Matthew Edward Gonzalez

 

Matthew Edward Gonzalez, June 4, 1965 (McAllen, Tex.) -

VP candidate for Independent (aka Peace and Freedom Party aka Unaffiliated aka Independent Party of Delaware aka Ecology Party of Florida aka Independence Party aka Natural Law Party aka Peace Party aka Populist Party) (2008)

Running mate with nominee: Ralph Nader (b. 1934)
Popular vote: 739,278 (0.56%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Ralph Nader, about to turn 74, announced his intention to run for President as an Independent on the Meet the Press television program Feb. 24, 2008, "Dissent is the mother of ascent, and in that context I've decided to run for president."

The start of Nader's 2008 campaign and Matt Gonzalez's place in it is described on the Matt Gonzales Reader webpage--

In 2008 Ralph Nader decided to run for president and asked Gonzalez to be his running mate. Gonzalez saw himself as a stand-in for Peter Camejo who had run with Nader in 2004 but was now unavailable because he was fighting cancer a second time. Camejo specifically encouraged Nader to select Gonzalez who was one of the few elected officials in the nation to publically endorsed their ticket in 2004. Gonzalez agreed with the condition they not seek the Green Party Nomination. Nader was in accord. Both were supportive of Cynthia McKinney’s efforts to win the Green Party nomination and believed both campaigns could complement one another. The decision not to compete against McKinney for the Green Party nomination and to run as independents meant they could not rely on a preexisting party aparatus to gain ballot status.

Camejo died on Sept. 13, 2008.

Gonzalez gave a thumbnail description of the platform in an interview with Krist Novoselic (Seattle Weekly)--

Single-payer health care, ending the war in Iraq (without leaving any of the private contractor soldiers there), and ending the corporate domination of our society. It’s apparent that corporate money is undermining good government decision-making in our legislative process.

We’re committed to election reform. We support proportional representation for our Congress and direct election of the president by majority vote. We oppose plurality victories, which are common in the U.S., and have occurred in eight of the last 24 presidential contests.

Nader picked up support from a number of regional parties. In California he won the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party. Also the Independent Party of Delaware, Independence Party (Hawaii), and Natural Law Party (Michigan). The Ecology Party of Florida and the Peace Party in Oregon were created for Nader's campaign. In New York Nader ran under the Populist Party banner.

Although he did not actively seek the Green Party nomination, he still won the most votes in their primaries but the convention nominated Cynthia McKinney. Gonzalez left the Green Party partly as a way to make it easier for Nader to file as a true Independent in several states.

Nader/Gonzalez were on the ballot in 45 states and write-ins in four others. They finished in third place and at a higher percentage than Nader's 2004 run, cracking 1% in a dozen states: Maine (1.45%), North Dakota (1.32%), Arkansas (1.19%), Connecticut and Alaska (1.16% each), South Dakota (1.12%), Idaho (1.10%), Minnesota (1.04%), Vermont (1.03%), Rhode Island and Oregon (1.02%), and West Virginia (1.01%). The only state where it could possibly be argued Nader was a spoiler was Missouri, which barely voted for McCain with a 0.13% difference over Obama. Nader took 0.61% of the vote in that state.

Compared to most of the other third parties in the 2008 election season, Nader's Independent bid went comparatively smoothly, but it ended on a real sour note. On Election Night Nader told a Fox News radio reporter regarding Obama, "He is our first African American president; or he will be. And we wish him well. But his choice, basically, is whether he’s going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations who are running America into the ground." A bit later Fox TV reporter Shep Smith played back the statement to Nader, but the quote was cut off after the words "giant corporations." After playing it, Smith looked a bit stunned and said with dramatic pauses, "Really. Ralph Nader? What was that?" and the contentious conversation went downhill from there with Nader exhibiting a special sort of zealous cranky cluelessness about the impact of his choice of words.

And thus ended Nader's final major campaign for the Presidency. I actually saw that live when it aired and remember thinking it was a downer departure from the electoral scene by a candidate who is unquestionably America's greatest consumer advocate and activist.

Election history:
1999 - San Francisco District Attorney (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2001-2005 - San Francisco Board of Supervisors (President, 2003-2005) (Nonpartisan)
2003 - Mayor of San Francisco, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, collage artist, writer, editor, teacher, art curator, poet

Notes:
During his 2001 campaign, Gonzalez left the Democratic Party and joined the Green Party.
Winner of the 2003 election was Gavin Newsom.
Played bass guitar in an indie rock band, John Heartfield, 1995-1999.

Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche

 Moore and Maher beg Nader not to run in 2004

Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche, December 31, 1939 (New York, NY) – September 13, 2008 (Folsom, Calif.)

VP candidate for Independent (aka Populist Party aka Reform Party of the United States of America aka Better Life aka Peace and Justice Party aka Unaffiliated aka Independent Party of Delaware) (2004)

Running mate with nominee: Ralph Nader (b. 1934)
Popular vote: 235,856 (0.19%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Expressing a desire to not become beholden to the platform of any party, Ralph Nader announced he was running for President in 2004 as an independent. Yet he also sought the endorsement (rather than the nomination) of several already established third parties as a way to more easily acquire ballot access. The Reform Party, Independent Party of Delaware, and Independence Party did just that, making him their de facto nominee. Some parties were simply invented as a 2004 one-shot deal due to local requirements. For example, Nader ran in Alaska, Arkansas, and Maryland under the Populist Party name, apparently unconcerned of the legacy of white nationalist policies connected with the recent party of that name 1984-1996 and still a fresh memory.

