Traves Virgil Brownlee, April 24, 1947 (Keokuk, Iowa) - April 2, 2016 (Lexington, Ky.)
VP candidate for American Party (1984)
Running mate with nominee: Delmar Dennis (1940-1996)
Popular vote: 13,154 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
When it comes to high drama, the 1984 American Party ticket is hard to beat.
After their episode in the 1980 election that resulted in a fracturing party and low poll numbers, the American Party returned to their hot button issue roots with policies influenced by the Bible and Brother John Birch. Their bitter rivals the American Independent Party merged with the Populist Party in the 1984 election, eliminating a certain degree of confusion for extreme Right wing voters and election officials who had previously easily mixed up the American and American Independent parties. At first blush the AP and AIP might seem like anti-federal government Tweedledum and Tweedledee but upon closer examination they really had two very different base groups. Since the Presidency was already occupied by someone from the far Right you know the American Party had to be pretty hardcore.
Roughly, generally, shotgun approach speaking here-- the AP seemed to me to be more concerned about philosophical purity and had a foundation of being an anti-Communist, survivalist, Christian nationalist, John Birch Society group. The John Schmitz wing. The AIP, on the other hand, appeared to be more a regional Dixie party for the diehards who refused to accept the fact that desegregation was the law of the land. By 1984 the AIP ceased being a national party.
The American Party Presidential selection was Delmar Dennis, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan turned FBI informer. To most political parties that would be a double negative whammy, but not for the American Party. I would have loved to heard the nomination speech for that one. Dennis' story is pretty engaging, but we are going to focus on his even more interesting running mate, Traves V. Brownlee of Frederica, Del., nominated in Dec. 1983.
The Delaware newspapers called Brownlee a "perennial nonconformist." And as we shall see, he would not have much time for campaigning.
Starting around 1980 Brownlee would smugly inform tax protester (Brownlee liked the term "tax patriot" better) crowds that he had not paid any income tax since 1976. That method of political agitation is bound to attract the kind of attention most people would prefer to avoid, but Brownlee almost dared the government to do something about it as he promoted his group, Americans for Constitutional Taxation. A simple search on Internet reveals that dozens of tax protester court cases include plaintiffs or defendants involved with ACT.
He became a public figure and appeared willing to shoulder the burden of legal consequences that seemed almost inevitable. Brownlee told the press he believed the concept of public schools and income tax came directly from the Communist Manifesto. He contended the US Constitution and the Bible supported his acts of civil disobedience.
In Apr. 1981 Brownlee was arrested for failing to appear in court on a charge of operating a business without a license (convicted in 1982). In May 1981 he was sued by the local school district for home schooling his five children, around ages 9-14, without certification (the judge ruled against him). In Nov. 1981 their local municipality got on his case for having livestock within city limits and the Brownlees were arrested. In Jan. 1982 he was convicted for building a stable without a permit. Brownlee also did not believe in cooperating with the US Census, possessing a driver's license, renewing license plate tabs, or registering a vehicle. He gave up being a Baptist minister in order to be a full time tax protester .. excuse me, tax patriot.
In Jan. 1984 federal agents and state police raided the Brownlee's home and the local American Party headquarters, taking away boxes of documents and "an armload of rifles."
During the campaign it was made public the Brownlees were in the process of divorce.
Brownlee wrote a letter to the editor of the Morning News (Wilmington, Del.), published Feb. 24, 1984. It summarizes his mission but interestingly omits any mention of his Vice-Presidential campaign:
Taxation by state is theft
The U.S. Supreme Court said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. However, the policies of every modern state equate the power to tax with the power to create social progress.
But the command of God to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth is not given to institutions but to man himself. Man, by means of God's law, by work, thrift, is called to establish God's Kingdom in every area of life and thought. The state, by its system of taxation apart from Scripture, assumes independence from God. A non-biblical form of taxation by the state becomes theft.
Taxation is a means whereby man seeks to create a false Kingdom of God, in reality the Kingdom of Humanism, by means of theft. The American tax revolt evades the basic theological issue.
Patriots should arm themselves with repentance and weapons. God may grant us Liberty of soul and social order.
Traves Brownlee
Frederica
The editor attached a note about Brownlee's VP status. Brownlee joins many other candidates in declaring God is on their side.
A bit of trivia. On Apr. 21, 1984 Brownlee was part of a "No-Tax Seminar" in Almonesson, NJ on a panel that included 1972 America First Party VP nominee Irving Homer.
Brownlee on other issues:
--We could eliminate millions of [government] jobs, put a freeze on hiring and move to start eliminating people who were worthless. For example, there are hundreds of people working for the Tennessee Valley Authority who wouldn't be missed if they did not show up for work.
--I don't think we should feed murderers. I'd just as well have his head cut off and get it over with.
During the entire campaign Brownlee watched as his ACT colleagues, one by one, were arrested. Some were also American Party candidates for public office in Delaware. His disciples wanted Brownlee to act as their defense attorney but the courts would not allow it since he was not an attorney although he acted as his own. Brownlee would attend their trials and appear to silently direct them from the audience.
In Sept. 1984, while other candidates were in full electioneering mode, Brownlee was arrested on the tax charges and held in Gander Hill Prison. Initially the bail was $500,000 but reduced to $100,000. He finally made bail right after the election by putting up his house and with help from "a Texas lawyer" (Joseph Izen?).
A former associate of Brownlee's who testified against him at the trial later told the press, "Traves Brownlee was a combination of P.T. Barnum and the Rev. Jim Jones. He believed in Barnum's philosophy that there is sucker born every minute and he had the mania of Jim Jones to control people's thoughts and emotions."
In Dec. 1984 Brownlee was convicted in a US District Court of conspiracy to obstruct the IRS from assessing and collecting taxes. Prior to sentencing he was held without bail as the Court felt he was a flight risk due to alleged evidence that Brownlee had set up safe houses and in addition could be considered an instigator of anti-government violence. In Jan. 1985 he was sentenced to five years in prison, but walked from a prison camp in Kansas less than two months after being incarcerated and made his way out of the country with the help of his father, who later served time for aiding in the escape.
Brownlee had eventually found his way to the Dominican Republic, had another family or two, and was finally apprehended Jan. 1, 1991 at the town of his birth, Keokuk, Iowa. 13 months was added to his prison sentence. At the end of 1991, Brownlee's father, the one who had helped him escape, was murdered in Keokuk in what is politely called a crime of passion.
Apparently in Century 21 Brownlee was involved in some kind of operation called the Guardian Equity Group or Guardian Equity Fund and he used the name Robert or Roberto Ledesma. Alleged to have been an enormous scam by clients who lost their money, Brownlee's operation was ended with a government raid in 2010.
The Dennis/Brownlee ticket was on the ballot in five states: South Carolina 0.36%, Indiana 0.34%, Utah 0.21%, Delaware 0.11%, and Kentucky 0.03%. In Delaware and Indiana they placed third although in the former it was by only one vote ahead of the Libertarian Party, 269-268.
In the event the Dennis/Brownlee ticket would have won, the VP would have been in prison but there is nothing on the Constitution that would have prevented him from taking office even behind bars.
Election history:
1982 - Delaware Attorney General (American Party) - defeated
Other occupations: US Air Force, Baptist minister, self-employed contractor, founder of Americans for Constitutional Taxation, alleged insurance agent
Buried: Camp Nelson National Cemetery (Nicholasville, Ky.)
Notes:
Was raised in the area of Peoria, Ill.
Basically had four families within his life.
Was a "Colonel" in the local Posse Comitatus.
