Vivien Kellems

Vivien Kellems, June 7, 1896 (Des Moines, Iowa) – January 25, 1975 (Santa Monica, Calif.)

VP candidate for Constitution Party (1952)

Running mate with nominee: Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)

Popular vote: 3089 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Fired General Douglas MacArthur was the belle of the ball for the Right wing in 1952, but the extreme conservatives were unable to unite in his name. MacArthur was nominated by the Christian Nationalist Party, Constitution Party, America First Party, and endorsed by Mary Kennery's American Party. Each group had different running mates and in some cases multiple "substitute" Vice-Presidential candidates in the same party. MacArthur was on the ballot twice running under two different party names in some places. The General never accepted any of the nominations, but on the other hand did not take legal steps to remove himself from the ballot.

The Constitution Party formed in August 1952 and immediately fell into disarray when some of the founding members walked out when it was clear the Party had a prevailing anti-Semitic attitude. MacArthur and Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Sr. were nominated without their permission. Byrd managed to have his name removed before the ticket made it to the ballot box. Vivien Kellems was registered as the VP nominee in Texas and Colorado and in California was promoted as the Vice-Presidential write-in candidate.

Apparently this was all orchestrated without the approval of Kellems. She was a noted protester and resister of income tax since 1943. Her book Toil, Taxes and Trouble (New York: E. P. Dutton) was published in this election year. In 1952 she was concentrating on her Senate race in Connecticut, where Kellems was forced to run as a write-in candidate under the Independent Republican banner.

MacArthur/Kellems won 2181 votes in Colorado (0.35%) placing third, 730 votes in Texas (where they faced off with MacArthur/Tenney of the Christian Nationalist Party). If sources are to be believed the MacArthur/Kellems ticket also won 178 write-in votes in California.

Election history:
1942 - Republican primary for US House of Representives (Conn.) - defeated
1950 - Republican primary for US Senate (Conn.) - defeated
1952 - US Senate (Conn.) (Independent Republican) - defeated
1954 - Governor of Connecticut (Independent Republican) - defeated
1956 - US Senate (Conn.) (Independent) - defeated
1958 - US Senate (Conn.) (Independent) - defeated
1962 - Republican primary for US Senate (Conn.) - defeated
1965 - US Senate (Conn.) (Independent) - defeated

Other occupations: Founded Kellems Cable Grips, Inc. 1927, co-chaired Connecticut’s Citizens Committee for Goldwater-Miller in 1964.

Buried: ?

Notes:
After her death the government demanded $265,000 in back taxes from her heirs.
Winner of the 1942 primary was Claire Booth Luce. The animosity between Luce and Kellems, both
  candidates being tart-tongued with acid humor, made national news.
Winner of 1954 Governor race was Abraham Ribicoff.
Winner of 1956 Senate race was Prescott Bush.
Winner of 1958 Senate race was Thomas Dodd. Ironically her papers are archived at the Archives &
  Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center in Storrs, Conn.
Was raised in Eugene, Ore.
Supported the Equal Rights Amendment.
"As an aside, I think it’s strange that Ayn Rand ranks higher in the pantheon of lady libertarians than
 Kellems. Kellems is far more likable, writes better, and actually did all the stuff Rand only wrote
 about!"--J. Arthur Bloom

Edward John Bedell

Edward John Bedell, September 8, 1894 (Seymour, Ind.) - October, 1982 (Indianapolis?, Ind.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1952)

Running mate with nominee: Frederick C. Proehl (1880-1970)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

John Zahnd's personal political party continued to hang in there. The ticket for the 1952 election was announced quite early in the campaign, on Nov. 13, 1951.

Frederick C. Proehl, who would turn 72 during the election year, was described in 1952 as a "Seattle neighborhood grocer" but in 1956 he was reported as being located in Edmonds, Washington. Minnesota native Proehl had moved to Seattle during WWII and became a clerk and time-keeper at Boeing. He started a small grocery store around 1945, and it was there where the back room served as campaign headquarters.

His past experience in the banking business in Minnesota shaped his views concerning the Federal Reserve and banks in general, driving him to the Greenback Party ca. 1942.

No convention was held. Proehl was informed of his nomination by letter. "It was all a surprise to me," he told the newspapers, "National headquarters just wrote me I had been chosen." The Greenback Party "National headquarters" was actually John Zahnd's house in Indiana. Rather than be active in seeking votes, Proehl let the media come to him. Bedell apparently was not an energetic campaigner either. They were not on any ballots and any write-in votes they gained have not been recorded.

Election history: none

Other occupations: contractor, farmhand

Buried: Floral Park Cemetery (Indianapolis, Ind.)