Although Nader never joined the Green Party, it was under their banner that he was perceived, perhaps unfairly, as being the spoiler in the 2000 election and handing the White House to George W. Bush especially in Florida. The Green Party had some significant differences of opinion within their ranks on how to proceed in 2004. Generally speaking there were three factions at play here.

The first group desired to endorse Ralph Nader's independent run. Nader himself had announced in Dec. 2003 he would not seek the Green nomination, but later he realized the Party's endorsement would come in handy in terms of ballot access although he had no intention of joining the Greens himself. The pro-Nader faction was energized when a week before the Green convention Nader had selected GP activist Peter Camejo as his running-mate. Camejo in fact had won the most popular votes in the Green Party primaries for President.

The second group wanted to run a campaign with a "pure" Green candidate (David Cobb was the frontrunner) rather than ride on the star power of a political celebrity who was not necessarily in line with the Party platform. Cobb, a California attorney and Party activist, had worked hard to gain the nomination as he electioneered across the country gathering delegates.

The third group promoted the idea of sitting out the 2004 Presidential contest and instead concentrate on elections at the grassroots local level. A leaflet from this faction at the convention included, "Choosing No Candidate will allow Greens to build strength at the grassroots, avoiding a punishing national media fight we cannot win ... Our best route to national influence is building local power."

On June 26, 2004 Cobb won the nomination on the second ballot. He named Pat LaMarche, a Green Party activist in Maine, as his running-mate.

Unlike Nader/Camejo the Cobb/LeMarche ticket adopted a "safe state" strategy of not campaigning hard in swing states where they thought they could possibly tip the scales in favor of Bush. Cobb rationalized, "In California, Cobb-LaMarche's message is going to be, 'Progressives, don't waste your vote.' Because if a progressive casts a vote for the corporate militarist John Kerry in California, it does not help to unelect Bush, and you can only send a message that you actually support policies that you don't. That's a wasted vote. Simple message: progressives, don't waste your vote. In the other states where it's very much closer, we have the same, in-depth, scathing critique of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and then conclude with, 'but think carefully before you cast your vote.' You know, that is completely respecting the voter, and it is really challenging those voters to think about why we have a system where I have to vote against what I hate, rather than support what I want."

LaMarche suggested she just might pull the level for the Democrat on Election Day, "If the race is tight, I'll vote for Kerry."

A swath of the Left felt the Greens were capitulating to the Democrats far too much. The Vermont Green Party broke ranks and endorsed Nader/Camejo. Other Greens appeared to migrate to the Socialists in 2004, giving them a larger popular vote than usual.

Peter Camejo spent most of his early years in Venezuela, although he was born in New York.

Camejo had a long history as a worker for social justice issues. He had participated in one of the Selma civil rights marches in 1965. Two years later he was expelled from UC Berkeley for his demonstration activities. Gov. Ronald Reagan called him one of the ten most dangerous people in California because he was "present at all anti-war demonstrations." Camejo was also an activist for migrant farm workers' rights.

During this era Camejo's political vehicle was the Socialist Workers Party. He was their Presidential nominee in 1976. As the SWP became more rigid and some say cult-like as they assigned Party workers places to live and work and infiltrate, Camejo either quit or was expelled in 1980. "I tried to make changes inside the SWP, and it was very difficult. I guess it's like being in the Catholic Church and suggesting that Mary wasn't really a virgin or something," he later said.

He gravitated to the Green Party, supported Nader for President in 1996 and 2000, and by 2004 had already run twice as a Green for the office of California Governor, including in that wild 2003 recall election with 135 candidates.

In the four years since Nader last ran 9/11 had happened and the Bush administration was wrapping up their first term. Although President Bush called himself a uniter, not a divider, his economic policy, military initiatives, and interpretation of civil liberties under the Constitution seemed to widening the polarization of the country. Many in the Progressive side were willing to overlook Sen. Kerry's centrism and spent not a small amount of energy attempting to get Nader out of the race or off the ballots.

In one the most famous incidents in the 2004 campaign Bill Maher and Michael Moore got down on their knees and begged Nader on the Real Time television program on July 31, 2004 to drop out of the race.

There were others who agreed--

Keeping the Bush circle out means holding one's nose and voting for some Democrat. ... In a very powerful state, small differences may translate into very substantial effects on the victims, at home and abroad. It is no favor to those who are suffering, and may face much worse ahead, to overlook these facts.
–Noam Chomsky

I am going to run around this country and do everything I can to dissuade people from voting for Ralph Nader. ... this election will come down to a relatively few votes. ... I consider four more years of Bush a potential horror show for this country.
–Bernie Sanders

If Kerry is elected, we'll have a little ledge to stand on.
–Howard Zinn

Last time around, Nader attracted the support of a stellar list of left-leaning celebrities; Phil Donahue, Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, Paul Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eddie Vedder, and Ani DiFranco were all Naderites. That won't be the case this year.
-Mother Jones Magazine

A number of anti-Nader websites from the Progressive community sprang up: The Nader Factor, United Progressives for Victory, Vote2StopBush.org,  Dear Ralph, StopNader.com, Ralph Don't Run, Repentant Nader Voter PAC, Nader Watch Blog, Don't Vote Ralph, Ralph-Nader.info, Damned Big Difference, and Greens for Kerry (Change In '04).

