Jaime Elizabeth Pressly

Jaime Elizabeth Pressly, July 30, 1977 (Kinston, NC) -

VP candidate for Americans for a Better Party (aka Party Without the Politics) (2004)

Running mate with nominee: Captain Morgan (b. 1944)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 1944 the Canadian-based Seagram Co. began marketing their Captain Morgan rum. The label mascot was named after a real person, Sir Henry Morgan (ca1635–1688), a Welsh privateer who terrorized Spanish vessels and settlements in the Caribbean. He later served as the Governor of Jamaica, so the real Morgan actually did hold a political office!

As part of a publicity campaign the Seagram's Captain Morgan character ran for President in 2000, but apparently without a running-mate. Shortly after the election Seagram's sold the brand to Diageo, headquartered in the United Kingdom. The new owners expanded the Presidential campaign marketing concept in 2004.

Under the guidance of the marketing firm BFG (now called 9Rooftops), the 2004 Captain Morgan for President effort was launched under the "Americans for a Better Party" campaign. This included over 1,000 staged public "rallies" across the United States.

One of the more colorful aspects of the electioneering included someone in a Capt. Morgan costume making personal appearances. In one such visit late in the campaign in Los Angeles, he indicated the actress Jaime Pressly was his running-mate. Pressly's reaction was not recorded but in the publicity photos she looks like she was on board and a good sport about it.

Some complications here regarding the Constitution. First, Capt. Morgan the mascot is a fictitious character. Secondly, even if he was real, he's Welsh. Third, if they were running the real Capt. Morgan, he's dead. Fourth, Pressly was too young in 2004 to serve as Vice-President.

Election history: none

Other occupations: actress, model

Notes:
She was one of the stars in the 2004 TV movie Evel Knievel. Like herself, Knievel had also been a celebrity third party VP candidate (for the Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party in 1976).

Carroll Marie Driscoll

Carroll Marie Driscoll, 1936 -

VP candidate for Right to Life Party (aka Respect for Life Party) (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Ellen McCormack (1926-2011)
Popular vote: 32,320 (0.04%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Ellen McCormack had become a national figure in 1976 when she ran for the Democratic nomination for US President as a single-issue anti-abortion advocate. In 1980 when the decade-old Right to Life Party in New York entered Presidential politics for the first time, McCormack was selected as the nominee.

McCormack's presence on the ballot signaled the Right to Life Party was moving from a grassroots effort to a bona fide political party. In her previous campaign she had been the first woman to receive Secret Service protection on the campaign trail as well as meet the conditions for federal matching funds.

The Right to Life Party ran to the Right of Ronald Reagan and would not endorse him for President. He was considered too equivocal on the subject, having endorsed pro-choice Republican candidates and not having a strong enough record fighting against abortion while Governor of California by their measurements. The Party felt that Reagan's selection of George H.W. Bush, who they saw as a liberal on the subject, was a betrayal to the cause. Roger Stone, now convicted of multiple felonies but back then a Reagan campaign spokesperson, accused McCormack of being on "an ego trip."

Some pundits wondered if McCormack would be a spoiler against the Republicans, and some Republicans said out loud they were being "blackmailed" by "zealots" into pandering for the RTL endorsement. The anti-abortion groups in the Empire State were divided, the Political Action Committee of the New York State Right to Life Committee endorsed Reagan.

It appears Carroll Driscoll was selected as the Right to Life Party VP simply due to her place of residence.

Driscoll, a housewife and mother, was asked to run by her anti-abortion Long Island NY-based activist sister. McCormack needed a running mate who was not a resident of New York, and since Driscoll lived in Mendham, NJ, that was enough to fit the bill. "I said, 'You've got to be crazy,'" Driscoll explained, "I do wholeheartedly believe in their platform, but I don't follow politics at all." She said she could not remember who she voted for President in 1976. She agreed to run if McCormack, who she had never met up to that point, did all the campaigning. Driscoll was the mother of seven children and understandably didn't have the time or resources to spend on electioneering.

Although McCormack bristled when described as having only a single-plank platform, it is indeed difficult to find where the Right to Life Party stood on other issues in 1980. McCormack herself said she was opposed to capital punishment and RTL political spots included opposition to euthanasia. The Pope's image was massively marketed in newspaper ads shortly before the election.