Notes:
Lived in Tiskilwa, Ill. and worked on a farm in Indiantown, Ill. in 1917
Surname was Bedel but changed to Bedell after WWI.
Sometimes called J. Edward Bedell.

Frank F. Jenkins

Frank F. Jenkins, January 29, 1913 (Frostburg, Md.) - February 19, 1956 (Chicago, Ill.)

VP candidate for Poor Man's Party (1952)

Running mate with nominee: Henry B. Krajewski (1912–1966)

Popular vote: 4,203 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Henry Krajewski (pronounced Kry-ef-ski) was a Secaucus, NJ pig farmer who also owned a tavern he called "Tammany Hall." According to his campaign material he had "been a messenger boy, errand boy, drove farm trucks, worked as a farm hand, sold newspapers, worked as a slaughter and skin man in the local piggeries and has also chopped wood for a living. He speaks and understands six languages and plays piano, accordion, guitar, banjo, organ, drum, and bugle."

After losing several local elections since 1949 under his self-proclaimed Poor Man's Party, he decided to go national in 1952. Frank Jenkins, a printing press operator and former Pennsylvania miner who lived in Rahway, NJ, answered Krajewski's newspaper advertisement seeking a running mate and was selected. Jenkins appeared to have had no role in the campaign other than handing out buttons that read: "For President Krajewski-- I Like." The Constitutional quandary of having two people on the ticket from the same state had apparently not crossed anyone's mind in 1952 but would come back to haunt Krajewski in 1956.

The Poor Man's Party used the pig as their animal mascot and the candidate frequently had a small piglet under his arm as he went out to electioneer (one piglet, named Stephanie which was also his wife's name, relieved herself on some important documents when Krajewski officially filed his petition for office in Trenton). He said the pig was a gentle animal, representing peace and prosperity, plus there was no waste with a pig since all parts were eaten. The Party also had a polka theme song, "Hay, Krajewski! Hay! Hay!," and sales of 45 single records of it helped finance the campaign.

None of the campaign buttons, banners, or marketing that I have seen mention Jenkins at all.

Some Krajewski quotes from the 1952 election:

--He wanted a two-president system because "if you had a Democrat and a Republican in the White House at the same time, they'd be so busy watching each other that there would be no danger of a dictatorship."

--On how to stop juvenile deliquency: "Let 'em rock'n'roll with the pigs and chickens at five o’clock in the he morning. By the time the sun goes down they would be tired enough to go to sleep and not spend their time thievin' and driftin' around the streets at night lookin' for mischief..."

--"The Democrats have been hogging the Administration at Washington for twenty years, and it’s about time the people began to squeal."

--"A pig in every pot! A porkchop on every plate!"

--On how to solve the problem of world hunger: "Da solution is simple. In every bundle a wheat we send ova'dere to India we ought to put in a little 'boit control'."

--"If I am elected I will give my 4,000 pigs to Truman so he can feed the people pork instead of donkey meat as he has been doing."

--"No piggy deals in Washington!"

Krajewski endorsed Sen. Joseph McCarthy's persecution of anyone suspected of being a Communist. His other policies included free milk for children and free beer for adults, lowering the age of eligibility for Social Security to 60, cutting taxes on gasoline and alcohol, a tax moratorium for all those earning less than $6000 a year (average family income in 1950 was $3,300), families of four or more should be exempted from income tax, huge cuts in foreign aid, and a national lottery to fund more money for veterans.

The Poor Man's Party was actually on the ballot, but only in New Jersey, where they landed in sixth place out of eight. Krajewski finished with 4,203 votes, or 0.17%, beating the Socialist Workers and Prohibition parties.

Election history: none

Other occupations: printing press operator, coal miner

Buried: Hillside, Ill.

Notes:
If elected would have died in office.
Lived in Coalport, Penn. in 1940. Moved to Rahway, NJ ca. 1945.
Had a serious head injury at work in the mines at Coalport in 1929 that laid him up for several weeks.
His first wife was Mabel. He apparently divorced around the time of the 1952 election and married Esther.
His mother was an immigrant from England.
Died in a Chicago hospital.

Stephen Emery

Stephen Emery, August 20, 1908 (Passaic, NJ) - September 4, 1995 (Manassas, Va.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (aka Industrial Government Party) (1948, 1952)

Running mate with nominee (1948): Edward A. Teichert (1904–1974)
Running mate with nominee (1952): Eric Hass (1905–1980)

Popular vote (1948): 29,244 (0.06%)
Popular vote (1952): 30,406 (0.05%)

Electoral vote (1948, 1952): 0/531

The campaign (1948):

The SLP nominated Edward A. Teichert for a second time, but in this round his running mate was Party stalwart Stephen Emery of New York.

