Paul Edward Harju
VP candidate for Independent (2016)
Running mate with nominee: Piotr Blass (b. 1948)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
Getting a handle on the political life of perennial candidate Piotr Blass of Boynton Beach, Fla. is not an easy task. He has been running for office in Florida since the mid-1990s. Some of his multiple campaigns have been overlapping and getting a bead on where he falls on the spectrum is problematic. Here are some descriptions from the media--
Palm Beach Post, May 25, 2013
Piotr Blass, 64, is a regular at city commission meetings, where he stands out with his stringy long hair, sandals and thick European accent. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, governor in 2006 and Congress in 2008, before coming in last of seven candidates in the 2010 Boynton Beach mayoral race, won by Jose Rodriguez. Blass got 24 of the 4,377 votes cast.
He regularly describes his dream of a university in Boynton Beach, as well as projects that include a turbine power-generating network just offshore.
“My idea is to run and inspire,” said Blass, who said he became a citizen in 1979 with a plan to run for office. “I’m not a very good manager, but I could be a reasonable senator.”
... In 2011 Blass was a suspect in a fraud case when a former roommate, William S. Hunter, accused him of stealing and cashing his checks in 2010 while Hunter was in the Palm Beach County Jail.
Palm Beach Post, June 23, 2015
It's not a Florida election until Boynton Beach resident Piotr Blass files as a write-in candidate. Blass has been a write-in candidate in every general election since 2004.
Miami Herald, July 12, 2015
Many candidates offer refreshingly original interpretations of the U.S. Constitution. Boynton Beach’s Piotr Blass, who has a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Michigan, was born to Polish parents in Poland, which seems to run afoul of all that stuff in Article II of the Constitution requiring a president to be a “natural born citizen” of the United States. But when the Herald reached Blass by phone last week (in, ahem, Poland), he airily insisted that the Supreme Court will be on his side when he wins. “I have been a model citizen of the United States for more than 35 years now,” he explained. “I believe the equal protection clause of the Constitution means I must be entitled to equal treatment as that accorded to a 35-year-old native-born citizen.”
Blass has maintained that he, along with Tim Berners-Lee, was a co-creator of the World Wide Web in 1988.
In 2011 Blass seemed to include a Presidential campaign among his other activities. On the topic of Vice-Presidents, he made these comments on Facebook--
Facebook
Feb. 8, 2011
Piotr Blass for President 2012--Arnold for running mate or jessee ventura
Dec. 29, 2011
Jesseee
Ventura
Running
Mate
Apparently abandoning his run for President in 2012, Blass made a write-in bid for the US Senate. By Election Day he was endorsing Green Party nominee Jill Stein for POTUS. Blass would be back in 2016.
Right after the 2012 election a young woman died under mysterious circumstances in the home of Piotr Blass when she visiting one of the candidate's roomates. Blass himself was not implicated in the death but it brought him some unpleasant news coverage.
Dr. Piotr Blass filed with the FEC for US President on Nov. 21, 2014 under the party affiliation of "None."
Earlier in 2016 Blass had run for Mayor of Boynton Beach in the primary, placing 5th out of 5 with 3% of the vote. Also in 2016 he said he was running for the position of President of Poland.
According to his Facebook entries, Blass had initially selected Richard Andrito as his VP, but without explanation his name was replaced by that Paul Harju.
May 12, 2016
My running mate for President
Of USA
Richard Andrito
True American
Mensch
Nov. 6, 2016
Platform
United World après Einstein
USA type Constitution
USA leadership
universal free health care
Universal free education
No taxes
Universal Prosperity
Dr Piotr Blass
And
Paul Herju
For USA President 2016
Nov. 8, 2016
Write in
Dr Piotr Blass
And
Paul Harju
For
President
We
Shall
Contest
2016
Election
Harju later ran for Lt. Governor of Florida in 2018 on a ticket with Blass. In some notes posted on Facebook in Oct. 2018, Blass mentioned his running-mate and implied Harju was actually a resident of Michigan. Other circumstantial evidence supports that conjecture--
PH with unite Northern Michigan and Canada with Florida. He is Objibwa Native American and Finn and wounded war hero for the USA.
Harju was touted as one of the running-mates for Blass in 2020, but it seems when the dust settled the choice was Kamil Łukasz Chromiński. It is a little confusing due to Blass' cryptic comments that he was also running for President of Poland or a fictitious united Poland-USA jurisdiction.
Election history:
2018 - Lt. Governor of Florida (No Party Affiliation) - defeated
Other occupations: ?
Notes:
Another mystery third party VP.