On the ballot in three states, their popular vote results were New York 0.39%, Kentucky 0.33%, and New Jersey 0.13%. Reagan was the victor in each case.

Election history: none

Other occupations: housewife

Notes:
Registered Republican.
Washington State trivia alert!!! Driscoll was in Moses Lake, Washington in 1960, circumstances unknown, possibly at the same time future fellow third party VP Robert Craig Knievel lived there.

Robert Craig Knievel

Robert Craig Knievel, October 17, 1938 (Butte, Mont.) – November 30, 2007 (Clearwater, Fla.)

VP candidate for Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party (aka Puritan Epic Party aka Puritan Epic, Prohibition and Magnetohydrodynamics Party) (1976)

Running mate with nominee: Merrill Keith Riddick (1895-1988)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Merrill Riddick, one of Montana's more colorful perennial candidates, grew up in a political household. His father Carl was a US Congressman (R-Mont.) 1919-1923 and in 1922 lost an open-seat election for the US Senate to none other than future third party Vice-presidential candidate Burton Kendall Wheeler.

The son Merrill became an early aviator and flight instructor as well as a prospector. He grew interested in politics following World War II and ran for Governor of Montana a couple times as a Democrat, then switched to the Republican Party and ran for the US Senate. By 1976 he aimed higher and began his first of three attempts for the US Presidency under a third party of his own creation called the Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party (in a later election he squeezed the word "Ethic" into the name somewhere). Not a believer in accepting special interest monetary contributions, he campaigned across the nation as a passenger in a Greyhound bus and was financed by his Social Security checks.

Riddick had a focus on managed use of natural resources and changing the election laws by eliminating public funding for the two major parties and making it easier for third parties to gain ballot access: "They're just trying to keep things as they are instead of allowing a new party to come in. The whole thing is geared so a new party can't break through. The Constitution said if you don't like something, change it."

Riddick mentioned he would like to tie his new party somehow into the Prohibition Party, but the idea didn't seem to be followed by action.

Since Jimmy Carter's campaign gained a lot of attention from his Playboy interview, Riddick offered to be interviewed as well by the magazine but was turned down.

Riddick originally announced Lim Bow, an artist in Coos Bay, Oregon, as his running mate. But a week or two later he changed his mind apparently due to what one newspaper called "a disagreement on how to conduct the campaign arose." Riddick then told newspapers he now wanted famed motorcycle daredevil Richard C. "Evel" Knievel as his VP. Knievel's response, if any, has not been recorded. Riddick said finding a Vice-Presidential candidate for his party was difficult, "The minute I name a Vice-President, boy you should see them duck."

He later qualified his announcement about Knievel saying he didn't actually contact the stunt artist directly. It appeared he was hoping the news coverage itself would serve as a formal offer. By default Evel Knievel became the VP nominee for the remainder of the election season.

Like Knievel, Riddick himself had been a daredevil in his youth. He flew alongside Charles Lindbergh as part of a flying circus and perhaps admired Evel with the eye of a colleague.

In an event not related to the campaign, Knievel emerged from a short-lived retirement and motorcycle-jumped over seven Greyhound buses at the Seattle Kingdome in late October, 1976. Between Riddick's reliance on the bus to campaign, and Knievel's highly publicized Seattle stunt, you would think the Greyhound Company would have enjoyed all the free advertising from this obscure Presidential ticket.

Merrick ran for President again in 1980 (with a different running mate) and 1984 (apparently without a running mate). The day after the 1976 election he announced he was running in 1980. He was 89 years old during his final run for the presidency in 1984.

Election history: none

Other occupations: mining employee, entertainer, stunt daredevil, soldier (US Army), insurance salesman, motorcycle dealer, actor

Buried: Mountain View Cemetery (Butte, Mont.)

Notes:
Evel had a lot of Washington State connections including:
--Lived in Moses Lake and Sunnyside, Wash. in the 1960s.
--Among his long list of serious stunt-related injuries were two at Graham, Wash. in July and Aug. 1967.
--In the 1970s one of my neighbors (Jace Knievel, 1952-2017) in Olympia, Wash. claimed to be a close relative of Evel and said the family surname was pronounced "Nye-ville" as his was.