Arthur Charles Olivier

Arthur Charles Olivier, August 24, 1957 (Lynnwood, Calif.) - 

VP candidate for Libertarian Party (aka Independent) (2000)

Running mate with nominee: Harry Edson Browne (1933-2006)
Popular vote: 384,532 (0.36%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Harry Browne, the 1996 Presidential nominee of the Party, was making a try in 2000 as well. Although Browne was viewed as part of the Establishment Libertarians (for want of a better term) he still had some spirited challengers within the LP. It didn't help that some of the divisions from 1996 had erupted into outright civil war four years later. Accusations of conspiracies and unethical behavior directed toward the Party leaders and staff by the insurgents flew thick and fast. It was the first time the LP ever had the same nominee for two consecutive elections.

Browne would emerge as the official choice of the Party. In an equally spirited contest, Art Olivier was chosen by the Party as the running-mate. The Party was experiencing a bit of civil war and the Arizona chapter went so far as to nominate their own Presidential ticket of L. Neil Smith and Vin Suprynowicz.

Although his position was officially nonpartisan, Olivier was one of the few Libertarians to have actually been elected to public office. As a member of the Bellflower (Calif.) City Council and later Mayor, he was given a real life opportunity to put some of his political philosophy into practice, mainly in efforts to privatize government services and cut taxes.

The 2000 campaign seemed to generate more drama and interest within the Party itself than with the voters on the outside. The Libertarian Party was experiencing the inevitable growing pains of an expanding organization. Nearly 30 years old in 2000 and with a fairly consistent platform in all that time, it was obvious they were here to stay and it was now taken for granted they would be on the ballot of most, if not all the states in Presidential elections.

The Libertarian Party popular vote in 2000 was not the lowest point in their Electoral history but it was still a disappointment from Browne's stated goal of a million votes. In all fairness they were up against two other third party candidates with star power, Ralph Nader of the Greens and Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party. On the ballot in 49 states, the Browne/Olivier top results were: Georgia 1.40% (they placed third), Alaska 0.92%, Colorado 0.73%, Indiana 0.71%, Idaho 0.70%, Wyoming 0.66%, Massachusetts 0.61%, Virginia 0.55%, Nevada 0.54%, Washington-South Dakota-Oklahoma 0.53% each.

Olivier's political career became more interesting after he ran for VP. He made two attempts for Governor of California as a Libertarian, but in 2007 changed his registration to Republican in order to support Ron Paul in the Presidential primaries. In his most recent campaign, for California Assembly, he switched to running as a Democrat in 2010.

He became a 9/11 Truther and produced a motion picture entitled Operation Terror (2012) outlining his vision of how the 2001 terror attacks took place.

In 2013 Olivier stated the Boston Marathon Bombing was a staged event. It seems he regarded the Ukraine crash and Sandy Hook as false flag happenings as well.

Olivier wanted to make a movie about (Washington State trivia alert!!) Rachel Corrie in 2014 and went to Iran to seek funding because, as he told an Iranian journalist in an interview: "The movie houses are owned by Jewish entrepreneurs and many of them are Zionists." In the same interview he also said "America was founded by Freemasons" ... "Largely Jewish groups own the media" ... "You still have freedom of speech in the United States as long as too many people don't hear it" ... suggested Andrew Breitbart's untimely death was possibly a murder by some intelligence agency ... and, said there was an attempt on his life when he was a Bellflower City Councilperson but did not go into detail.

At the same time as the above mentioned interview he attended the 2nd International New Horizon Conference in Tehran, a gathering devoted to exposing the "Zionist control" of US media and politics. Among the attendees were other 9/11 Truthers, as well as a host of other conspiracy theorists.

As recently as Oct. 2019 Olivier gave an interview where he expressed a complex and esoteric cosmic view involving secret societies, the planet Niburu, the End Times, Ley Lines, numerology, Sandy Hook, secrets of Fátima, the Second Coming, astrology, the Great Tribulation begins May 9, 2020, and on Jan. 20, 2023 a third of all mankind will be killed probably in a nuclear war, the Illuminati, Saturn worship, Israel could be nuked Dec. 25, 2021, Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, quantum levitation, UFOs, and the Denver Airport.

A look at Olivier's recent Facebook entries has examples of how he views Covid-19 through the same esoteric lens.