The 1948 platform anticipated the Military-Industrial Complex and never-ending war-based economy that President Eisenhower warned the country against over a decade later. The Party also criticizes the "Gestapo-like" tactics of the government efforts to root out "disloyalty."

Just like the Socialist Workers Party 1948 platform, the SLP took a swipe at some of the other Leftist parties, especially as they saw themselves as the only pure Marxists, and all others, including the Soviet government, as poseurs--

The Socialist Labor Party appeals to you to accept the logic of these facts: WAR, FASCISM, AND POVERTY AMIDST PLENTY ARE THE EVIL BROOD OF CAPITALISM. No worker who reaches this conclusion can, without consciously aligning himself with the forces of  reaction, support the parties that have as their aim the preservation of capitalism. In this category, besides the Republicans  and Democrats, we include the "Third Party Progressives" (who acclaim "progressive capitalism"), and the "Liberal," "Labor," "Socialist" and "Communist" reformers. To speak of "progressive capitalism" today is as nonsensical as it would have been to speak of "progressive slavery" in 1860. And to propose capitalist reforms is to help prolong the capitalist cause of war and fascism. The logic of this is inescapable.

The Socialist Labor Party, therefore, calls upon the American workers, and all other enlightened citizens, to repudiate the parties of capitalism, and to support its program for a Socialist reconstruction of society.

In an election year filled with third parties, the SLP placed 7th. With votes recorded in over 20 states they fared the best in Massachusetts (0.26%) and Minnesota (0.21%).

The campaign (1952):

In 1952 the SLP maintained Emery as the running mate but for President they nominated Eric Hass, who would go on to run in three more elections as the Party standard bearer.

The 1952 SLP platform blasts the Korean War, the Soviets, and the Red Scare in America. Some selections--

The Korean war, a senseless war to all but the capitalist and Russian imperialist interests that profit from it, is a tragic consequence of ruling-class confusion and the military approach in international relations.

---

By means of falsehoods and smears, whipped-up hysteria, witch-hunts and loyalty oaths, the capitalist plutocrats are attacking the very heart of American political democracy. They are imposing a "black silence of fear" on millions of once proudly independent and fearlessly outspoken Americans.

The Socialist Labor Party declares that the real target of this un-American attack is not the Communists, but the fundamental rights and civil liberties of the American people. The Communists are merely a convenient and vulnerable target. It has been said, not without logic, that if there were no Communist party in America, the capitalist reaction would organize one.

Eric Hass' effort to rebuilt the SLP were starting to pay off. Although their national result in 1952 was minuscule, they placed higher than usual (5th) and for the first time outpolled their dying rival, the Socialist Party of America. Best showings: New Jersey (0.24%) and Illinois (0.21%).

Election history:
1950 - US Senate (NY) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1953 - New York City Council President (Industrial Government Party) - defeated
1954 - Lt. Governor of New York (Industrial Government Party) - defeated
1957 - New York City Council President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1958 - US Senate (NY) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1961 - New York City Council President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1962 - US Senate (NY) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1965 - New York City Controller (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1970 - Governor of New York (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1978 - Governor of California (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated

Other occupations: subway dispatcher

Buried: ?

Notes:
The winner in the 1970 Governor of NY race was Nelson Rockefeller.
The winner in the 1978 Governor of Calif. race was Jerry Brown.
Parents were Hungarians who immigrated in 1904.
Ruled off the ballot in the 1958 US Senate race so ran as a write-in.
Still on record being active with SLP in 1989, when he donated $20,000 to the Party.
Was attacked, beaten and robbed by an Army deserter while fishing near Placerville, Calif. in late
 May 1984. Among other things his jaw was broken and his Honda station wagon stolen. Francis
 James Snyder was captured and entered a guilty plea in court.

Symon Gould

Holdridge and Gould

Symon Gould, May 19, 1894 (New York, NY) - November 24, 1963 (New York, NY)

VP candidate for American Vegetarian Party (aka Vegetarian Party) (1948, 1952, 1956)

Running mate with nominee (1948): John Maxwell (1863-1960)
Running mate with nominee (1952): Daniel J. Murphy (1887-1965)
Running mate with nominee (1956): Herbert M. Shelton (1895-1985)

Popular vote (1948): 68 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1952): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1956): 0 (0.00%)

Electoral vote (1948, 1952, 1956): 0/531

The campaign (1948):

Attempting to build on the perceived momentum of America seeing the advantages of a meatless diet as a result of WWII food rationing, vegetarian activist Symon Gould was one of the main forces behind the creation of the American Vegetarian Party in 1947 during the sessions of a American Naturopathic Association meeting. The aims of the Party appeared to be simply for promotional purposes rather than political, since they apparently never attained ballot status in any state during the five presidential elections they existed.

