Earl Farwell Dodge Jr., December 24, 1932 (Revere, Mass.) - November 7, 2007 (Denver, Colo.)
VP candidate for Prohibition Party (aka National Prohibition Party aka Independent) (1976)
VP candidate for National Statesman Party (aka Independent aka Statesman Party) (1980)
Running mate with nominee (1976, 1980): Benjamin Calvin Bubar Jr. (1917–1995)
Popular vote (1976): 15,932 (0.02%)
Popular vote (1980): 7,206 (0.01%)
Electoral vote (1976, 1980): 0/538
The campaign (1976):
The Prohibition Party nominee for President was Benjamin Bubar, a Maine printer and ordained Baptist preacher. He had experience being elected to public office serving in the State Legislature and local offices as a Republican.
Commenting on the Party's conservative non-alcohol platform issues, Bubar said in later years "We're not a one-issue party. We've always had more than one string in our fiddle. We've been around for a long time ... We believe in a representative republic, but what we've got right now is a socialist democracy bordering on anarchy."
The 1976 platform reads like a Christian nationalist document although there are some nods to social welfare. Apparently the convention narrowly voted to oppose capital punishment, but that plank did not make it to print.
The AP described the convention:
The national convention, first ever held west of the Mississippi River, was attended by about 100 delegates from 19 states, but only about 60 were still on hand to sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and wave their signs after the candidates were selected. Most were in their 60's and 70's and had been party members all their lives. There were almost no young people in attendance as the 106-year-old party prepared to shut down its gathering.
The real story behind the 1976 race for the Prohibition Party was the debut national-level appearance of the VP choice, who according to some accounts was an obstructionist in his role as a Party official in implementing some of Bubar's ideas for streamlined management and marketing of the Party.
Earl Dodge had been involved with the Party for over two decades before he stepped into the role of a national candidate. After 1976 he would basically be the face of the Party for a quarter century or so. Like many other third parties where one individual has been in power too long, his tenure as a Party leader was a good news/bad news thing, and according to present day Prohibition Party literature the bad news half got worse with each passing year until he was finally overthrown.
Oddly, the 1976 convention took place in the same area where Dodge's body was laid to rest decades later.
On the good news side Dodge kept the home fires burning during a period of time where the Prohibition Party could have easily died. Granted, those fires were allowed to become feeble embers with each passing election. The controversial side will emerge in the course of my profiles of Prohibition Party VPs and inner conflict within this organization over the subsequent decades.
As the campaign began, Dodge told the press the Party needed to change their image from that of stovepipe hat wearing humorless moralists who look like "they are perpetually sucking on a sour lemon." He added, "I'm sure most people think members of the party have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel."
Also early in the campaign Bubar told a newspaper that he aimed to, in the reporter's words, "Broaden the party's appeal to the same constituency as Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace."
After the initial news coverage of the June 1975 convention the media all but ignored the Bubar/Dodge ticket except for the occasional fluff jokey article.
The Bubar/Dodge ticket had results from a dozen states including some write-ins. As testimony to how well regarded Mr. Bubar was in his home state, they finished with 0.72% of the popular vote in Maine. Next best results were in Alabama 0.56%, Colorado 0.27%, and Kansas 0.15%. This would be the last election to date (Dec. 2019) that the Prohibition Party earned more then 10,000 votes or finished with a percentage as high as 0.02% of the national popular vote.
The campaign (1980):
The same ticket was revived in 1980 but with less success. In an effort to add some pizzazz and get away from the image of being a single-issue party, the name was changed to the National Statesman Party. Although the name had changed, the platform remained in the hard Right.
The ascent of Ronald Reagan had provided Christian conservatives and Protestant evangelicals with a political home and no doubt robbed the Prohibition/National Statesman Party of potential voters. To this day the Prohibition Party platform seems almost parallel and redundant with the Republican Party and other Right-wing groups in many ways-- except for alcohol.
Any centrists or progressives who might agree with the Party about the seriousness to public safety and general well-being posed by alcohol or other substances would find it difficult to support the rest of their platform. Years later Prohibition Party Presidential candidate Gene Amondson lamented to me how it bugged him that it was actually the Democrats who clamped down on public smoking. The Prohibition Party missed a chance to focus on different aspects of public health and form positive alliances across the political spectrum. Earl Dodge bears quite a bit of responsibility for perpetuating this political isolation and having the Party's platform be an extension of his own extremely conservative views. As we have seen in election results and dwindling membership one could propose this has not done them any favors in terms of a broader appeal.
If the media had not covered the Party very well in the 1976 campaign they practically ignored the Bubar/Dodge ticket in 1980. The true descent into near oblivion had begun.
With votes reported in a dozen states including write-ins they finished strongest in New Mexico 0.28%, Arkansas 0.16%, Alabama 0.13%, Colorado 0.10%, and Kansas 0.08%. The 0.01% national vote result was the worst percentage in the long history of the Prohibition Party.
Although the organization had changed their name to the National Statesman Party they were listed as either Statesman Party or Independent on the ballots. The Party returned to their previous name by the next election.
Other occupations: dealer in political memorabilia, Prohibition Party editor, Colorado State Elections Advisory Board 1974, Prohibition Party Presidential Elector 1968 (Mich.)
Election history:
1954 - Massachusetts Governor's Council (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1956 - Massachusetts Secretary of State (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1958 - Kosciusko County Commission (Ind.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1959 - Winona Lake (Ind.) Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1960 - US House of Representatives (Ind.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1966 - US Senate (Kan.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1969 - Kalamazoo (Mich.) City Commission (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1974 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1978 - Governor of Colorado (National Statesman Party) - defeated
1982 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1984 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1986 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1988 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1990 - US Senate (Colo.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1992 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1994 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1996 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1998 - Regent At Large, Colorado State University (Prohibition Party) - defeated
2000 - Independent American Party nomination for US President - defeated
2000 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
2004 - Prohibition Party nomination for US President - defeated
2004 - US President (National Prohibition Party) - defeated
2008 - US President (National Prohibition Party) - died before election
Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery (Wheat Ridge, Colo.)
Notes:
Joined the Prohibition Party in 1952. He was formerly a Republican.
Member of the National Christian Citizens Committee.
Alternate sources give his birthplace as Malden, Mass., which is where he was raised.
Winner of the 1960 election was Charles Halleck.
Winner of the 1974, 1978, 1982 elections was Dick Lamm.
Buried in the same cemetery as Barbara Bates, Richard James Biggs, and ironically, Adolph Coors.
Baptist.
Quite possibly holds the record among third party VPs for running for office the most times without
ever winning.
