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.