Election history:
1990 - California State Assembly (Libertarian Party) - defeated
1992 - Bellflower (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1994-1997 - Bellflower (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan)
1998-1999 - Mayor of Bellflower, Calif. (Nonpartisan)
2002 - Governor of California (Libertarian Party) - primary - defeated
2006 - Governor of California (Libertarian Party) - defeated
2010 - California State Assembly (Democratic) - primary - defeated

Other occupations: engineer, realtor, freelance Internet web site developer, film producer, screenwriter

Notes:
Was a write-in in the 2002 election.
2006 opponents included Arnold Schwarzenegger (winner), Peter Camejo, and James E. Harris
In case you were wondering about a conflict of interest here I am not the same Steve Willis who
 served as Harry Browne's Road Manager. The other Steve Willis also apparently lives here in the
 Pacific Northwest these days, down in Portland (PNW trivia alert!!)

Vincent Anthony Suprynowicz Jr.

Vincent Anthony Suprynowicz Jr., April 26, 1950 (New Haven Conn.) -

VP candidate for Libertarian Party (aka Arizona Libertarian Party) (2000)

Running mate with nominee: Lester Neil Smith III (b. 1946)
Popular vote: 5,775 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Although L. Neil Smith of Colorado and Vin Suprynowicz of Nevada were a Libertarian Party national ticket in 2000, they were not THE Libertarian Party ticket in 2000. Both of these gentlemen, who are well known writers, were on the ballot only in Arizona. The candidates and locale gave the entire campaign a Far West regional flavor.

Harry Browne, the 1996 Presidential nominee of the Party, was making a try in 2000 as well. Although Browne was viewed as part of the Establishment Libertarians (for want of a better term) he still had some spirited challengers within the LP. It didn't help that some of the divisions from 1996 had erupted into outright civil war four years later. Accusations of conspiracies and unethical behavior directed toward the Party leaders and staff by the insurgents flew thick and fast.

Browne would emerge as the official choice of the Party-- except in Arizona. The Grand Canyon State was home to two LP factions.

L. Neil Smith had been involved with the Libertarian Party since the early 1970s, but by 1999 he followed his own path. On July 4 of that year he announced his intention to run an independent campaign for President if his supporters could gather a million online signatures which he said would "convince me I'm not wasting everybody's time and energy." In the end he apparently gathered less than 1,500 participants.

Smith had said in his July 4 announcement, "I've been asked about my independent candidacy -- whether I'd refuse the nomination of the Libertarian Party, which I joined in 1972. (I've learned only recently of a group who want to draft me as the LP candidate for President.) I believe the LP has reached a point where, if I were to walk into its convention with a million petition signatures, or five million, or ten million, the clique that owns the party would still find an excuse to reject my candidacy."

Even so, his name was offered as a potential LP Presidential nominee anyway, but Browne had the game sewn up.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Libertarian Party, which had a contentious relationship with the national Libertarian Party, was in a state of turmoil. On August 6, 2000 the Arizona LP nominated Smith over Browne. The national LP made a legal challenge but the courts decided with the Arizonans and said Browne would have to run under the "Independent" label, but time had run out in order to file. Browne decided not to run in that state, even as a write-in, and on Sept. 25 told Arizona voters to vote for Smith.

Smith's running-mate was Vin Suprynowicz, at the time a newspaper columnist in Nevada who championed libertarianism. Suprynowicz's name would not appear on the ballot since it was Arizona practice to list only the Presidential candidates and not their Vice-Presidents.

Harry Browne weighed in on the Arizona situation on Sept. 13, 2000 in his Campaign Journal:

On the road to La Crosse I hear by cell phone that the Arizona Supreme Court has rejected our plea to have me listed on the Arizona ballot as an independent candidate. The "official" Arizona Libertarian Party is not the organization affiliated with the national Libertarian Party, and it decided to put L. Neil Smith's name on the ballot as the Libertarian candidate for President. We filed petitions containing more than enough names to qualify as an independent candidate, but the signatures had to be filed before I was the LP's nominee. We applied for an extension, a procedure that almost all court precedents have upheld — but the judge hearing the case misread the precedents and the state Supreme Court refused to hear our appeal.

It's unfortunate that some Libertarians are more concerned with proving they're superior to other Libertarians than they are with bringing about a Libertarian America. But this sort of posturing and back-biting happens in almost any large organization, and we should not expect to be exempt from the norms of human nature.

The Smith/Suprynowicz ticket placed 5th out of 7 in Arizona, with 0.38% of the popular vote in that state. Smith began a second Presidential campaign in late 2003 but quickly abandoned the idea.

Election history: none

Other occupations: journalist, editor, novelist, columnist, lecturer

Notes:
In subsequent years Suprynowicz would support the Free State Project.