"It's an ego-fueled Trojan Horse for the right wing," said Bob Gammage of StopNader.org, "The Republicans perceive (the Nader campaign) the same way we do: A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. They're hoping ... they can confuse enough people to take the election away from Kerry."

Nader met with the Congressional Black Caucus in June. It did not go well. The CBC had asked Nader to drop out of the election and by the end there were raised voices, Nader was told by one member of Congress to "get your ass out" of the meeting, and Rep. Melvin Watt said the candidate was "just another arrogant white man, telling us what we can do. It's all about your ego, another [expletive] arrogant white man." Nader later demanded an apology for the language used in the meeting but never got it.

Some of the other attendees had choice words as well:
"He ain't playing with a full deck"--Rep. James Clyburn
"I don’t think he gets it ... The meeting was about strategy and the pragmatic planning to defeat Bush ... We told him how at strategic level, his candidacy defeats a common a goal ... We were particularly offended by Nader's exhibitionism, his selfishness and egotism"--Rep. Albert Wynn
"If he didn't understand what the meeting was about, not only is he an egotistical maniac, he's dumber than I thought he was"--Rep. Gregory Meeks

There was evidence the Republicans and far-Right groups were doing what they could to help Nader along, which was an unsurprising and old political practice by political parties helping the enemy of their enemy dating back to the early 1800s in US politics.

But as it was Nader's 2004 showing was faint compared to 2000. Rather than setting the foundation for a new progressive party, he was starting to be perceived by many as a perennial candidate for a personality-driven movement.

Nader was on the ballot in 35 states + DC and a registered write-in in 12 states finishing third nationally with 465,642 votes (0.38%). Of those, the Nader/Camejo ticket was on the ballot in 32 states + DC and certified write-ins in half a dozen more. In New York, Nader was on two different ballot lines, each with a different running-mate (with Camejo in the Peace and Justice Party, with Jan D. Pierce in the Independence Party). Pierce was also on the ballot with Nader in Alabama. Karen Sanchirico was the running-mate in Montana. Nader had no VP at all in 6 write-in slots.

Nader/Camejo cracked 1% in Alaska 1.62%, Vermont 1.44%, Utah 1.22%, North Dakota 1.20%, Wyoming 1.13%, South Dakota 1.11%, Maine 1.09%, and Rhode Island 1.06%.

After the election my friend and shirttail relative Robert C. "Bob" Bailey, who had once been one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington State, said he was not surprised at the re-election of George W. Bush. "Voters don't like to change Presidents in wartime, no matter how bad they are," was his view.

Shortly before his death in 2008, Camejo endorsed the Nader/Gonzalez ticket.

Election history:
1965 - New York City Council President (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1967 - Mayor of Berkeley, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1976 - US President (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2002 - Governor of California (Green Party of the United States) - defeated
2003 - Governor of California (Green Party of the United States) - defeated
2004 - Green Party of the United States nomination for US President - defeated
2004 - Green Party of the United States nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
2006 - Governor of California (Green Party of the United States) - defeated

Other occupations: author, activist, stockbroker, Chief Executive Officer of Progressive Asset Management

Buried: ?

Notes:
One of his opponents in the 1967 election was Jerry Rubin.
Winner of the 2002 election was Gray Davis.
Winner of the 2003 election was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Camejo placed 4th in a field of 135
 candidates. I watched this amazing election from up north in Washington and was rooting for
 Georgina "Georgy" Russell.
The 2006 election included Arnold Schwarzenegger (winner), Art Olivier, Janice Jordan, and James
 Harris.
An accomplished yachtsman competing in the 1960 Olympics on behalf of Venezuela.
Full disclosure. I voted for Nader in 2000. Kerry in 2004.

Cyril William Minett

Cyril William Minett, January 23, 1930 (Haywood County, NC) - September 29, 2006 (Texas?)

VP candidate for Populist Party (aka America First Party aka Independent aka Constitution Party) (1992)

Running mate with nominee: James Gordon "Bo" Gritz (b. 1939)
Popular vote: 107,014 (0.10%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Prior to running for President the flamboyant and always controversial James "Bo" Gritz (rhymes with "rights") was a soldier during the Vietnam War, followed by POW/MIA activist efforts, followed by embracing a long list of conspiracy theories. His life story could be a novel, except some would ask would it be like Elmer Gantry or instead like Heart of Darkness? At first he had alliances across the political spectrum especially after he exposed Reagan administration figures involved with drug trafficking and also after he later opposed the 1991 Gulf War, but as the Left learned more about his connections with the extreme Right, Christian nationalists, Holocaust deniers and his personal homophobic, anti-Semitic views, they backed away.

In 1988 Gritz had been the Populist Party VP nominee but dropped out. As he later told the story:

I was invited by the Populist Party in 1988 to share my POW experiences. I accepted the paid invitation to speak. Following my talk, I was told they planned to run James Traficant [D-Ohio] as their presidential candidate. I knew and respected Traficant. They asked me to be his running mate. After lunching with Traficant, I consented. My name was instantly accepted by the delegates. It wasn't until the next day that they rejected Traficant in favor of David Duke, whom I did not know.