85-year old John Maxwell, who ran a vegetarian restaurant in Chicago, was selected as the Presidential nominee. Along with Peter Cooper, standard-bearer of the Greenback Party in 1876, this age is something of a record for Presidential candidates (Lorenzo Stephen Coffin was also 85 when he was the running mate for the United Christian Party in 1908). One legal problem regarding Maxwell-- he was born in England evidently as a British subject-- making him ineligible to hold the Presidential office. Gould selected himself, or so the story goes, as the running mate.

Wikipedia cites Daniel J. Murphy as the 1948 running mate but all other evidence points to Gould.

Maxwell said he had "tasted no meat for 45 years" and also ran against alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical medicine. Other issues included supporting government ownership of all natural resources, advocating a law prohibiting farmers from spending more than 20% of their labor on raising meat, and a pension of $100 for everyone over the age of 65.

According to Gould, Maxwell "wanted to accomplish something during the campaign" and that was his thinking behind marrying a woman 40 years younger than himself as the election season unfolded.

Gould predicted 5 million votes for the Party: "Three million of these would be the American vegetarians and the remainder of the votes would come from prohibitionist, anti-vivisectionists and anti-cigarette smoking groups. We will also attract other groups of people of similar high moral principle."

During the campaign Gould became embroiled in a public feud with the writer George Bernard Shaw regarding some esoteric differences in vegetarianism.

The campaign (1952):

The original 1952 ticket was headed by frequent party-jumper Herbert C. Holdridge with Gould once again being in the VP slot.

Holdridge, who claimed he had been a vegetarian since 1947, was the only American general who retired during the Second World War. In 1944 he appeared to be in support of the Socialist Party of America but by 1948 the retired general was attempting to gain the Democratic Party nomination for President. By 1952 he was covering all bets-- He was the Presidential nominee of the American Rally for Peace, Abundance and the Constitution (aka the American Rally Party), and he was making moves to be the Democratic Party nominee again, plus he was the nominee of the American Vegetarian Party.

For reasons that are unclear, Holdridge either withdrew or was forced off the ticket in late September/early October, 1952. Holdridge's campaign manager Burr McCloskey claimed the retired general quit because the vegetarians were "making Holdridge out to look as crackpot as they are." In another news source McCloskey said Holdridge was "asked" to resign from the ticket as the AVP had sharp differences of opinion over issues with the parallel American Rally Party campaign and could not endorse those activities or issues. As an aside, McCloskey would later be the VP nominee for the Pioneer Party in 1956.

The retired general continued to campaign, without a running mate, on the American Rally Party and quit that party shortly after Election Day.

At this point with only a month left in the campaign, Daniel J. Murphy was selected as the new substitute Presidential nominee for the American Vegetarian Party. Murphy had lost his left arm and leg decades earlier in an accident as a railroad employee and was now running an artificial limb shop in San Francisco. 

The campaign (1956):

The AVP nominated Herbert M. Shelton for President with Gould being the Party's VP choice for the third election in a row.

Shelton was a naturopath and pacifist. He was arrested, convicted, and jailed many times in his life, once for anti-draft activity during WWI, but most of his legal woes were due to charges of quackery, practicing medicine without a license, and twice for negligent homicide in the course of his "treatments" (1942 and 1978). Apparently Shelton himself didn't take his nomination very seriously.

The AVP platform promoted ideas that were obscure in 1956 but are more widely discussed today such as: "Vegetarianism is synonymous with universal brotherhood and universal peace. Its fundamental principle of 'anti-killing' if generally adopted would banish wars. In furtherance of this ideal, the American Vegetarian Party is unconditionally opposed to the slaughter of animals for sustenance, sport, or style. We contend that these barbaric and uncivilized practices brutalize men and generate in them a blood-lust that ultitmately seems to find an outlet in annihilating wars."

Election history:
1960 - US President (American Vegetarian Party) - defeated
1962 - US Senate (NY) (American Vegetarian Party) - defeated
1964 - US President (American Vegetarian Party) - died before election

Other occupations: editor, Secretary of the Vegetarian Society of New York, founder of the International Film Arts Guild in 1930, founder of American Library Service in 1922,

Buried: ?

Notes:
The winner of the 1962 Senate election was Republican Jacob Javits, a former classmate of Gould's--
 Also in that Senate race was Stephen Emery who also the Socialist Labor VP nominee in 1948 and  1952.
Alleged editor of the American print of the silent film Nosferatu.
Went on a three-week fast on an annual basis.
Jewish by birth, became pro-Israel during a 1949 visit, urging the UK to support US efforts there.
Died of cancer at age 70 two days after President Kennedy was assassinated.                                          In the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton film The Comedians (1967), the actor Paul Ford portrays "Mr. Smith," who was the fictional 1948 Vegetarian Party nominee for President.