Peter Paul O'Dwyer, June 29, 1907 (Bohola, Ireland) – June 23, 1998 (Goshen, NY)
VP candidate for New Reform Party (1968)
Running mate with nominee: Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005)
Popular vote: 470 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
In 1968 an obscure political figure, US Sen. Eugene McCarthy (Minn.), challenged incumbent President Johnson in the Democratic primaries. McCarthy's anti-war stance energized a whole new generation of young activists who were really in the first wave of voters to have grown up entirely in the shadow of the atomic/nuclear mushroom cloud and thus felt a visceral sense of urgency the older generations for the most part failed to grasp.
McCarthy became a David to Johnson's Goliath, and within a short time LBJ decided to drop out of the race, opening it up for Sen. Robert Kennedy and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. McCarthy soon found himself outspent and outflanked by the better known candidates and was marginalized to the far Left by the Democratic Party establishment. After the Party convention McCarthy waited until the very last week of the campaign to finally give a lukewarm endorsement to Humphrey.
In the meantime, McCarthy's followers were not so easily defeated. The 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago was a bloody affair and Humphrey was seen as being too closely tied to the unpopular LBJ. McCarthy's followers were prepared to go all the way to November, attempting to get his name on the ballot in several states as a "fourth party" since George Wallace already had the primo "third party" position.
By early September 1968 it was too late for McCarthy's followers to place him on the ballot in many states, so energetic write-in campaigns were waged. In Georgia, Oregon, and Rhode Island groups sprang up to work for McCarthy. In Michigan there was the McCarthy Write-In Committee, Massachusetts had three groups pushing for the Senator-- Citizens for Participation Politics, Conference for New Political Action, and the Flag Party-- and in New York there was the Coalition for Independent Candidacy (aka Coalition Party). As far as I could ascertain, none of the above proposals included a running mate.
McCarthy had various running mates and different party banners in other states. The most coordinated effort, such as it was, concerned the New Party, formed chiefly by Marcus Raskin, co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies. "If we cannot force a realignment of political structures," said Raskin, "There will be mass violence."
It is difficult to say if the New Party operated under variant names across the country.
McCarthy himself disavowed this fourth party activity and took steps to keep his name off the November ballot. Raskin and other McCarthy followers didn't care.
The New Reform Party organized in Montana in early Sept. 1968 emphasizing they were a state, not a national party. In addition to running a candidate for Governor, they nominated McCarthy for President with New York City political figure Paul O'Dwyer as his running mate. So far as I can ascertain, O'Dwyer had never set foot in Montana so it seemed like an odd choice. It was only a matter of days before both candidates requested to have their names removed from the ticket.
O'Dwyer, an ex-City Councilman who was something of a gadfly and outsider in New York politics was a strong supporter of McCarthy during the Democratic Party primary. The New Yorker was already involved with running for the US Senate as a Democrat that year in what became an unsuccessful bid to unseat Sen. Jacob Javits.
On Election Day the New Reform Party Electors received 470 votes, and even though they had a blank ticket it was understood they were protest votes for McCarthy/O'Dwyer. Wayne Montgomery, the New Reform Party candidate for Governor won 11,199 popular votes (4.03%).
Election history:
1948 - US House of Representatives (Democratic/American Labor Party) - defeated
1963-1966 - New York City Council (Democratic)
1965 - Mayor of New York City (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1968 - Democratic nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
1968 - US Senate (NY) (Democratic) - defeated
1970 - Liberal Party nomination for the US Senate (NY) - defeated
1970 - US Senate (NY) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1973-1978 - New York City Council President (Democratic/City Fusion Party/Civil Service Independent Party)
1977 - New York City Council President (Democratic) - runoff - defeated
Other occupations: dock worker, garment packer, attorney
Buried: Old Bohola Cemetery (Bohola, Ireland)
Notes:
Came to the USA in 1925, became a citizen in 1930.
His brother William O'Dwyer (1890-1964) was Mayor of New York 1946-1950.
Winner of the House 1948 and the Senate 1968 race was Jacob Javits
Winner of the 1965 race Abraham Beame
O'Dwyer's native Irish citizenship and place of birth would have disqualified him for office if he had
won the Vice-Presidency in 1968.