I immediately informed the leadership of my withdrawal, but was urged to first meet with Duke. Photos were taken and we spoke briefly. I found Duke to be a brash, untraveled, overly opinionated, bigoted young man and resigned as a non-member candidate. Duke was furnished with another running mate who appeared on the voting ballot with him.

He began his 1992 run by attempting to gain multiple nominations. He ran in the Independent Voters primary in Massachusetts and his name was entered for nomination with the American Independent Party, the American Party in South Carolina, and the US Taxpayers Party. In each case the winner was Howard Phillips. In Minnesota Gritz was identified as the nominee of the Constitution Party, so perhaps he did manage to affiliate with another party in that state but information regarding that ballot line is difficult to find. Gritz was officially given the Populist Party nomination in May 1992. He said he was approached by the Party leaders much earlier and he accepted on the condition that he was the sole author of the platform.

The Populist Party platform included: eliminating the Federal Reserve, eliminating the IRS, balancing the federal budget, revoke the 17th amendment and have members of the US Senate elected once again by state legislatures rather than popular vote, end foreign aid, oppose the "The New World Order," workfare instead of welfare, stop illegal immigration, restore states' rights, stop all farm foreclosures, rescue the remaining POWs, cut the pay of all elected and appointed officials, diminish the power of the judicial branch, and recognize that America is a Christian nation. The campaign slogan was "God, Guns, Guts and Gritz."

Gritz's running-mate was Cyril "Cy" Minett, who served as a USAF fighter pilot in Vietnam and had been retired since 1974.

Minett predicted dire consequences if the Populists failed to win. "This is our last chance. If we don't get it done in 1992, very likely what's going to happen is that George Bush is going to declare a national emergency. They're going to suspend the Constitution, and then the fat is in the fire."

The running-mate believed, as did many in the Populist Party, that there was a conspiracy by the combined forces of the Trilateral Commission, Council of Foreign Relations, the media, and major corporations who were really operating the levers of power against the interests of the average working person.

According to one report, Minett "also believes there are 10 regional governments organized, with an appointed leader chosen and answerable only to the president, that are ready and waiting for their place in international power." If I am connecting the dots correctly, each "appointed leader" would possibly be an alien somehow associated with Hatonn. Now it gets interesting--

The writer Adam Parfrey, in an Apr. 8, 1993 piece for the San Diego Reader, related this story regarding Gritz and Minette:

On various weeks of the 1992 campaign, the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid showed candidates Clinton, Perot, and Bush shaking hands with a space alien. Bo Gritz may have been the only candidate to actually attempt to enact such an event. Apparently, his vice presidential candidate, Cyril Minett, had convinced Gritz in the midst of his campaign to fly to the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles to meet with Hatonn, the eight-and-a-half-foot reptile-like Commander from the Pleiades.

Recalls Gritz, "We got to this little storefront, and Cy says, 'Now, I just want to verify this. Hatonn himself is going to walk in and meet with us?' And a person said, 'Yes, he'll be here momentarily.' I had this vision in my mind of a person in a lizard suit walking across a parking lot, but momentarily [a woman who] calls herself Dharma sat down at the table and said very quickly without any fanfare, 'I am present.' And I thought, 'Shoot, we got a channeling thing going on here.' Cy said, 'Are you eight and a half feet?' She said, 'No, no, I'm actually nine and a half feet.' " 

So there you have it.

Gritz himself subscribed to numerous conspiracy theories, just to name a few: JFK's death was a coup involving very complicated connections -- Jonestown was a government project gone wrong -- FEMA has concentration camps -- The AIDS virus was invented in government labs -- The barcode is somehow connected with Satan -- We will all eventually have microchips embedded in our right hands -- Armageddon will come in 1996.

In August 1992 Gritz made national headlines when he successfully negotiated a peaceful settlement in the Ruby Ridge incident. A hero to some, Gritz became unpopular with others. He told Parfrey, "The Aryan Nation people were mad. They wanted Randall Weaver dead. They would have had their martyr. The media was mad. They wanted the Weavers up there in that little clapboard cabin as nothing but charred bones. That would have made a wonderful story. The truth is, a number of Weaver's neighbors were mad because they hated Weaver for whatever reason. A lot of people were mad because Weaver came out of there alive. And it just happened to be my misfortune that ... I got the Weaver family out alive with no more bloodshed."

Although Gritz was a natural in terms of gaining publicity, even some of his admirers were shocked at how naive he was politically. His expressing an open admiration for the criminal and unstable James Traficant serving as an example or choosing to address a small rally rather than appear on TV with Larry King where millions would hear his message. Being an outsider of the politico class does have a certain attraction for some voters, but demonstrating an inability to learn the game presents huge obstacles. Still, in spite of this handicap, the Populist Party Presidential ticket did surprisingly well even with Ross Perot sucking all the oxygen out the room for several other third parties.

The Gritz/Minett team placed 5th nationally with the most support coming from Mormon strongholds and the Far West. On the ballot in 18 states they finished 4th in seven of them: Utah (3.84%), Idaho (2.13%), Louisiana (1.04%), Montana (0.89%), Nevada (0.57%), Arizona (0.55%), Alaska (0.53%). They also were certified write-ins in about 17 other states, doing particularly well in that format in Wyoming (0.28%) and Oregon (0.10%)-- high percentages for write-ins.

