Irvin Dana Beal

 Herer and Beal, 1989

Irvin Dana Beal, January 9, 1947 (Ravenna, Ohio) -

VP candidate for Grassroots Party (1988)

Running mate with nominee: Jack Herer (1939-2010)
Popular vote: 1,949 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The Era of the Big Chill didn't silence all the old activists from the Youth Internal Party (Yippie) days. In the middle of the Reagan's second term in 1986 a group of marijuana activists formed the Grassroots Party in Minnesota and began running candidates for public office. In 1988 they nominated Jack Herer for President and Dana Beal as VP, both of them veteran figures in the cannabis legalization movement.

A superficial glance through online sources will reveal Beal's political journey included many marijuana-related arrests and incarcerations, a stay in a mental hospital, his role as a theoretician and newspaper publsher for the Youth International Party and the brief Zeitgeist International Party (Zippie), and political organizer and activist. Oddly, one thing you will not easily find is the fact he was also a third party Vice-Presidential candidate.  

Beal noted the difficulty in building a progressive movement in the climate of the late 1980s. In Aug. 1988 while addressing the rise of Rev. Jesse Jackson during the Democratic Party primaries, Beal told the press, "Most of the Left has been co-opted, just because Jackson said to stick with the Democrats. They think Bush doesn't have a chance. If he wins it will serve them right."

On the ballot only in Minnesota, the Herer/Beal ticket placed 5th out of the 11 options for voters in L'Étoile du Nord with 0.09% of the popular vote. 

Election history: none

Other occupations: social activist, author, newspaper publisher

Notes:
Pacific Northwest trivia alert! Jack Herer was a resident of Eugene, Oregon at the time of his death.
 Shortly after his death Washington and Colorado were the first two states to legalize the use of
 recreational marijuana.

Richard Joseph Daley

Richard Joseph Daley, May 15, 1902 (Chicago, Ill.) - December 20, 1976 (Chicago, Ill.)

VP candidate for Youth International Party (aka Yippies) (1968)

Running mate with nominee: Pigasus
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)    
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

During his four runs for the Presidency 1952-1964, part of New Jersey pig farmer Henry B. Krajewski's (1912-1966) shtick was showing up in public with a piglet cradled in his arm. In 1968 the Yippies took the swine factor up a notch. They nominated a pig for President.

In what amounted to one of the more memorable bits of political theater in US history, members of the Youth International Party nominated a 145 pound pig named Pigasus for President on Aug. 23, 1968 shortly before the start of the Democratic National Convention. The event took place at the Chicago Civic Center in front of the famous Picasso sculpture.

Musician Phil Ochs was part of the crew that purchased Pigasus for $20 from a nearby farm in the Libertyville area. At the debut rally, with 250-300 people estimated in attendance, Jerry Rubin began to read the announcement ("We want to give you a chance to talk to our candidate and to restate our demand that Pigasus be given Secret Service protection and be brought to the White House for his foreign policy briefing") when the police swooped in and arrested seven Yippies (including Rubin and Ochs) and confiscated Pigasus.

They were charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic, and then placed in jail where a law enforcement officer was alleged to have told them they were going to be locked up for a long time because "the pig squealed on you." They were soon released with bail fees of $25 each but the fate of the original Pigasus remains unclear.

The Yippies campaigned with other pigs in the course of the election season, one of them dubbed Pigasus II. After the election they showed up at Nixon's inauguration (or in-hog-uration as the Yippies termed it) with Ms. Pigasus who delighted the press by escaping from her cage and giving the spectators and police a merry chase.

On Sept. 9, 1968 following the bloodiest and most violent political convention in American history, Jerry Rubin announced to the press that the Yippies had decided to nominate Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley as their Vice-Presidential choice. If Daley's response to being named the running mate with a pig has ever been documented I cannot find it. Since the Mayor did not refute or withdraw from the ticket, he is included in this third party VP project.

The Chicago Civic Center, where Pigasus was first "arrested," was eventually renamed Richard J. Daley Center, which is part of the "Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza," as Elwood Blues called it.

Election history:
1937-1939 - Illinois House of Representatives (Republican/Democratic)
1939-1947 - Illinois State Senate (Democratic)
1946 - Cook County Sheriff (Ill.) (Democratic) - defeated
1950-1955 - Cook County Clerk (Ill.) (Democratic)
1955-1976 - Mayor of Chicago (Ill.) (Democratic)
1968 - Democratic nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
1972 - Democratic nomination for US Vice-President - defeated

Other occupations: attorney

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Alsip, Ill.)

Notes:
His opponent in the 1959 primary for Mayor of Chicago was Lar Daly.
Two of his opponents in the 1967 race for Mayor of Chicago were Dick Gregory and Lar Daly.
One of his opponents in the 1975 race for Mayor was future 1976 Socialist Workers VP nominee
 Willie Mae Reid.
Buried in the same cemetery as Lar Daly.