioneer as the Party of Buchanan. Then, after they won the election, instruct the Electors to brush aside whatever name was officially in the ballot and cast their lots for Pat Buchanan.
For his part, Buchanan was playing coy and openly considered running in the third party if they gained ballot access in all 50 states (they didn't make it). He used that leverage to influence the Republican ticket, saying if Dole did not select a strong pro-life running-mate, then maybe a Party of Buchanan wouldn't be such a bad idea. Dole's subsequent selection of Rep. Jack Kemp was apparently sufficient and Buchanan came on board and endorsed the Republican ticket. So that was the end of that.
So once again the new party turned to Howard Phillips as the Presidential nominee. It would be the second of three runs for him. He described his long range plans for the US Taxpayers Party: "Our main constituencies are pro-lifers, home-schoolers and those concerned with the expansion of government. We want to establish a firm enough position so that as the Republican Party dissolves, as I believe it will, ours will be seen as an alternative."
Platform issues included: Balancing the Federal budget "immediately" -- abolishing the IRS, Dept. of Education, NEA, HUD, ATF, CIA -- Pull the US out of the UN, NATO, NAFTA, GATT -- Impose a moratorium on immigration -- Oppose abortion -- Support states' rights
Phillips opposed what he called the "Satanzation of America." He wrote, "The goal of the New World Order is to remove God from His throne and replace Him with power-seekers who desire not freedom UNDER God, but freedom FROM GOD." He also said, "My comprehensive object is to restore American jurisprudence to its biblical presuppositions and the federal government to its constitutional boundaries."
The campaign had some support from other third parties. The American Independent Party in California had become an affiliate and would remain so for the next decade. The Right to Life in New York, which had endorsed the Republicans in 1992, backed Phillips in 1996. The Concerned Citizens Party, based in Connecticut, signed on as well.
One of the stand-in running-mates was Robert J. Meucci, famous for custom cuestick design who created a much sought after artisan product. 1996 appears to have been Meucci's only foray into elective office. At the Aug. 1996 USTP convention he criticized the Democratic and Republican parties, calling the latter "a house divided against itself," and then he continued-- "And what we have here [at USTP] is not a house divided against itself but a house of all men who believe the same things about this one great nation and that is our Constitution as it was meant to be. Not as its been torn apart and broken today by the Republican and Democratic Party for the benefit of the New World Order to deliver us, America, to the New World Order, to break us down into a one world Socialist government where those who now live in cardboard boxes might some time be elevated to a wooden box, but for that to happen America must fall, must be destroyed financially. So we can level the ground. That seems to be the goal." He also lambasted the media for ignoring Phillips' campaign.
Only on the ballot in Mississippi, which is where Meucci lived at the time, the Phillips/Meucci ticket won 0.26% of the popular vote in that state.
Election history: none
Other occupations: cue sport business, cuestick designer
Notes:
Joined the USTP around early 1995.