Election history: none

Other occupations: US Air Force (1954-1974), editor of Aerospace Safety Magazine, flight instructor, emu rancher and exotic sheep raiser, author 

Buried: Ridgeview West Memorial Park (Frisco, Tex.)

Notes:
Trivial Washington State trivia. When Kevin Harris was airlifted out of Ruby Ridge, he was taken to
 Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, where I was born. Well, actually I was born in the old previous
 building.
Minett attempted to be granted a Sovereign Citizen type of status in a Texas court in 1994.

Floyd Cottner Parker Jr.

Floyd Cottner Parker Jr., June 10, 1933 (Raton, NM) - July 11, 2017 (Bernalillo, NM)

VP candidate for Populist Party (aka Independent aka Patriotic Party of Iowa aka Independent Populist Party aka Christian Populist Party aka Populist Party of America) (1988)

Running mate with nominee: David Duke (b. 1950)
Popular vote: 47,004 (0.05%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

David Duke-- Holocaust denier, KKK member, neo-Nazi, anti-Semite, plastic surgery client, and later a convicted felon for fraud who did hard time-- sought the Democratic nomination for US President in 1988. When that fizzled, he accepted the Presidential nomination of the Populist Party.

The FEC Advisory Opinion 1988-45 neatly sums up the short version of the Populist Party nomination process for the 1988 election: "The party nominated George Hansen and Hubert Patty for President and Vice President respectively in September, 1987, and determined that if a vacancy occurred for either candidacy, the Executive Committee of the party would have the right to nominate a candidate. Two months later, Mr. Hansen turned down the nomination and the Executive Committee withdrew the names of Hansen and Patty. In March, 1988, the convention nominated David Duke for President and Bo Gritz for Vice President. Shortly there after, Gritz withdrew his name and the Executive Committee nominated Floyd Parker."

Bo Gritz later gave a newspaper his version of the nomination: "I was invited by the Populist Party in 1988 to share my POW experiences. I accepted the paid invitation to speak. Following my talk, I was told they planned to run James Traficant [D-Ohio] as their presidential candidate. I knew and respected Traficant. They asked me to be his running mate. After lunching with Traficant, I consented. My name was instantly accepted by the delegates. It wasn't until the next day that they rejected Traficant in favor of David Duke, whom I did not know."

"I immediately informed the leadership of my withdrawal, but was urged to first meet with Duke. Photos were taken and we spoke briefly. I found Duke to be a brash, untraveled, overly opinionated, bigoted young man and resigned as a non-member candidate. Duke was furnished with another running mate who appeared on the voting ballot with him."

In addition to Dr. Floyd C. Parker of Farmington, NM, many sources mention Trenton Stokes of Arkansas as a second running-mate on other state ballots but the states are never specifically named. I found no evidence to support the claims that Stokes was actually a VP nominee in any state.

The Duke/Parker ticket billed the Populist Party as "The fast-growing party of the middle class." Their platform included: restricting immigration, abolishing Affirmative Action, enforcing family planning on welfare recipients (eugenics?), death penalty for drug dealers-murderers-and-rapists, repealing the income tax, creating high tariffs, abolishing the Federal Reserve System, reject the ERA, opposition to Gay rights, and reduce foreign aid.

Duke did not garner a lot of press coverage and if Parker campaigned at all I could find no record of such activity. They were on the ballot or were certified write-ins in a combined 18 states. Their strongest finish percentages were: Louisiana (Independent Populist) 1.14%, Arkansas (Christian Populist) 0.62%, Mississippi (Independent) 0.45%, and Kentucky (Populist) 0.34%. They placed third in all four of these states. The remaining states had much lower results.

Duke joined the Republican Party in December 1988.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: US Air Force, physician, sheep farming, racehorse owner, Board Chair of San Juan National Bank in Farmington NM, oil and gas business, member of the John Birch Society, County Medical Examiner

Buried: Tucumcari Memorial Park (Tucumcari, NM)

Notes:
Played the saxophone
As a side note, Hansen, Traficant, and Duke were all imprisoned felons at some time in their careers.

Charles E. Perry

 1960s

 1970s

 1984

 

  Century 21

Charles E. Perry, February 8, 1946 (Bismarck, ND) - June 28, 2018 (Grand Forks, ND)

VP candidate for Populist Party (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Robert E. Richards (b. 1926)
Popular vote: 996 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The far-Right anti-Establishment group Liberty Lobby had served as a haven for opponents of Communism and big government since the 1950s. It was also a safe place for anti-Semites, tax protesters, white supremacists, Holocaust deniers, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, Posse Comitatus, John Birch Society members, Christian nationalists, and alternative medicine advocates who opposed "Big Pharma." In an attempt to soften the image and broaden their appeal they took a distinct small-l libertarian populist stance in the 1980s and formed the Populist Party.

This Populist Party had no relation to the party of the same name that existed nearly a century earlier, but their platforms did share a nationalist / anti-immigrant / pro-tariff policy with racist undertones. The newer version of the Populist Party also opposed the personal income tax and advocated the elimination of the Federal Reserve. The original Populist Party was aiming for the agricultural labor force where the modern Populist Party was trying to connect with an angry white lower middle class that felt abandoned by the major parties. And they denied they were racist or anti-Semitic in spite of the track record of many leading Party activists.

Their 1984 Presidential nominee was Bob Richards, a noted pole vaulter and decathlete in the Olympic Games 1948-1956 (and first athlete to appear on the front of a box of Wheaties), and VP nominee was Freedom of Health Choice activist Maureen Kennedy Salaman. Both were celebrities in their own professional territories but neither had run for political office before-- but they were photogenic like right out of a 1950s toothpaste ad, and knew how to work with the press.

Acting as an umbrella party for the extreme Right in many respects, the new Populist Party absorbed what was left of the American Independent Party and ran under that label in California and Rhode Island. In Kansas it was with the Conservative Party, in Wisconsin the Constitution Party.

It could be argued that by 1984 the Republican Party itself had co-opted a lot of the issues previously advocated by Christian nationalist political parties of the past, except in more subtle ways. One major difference from the Reagan administration and the Populist Party was the latter's antipathy toward large corporations and desire for the U.S. to stay out of foreign military conflicts.

Salaman's place on the ticket is interesting and challenges the notion that New Age-type beliefs are strictly in the realm of the Left (although in her case the same sort of modern metaphysical notions and disdain for professional expertise were adapted to fit into a Christian model). She was continuing to promote distrustful views against the medical establishment that were expressed earlier in the 1950s and early 1960s by the American Vegetarian Party, particularly with 1960 AVP running mate Christopher Gian-Cursio. Today we see this same subculture expression in the anti-vaccination movement.

Salaman actually lacked any accredited education in the field of nutrition but she was a master in promotion and activism. The Internet-based Quackwatch.org ("Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions") has included her in their profiles of subjects.

Charles "Chuck" E. Perry of New Salem, ND was the running-mate on the ballot only in West Virginia, where he was filed as a stand-in prior to Salaman's nomination. Perry's political history as a Democrat and advocate for farmers suggests he might have been more at home with the 1890s traditional Populist Party than the 1980s Populist Party, although he was definitely in tune with the economic anti-corporate and pro-tariff views of the modern incarnation of the Party.

The Party did not give itself a lot of time to campaign as third parties go having named their ticket in August. But it was enough of a spell for Richards to start distancing himself from the Liberty Lobby and claim they had little influence, a move that did not sit well with a segment of the Party base.

The Populist Party was on the ballot in 14 states, with Salaman as the running-mate in all but West Virginia where Charles Perry was the VP. The Richards/Perry ticket placed third out of five in West Virginia with 0.14% of the vote.  Richards placed third in only two other states, Kansas and Rhode Island.

Election history:
1986 - US Senate (ND) (Independent Nonpartisan League) - defeated

Other occupations: farmer, officer with the United Plainsmen Association, farmers' rights activist, assistant to ND State Tax Commissioner, ND Tourism Dept., ND Highway Dept., ND Governor's Office, North Dakota Citizens Against ABM

Buried: Beaulieu Cemetery (Cavalier County, ND)

Notes:
Was a campaign manager for James R. Jungroth's independent bid for the US Senate (ND) in 1974.
Ran as a write-in in 1986
Attended the Democratic national conventions of 1968 and 1972
While a student at George Washington University he had a job running the elevator in the US Senate.

Maureen Kennedy Salaman

Maureen Kennedy Salaman, April 4, 1936 (Glendale, Calif.) – August 17, 2006 (Atherton, Calif.)

VP candidate for Populist Party (aka Independent aka American Independent Party aka Conservative Party aka American Populist Party aka Constitution Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Robert E. Richards (b. 1926)
Popular vote: 65,328 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The far-Right anti-Establishment group Liberty Lobby had served as a haven for opponents of Communism and big government since the 1950s. It was also a safe place for anti-Semites, tax protesters, white supremacists, Holocaust deniers, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, Posse Comitatus, John Birch Society members, Christian nationalists, and alternative medicine advocates who opposed "Big Pharma." In an attempt to soften the image and broaden their appeal they took a distinct small-l libertarian populist stance in the 1980s and formed the Populist Party.

This Populist Party had no relation to the party of the same name that existed nearly a century earlier, but their platforms did share a nationalist / anti-immigrant / pro-tariff policy with racist undertones. The newer version of the Populist Party also opposed the personal income tax and advocated the elimination of the Federal Reserve. The original Populist Party was aiming for the agricultural labor force where the modern Populist Party was trying to connect with an angry white lower middle class that felt abandoned by the major parties. And they denied they were racist or anti-Semitic in spite of the track record of many leading Party activists.

Their 1984 Presidential nominee was Bob Richards, a noted pole vaulter and decathlete in the Olympic Games 1948-1956 (and first athlete to appear on the front of a box of Wheaties), and VP nominee was Freedom of Health Choice activist Maureen Kennedy Salaman. Both were celebrities in their own professional territories but neither had run for political office before-- but they were photogenic like right out of a 1950s toothpaste ad, and knew how to work with the press.

Acting as an umbrella party for the extreme Right in many respects, the new Populist Party absorbed what was left of the American Independent Party and ran under that label in California and Rhode Island. In Kansas it was with the Conservative Party, in Wisconsin the Constitution Party.

It could be argued that by 1984 the Republican Party itself had co-opted a lot of the issues previously advocated by Christian nationalist political parties of the past, except in more subtle ways. One major difference from the Reagan administration and the Populist Party was the latter's antipathy toward large corporations and desire for the U.S. to stay out of foreign military conflicts.

Salaman's place on the ticket is interesting and challenges the notion that New Age-type beliefs are strictly in the realm of the Left (although in her case the same sort of modern metaphysical notions and disdain for professional expertise were adapted to fit into a Christian model). She was continuing to promote distrustful views against the medical establishment that were expressed earlier in the 1950s and early 1960s by the American Vegetarian Party, particularly with 1960 AVP running mate Christopher Gian-Cursio. Today we see this same subculture expression in the anti-vaccination movement.

Salaman actually lacked any accredited education in the field of nutrition but she was a master in promotion and activism. The Internet-based Quackwatch.org ("Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions") has included her in their profiles of subjects.

The Party did not give itself a lot of time to campaign as third parties go having named their ticket in August. But it was enough of a spell for Richards to start distancing himself from the Liberty Lobby and claim they had little influence, a move that did not sit well with a segment of the Party base.

The Populist Party was on the ballot in 14 states, with Salaman as the running-mate in all but West Virginia where Charles Perry was the VP. They placed 6th nationally, which was fairly amazing considering how far they came in such a short time. In two states where they ran under the names of "host" parties they placed 3rd: Kansas (Conservative) and Rhode Island (American Independent). Strongest popular vote percentages (and the party they were listed under on the ballot) were in Idaho 0.56% (Populist), California 0.41% (American Independent), Kansas (Conservative) and North Dakota (Populist) 0.35% each, and Washington (Populist) 0.30%. All of them states west of the Mississippi River.

Election history: none

Other occupations: nutritionist, alternative medicine lobbyist, author, lecturer, publisher, television and radio host, President of the National Health Federation

Buried: Oak Hill Memorial Park (San Jose, Calif.)

Notes:
Findagrave lists her burial place in two different cemeteries in California both called "Oak Hill
 Memorial Park."
Buried in the same cemetery as Sylvia Browne, William Henry Eddy, and Paul Masson.
Her son Sean David Morton, an alleged psychic and "America's Prophet" is currently serving time in
 federal prison for various financial crimes including tax fraud.
Member of the Knights of St. John.
According to her daughter, Salaman was a member of the John Birch Society.

Samuel Wardell Williams

Samuel Wardell Williams, February 7, 1851 (Mount Carmel, Ill.) – August 5, 1913 (Vicennes, Ind.)

VP candidate for People's Party (aka Populist Party) (1908)

Running mate with nominee: Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922)
Popular vote: 28,862 (0.19%)
Electoral vote: 0/483

The campaign:

The Populist platform was indeed radical in 1896, but this was 1908 in the "Progressive Era" and nearly every party had appropriated the People's Party ideas. This was the final national campaign for what was once one of the most powerhouse third parties in US history. It was also the final campaign for William Jennings Bryan.

1908 running mate Samuel Williams was one of the Populist voices in 1896 that warned it would be a mistake to totally endorse Bryan and he agitated for Watson to be the hybrid running mate in that election. Now Williams himself was the running mate.

Watson's growing racist and religious bigotry was not apparent in the People's Party literature. The articulate Judge Williams actually wrote some of their material.

The Watson/Williams ticket recorded votes in 16 states. They tallied 12.59% in Watson's home state of Georgia, 3.94% in Florida, 1.91% in Mississippi, and 1.50% in Alabama. After that it quickly dwindles down until you reach one single vote in Maine.

Election history:
1877 - Mayor of Vicennes, Ind. (Democratic) - defeated
1882-1886 - Indiana House of Representatives (Democratic)
1904 - People's Party nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: judge, attorney, Deputy County Clerk of Wasbash County (Ill.), bookkeeper, salesman, Prosecuting Attorney of Knox County, Ind. 1878-1880 

Buried: Greenlawn Cemetery (Vicennes, Ind.)

Notes:
Died from appendicitis
Moved to Vicennes, Ind. in 1869-1870.
Episcopalian
Originally studied to be a Presbyterian minister
Apparently never married.
Once a loyal Democrat, he was driven to the People's Party as a result of his disapproval of President
 Cleveland's first term.

Thomas Henry Tibbles

Thomas Henry Tibbles, May 22, 1840 (Washington County, Ohio) – May 14, 1928 (Omaha, Neb.)

VP candidate for People's Party (aka Populist Party) (1904)

Running mate with nominee: Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922)
Popular vote: 114,070 (0.84%)   
Electoral vote: 0/476

The campaign:

The People's Party was reorganized, with the result being it was serving as a political vehicle for Thomas Watson, the VP running mate from 1896. Watson's running mate was Thomas H. Tibbles which seemed an unlikely alliance since Tibbles had a strong record of abolitionist activity and championing Native American rights while Watson was becoming increasingly xenophobic and promoting white supremacy.

Most of the old Populists had joined one of the major parties, which were co-opting policies originally proposed by the People's Party. William Jennings Bryan himself said that a vote for the Watson/Tibbles ticket was a vote for Theodore Roosevelt.

In Spokane, Wash. Tibbles predicted a financial crash by 1906. He was slightly off, the brief Panic of 1907 took place three years later.

Although their final poll numbers were dismal the Watson/Tibbles ticket did well in their home states. In Georgia they almost placed second with 17.28%, and Nebraska they finished third with 9.09%. Other states where they made respectable percentages for a third party: Alabama (4.64%), Florida (4.15%), Texas (3.45%), Nevada (2.84%), Mississippi (2.55%), and Montana (2.36%).

Election history: none.

Other occupations: author, journalist, Native American rights activist, Methodist preacher, farmer, novelist

Buried: Bellevue Cemetery (Bellevue, Neb.)

Notes:
As a teenager was one of John Brown's group under the command of James Henry Lane in Bleeding
 Kansas. Was captured, sentenced to hang, but escaped.
In his role as a journalist he brought special attention to the case of Standing Bear, also to the
 massacre at Wounded Knee.
Married Susette "Bright Eyes" LaFlesche.
His family moved to Illinois in 1845.
Tibbles' book Buckskin and Blanket Days was read by Louis L'Amour in 1958.

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly

 Donnelly's map of Atlantis

 

Donnelly's vision of 1988

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly, November 3, 1831 (Philadelphia, Penn.) – January 1, 1901 (Minneapolis, Minn.)

VP candidate for People's Party (aka Populist Party aka Middle of the Road Populists) (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Wharton Barker (1846-1921)
Popular vote: 50,989 (0.36%)           
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

1900 was a McKinley-Bryan replay and once again the People's Party had to make a decision whether or not to endorse Bryan. The Great Commoner would indeed snag the endorsement of the Anti-Imperialist Party, but the Populists were not so unanimous.

The pro-fusion forces of the People's Party initially endorsed Bryan and as they did in 1896 nominated their own Vice-Presidential candidate Charles Towne. However, Towne withdrew once Bryan selected Adlai Stevenson as his Democratic running mate.

The anti-fusion faction (also known as the "Middle of the Road Populists"), which was representing an increasingly dwindling portion of the People's Party, struck out on their own nominating Barker and Donnelly.

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly is easily one of the most unusual and interesting characters profiled in this blog so far. This brief format does not really give his colorful career any justice.

The Populist platform for 1900 included support for a graduated income tax, government ownership of railroads, opposition to American imperialism in the Philippines and Puerto Rico, support limiting immigration of Japanese, Mongolian and Malayan workers, support public ownership of utilities, support direct voting, and in favor of home rule for the District of Columbia and the territories.

They were on the ballot in 27 states with their best showing in Texas at 4.95%. Their strongest region was in the Deep South. They didn't appear to be spoilers or cost Bryan any states although he lost on his own anyway. Nationally the People's Party placed a very distant 5th place and would continue to fade away as many of their issues would eventually be co-opted.

Election history:
1857 - Minnesota Territorial Senate (Republican) - defeated
1858 - Minnesota Territorial Senate (Republican) - defeated
1858 - Dakota County Commissioner (Minn.)
1860-1863 - Lt. Governor of Minnesota (Republican)
1862-1869 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Republican/Union/Republican)
1868 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Independent Republican) - defeated
1869 - Republican nomination for US Senate (Minn.) (Republican) - defeated
1870 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Democratic) - defeated
1874-1879 - Minnesota State Senate (Anti-Monopolist Party/Greenback Party/Democratic)
1876 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Greenback Party) - defeated
1878 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Democratic/Greenback Party) - defeated
1884 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Democratic) - defeated
1887-1889 - Minnesota House of Representatives (Independent)
1890-1895 - Minnesota State Senate (Alliance/People's Party)
1892 - Governor of Minnesota (People's Party) - defeated
1894 - Minnesota State Senate (People's Party) - defeated
1897-1898 - Minnesota House of Representatives (People's Party)
1900 - Populist Party nomination for US President - defeated
1900 - Union Reform Party nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, author, novelist, poet, real estate developer, newspaper editor, Liaison officer (Dakota War of 1862)

Buried: Calvary Cemetery (Saint Paul, Minn.)

Notes:
His father was an Irish immigrant.
Left the Catholic Church in the 1850s.
Was a partner in developing the utopian community of Nininger City but it failed.
Buried in the same cemetery as Kaaren Verne, Peter Lorre's second wife.
He wrote Atlantis: The Antediluvian World in 1882, which influenced Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and

  in turn the Nazis own mythology and Donnelly also helped spark the revival that led the modern

  New Age belief that Atlantis once existed as a sophisticated civilization.
He wrote Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel in 1883, which is said to have influenced Immanuel

  Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision (1950)
He wrote The Great Cryptogram in 1888, where he revealed himself as part of the Baconian school

  of thought regarding the authorship of works attributed to William Shakespeare.
Under the name "Edmund Boisgilbert, M.D." he wrote Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth

  Century in 1890 which is a dystopian novel set in the year 1988.
In 1857 left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party due to his aversion to slavery.
Campaigned for the Liberal Republican ticket in 1872.
If elected he would not have lived long enough to be sworn as he died of a heart attack New Year's

  Day 1901.
When accused by Rep. Elihu Washburne (Ill.) of taking bribes from railroad corporations, Donnelly

  gave a foul-nouthed reply on the floor of the House that essentially ended his career in Congress and

  included "If there be one character which, while blotched and spotted all over, yet raves and rants

  and blackguards like a prostitute; if there be one bold, bad, empty bellowing demagogue, it is the

  gentleman from Illinois.”
Was known by his contemporaries as the "Sage of Nininger" and also "The Prince of Cranks."