Earle Harold Munn Sr.

 Munn and Decker

 Decker, Earl Dodge, Munn

Earle Harold Munn Sr., November 29, 1903 (Bay Village, Ohio) – July 6, 1992 (Hillsdale, Mich.)

VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Rutherford Losey Decker (1904-1972)

Popular vote: 46,203 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

At their Sept. 1959 convention the Prohibition nominated Baptist preacher RutherFord Losey Decker for President and E. Harold Munn as his running mate.

In reading contemporary news accounts of the 1960 election season Decker did not appear to be an energetic campaigner. Even so, by some accounts the Decker/Munn ticket was reportedly feeling pressure from conservatives to withdraw from the race and endorse Nixon in order to prevent the Catholic JFK from moving to the White House. To the credit of both Decker and Munn they stayed their course.

Earl Dodge, who was already rising within the Party ranks in 1960, later recalled: "The 1960 campaign was marked by tremendous pressures on Dr. Decker to withdraw in favor of Richard Nixon, [in order] to prevent John Kennedy from being elected.  Dr. Decker and I pointed out that Mr. Nixon would be even more apt to breach the wall of separation [between] church and state than would Kennedy (how time has proved us right)."

Munn was a protégé of Prohibition Party veteran Enoch Arden Holtwick the 1952 VP nominee and 1956 Presidential nominee. Munn's son, E. Harold Munn Jr. (1928-2016) wrote the following about 2003/2004:

"In 1932, the pressure was applied to 'scratch the ticket' and vote for Herbert Hoover to 'save Prohibition.' Contrary to the advice of Dr. Holtwick, dad succumbed to the 'logic' and voted Republican ­ only to see his vote 'lost' and Prohibition go down the drain under the Roosevelt 'New Deal.' He vowed then and there never to again compromise principle for expediency ­ and he never did! He contended hard for this issue in 1960 when the pressure was applied to 'vote Republican and keep a Roman Catholic out of the White House....' Unfortunately, others abandoned both him and other Prohibition Party candidates to vote for Richard Nixon, receiving the defeat they were by choice a part of. But he did not retreat."

The 1960 platform had shifted a bit to the Right since the 1956 version, adding strong declarations of anti-communism and pro-states' rights.

The ballots in Silver Bow County, Mont. printed Munn's name as "Numm" which created a brief stir in the media.

Given the large number of third parties on the 1960 ballots, the Prohibition Party had a relatively good showing. They placed 5th after the Unpledged Electors and were barely behind the Socialist Labor Party. Although having 0.07% of the national vote is not something to write home about, it would be the last time the Party would ever register above 0.03% in a Presidential election. From 1992 to the present they have consistently finished in the 0.00% range. 0.07% looks pretty good now, eh?

On the ballot in 11 states their strongest results were in Kansas (0.45%), Alabama (0.37%), California (0.33%), and Indiana (0.32%).

According to one source, Decker went on to endorse George Wallace in the 1968 Presidential election. Munn would be the Party's Presidential nominee for 1964, 1968, and 1972.

Election history:
1941 - University of Michigan Board of Regents (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1942 - Lt. Governor of Michigan (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1944 - Michigan State Senate (Prohibition) - defeated
1948 - Michigan Secretary of State (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1949 - Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1950 - Michigan State Senate (Prohibition) - defeated
1951 - Mayor of Hillsdale, Mich. (Prohibition) - defeated
1952 - Mayor of Hillsdale, Mich. (Prohibition) - defeated
1952 - Governor of Michigan (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1953 - Mayor of Hillsdale, Mich. (Prohibition) - defeated
1954 - Governor of Michigan (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1958 - Michigan State House of Representatives (Prohibition) - defeated
1959 - Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1961 - Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1964 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1968 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1972 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Prohibition Party elector for Michigan 1948, 1952, 1976, 1980, 1984, educator, college dean, radio station executive, credit union president

Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery (Hillsdale, Mich.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Capt. "You May Fire When Ready, Gridley" Charles Vernon Gridley.
Methodist.
"I would rather lose in a cause that will ultimately win, than win in a cause that will ultimately lose."--E. Harold Munn, Sr.
Some sources give his death date as June 6, 1992.

John Geraerdt Crommelin, Jr.

John Geraerdt Crommelin, Jr., October 2, 1902 (Montgomery, Ala.) – November 2, 1996 (Montgomery, Ala.)

VP candidate for National States' Rights Party (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Orval Faubus (1910-1994)

Popular vote: 44,984 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

The National States' Rights Party was easily the most vicious of all the third parties on the 1960 ballot, and anticipated the Right-wing domestic terrorism that would continue to grow to the present day. The NSRP with the number of unabashed Klansmen, Nazis, white supremacists, anti-Semites, and other assorted racists and fascists in their orbit made the Constitution, Conservative, and Tax Cut parties look downright liberal by comparison. Their Party flag was basically a mixture of the Confederate and Hitler's Schutzstaffel symbols.

The Party was created in 1958 and both of the founders, chiropractor Edward Reed Fields (born 1932 and reported to be still living as of this writing) and future third party VP nominee Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr. (1924-2005), had early established their credentials as extreme Right-wingers with other groups. Stoner later served prison time for firebombing Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., and was a top suspect in other bombings. More on him in 1964.

The Party motto was "Honor—Pride—Fight! Save the White!"

As close as I can find for their platform:

    1. Encourage voluntary resettlement of Negroes in their African homeland.
    2. Restore segregation in the Armed Forces.
    3. Permit only "White Folk to take part in affairs of government or serve in courts."
    4. Demand that government should refrain from competing with private enterprise.
    5. Demand that confiscatory taxation policies of the federal government be ended immediately.
    6. Demand the removal of all federal control over National Guard units and law enforcement
        agencies of the states.
    7. Demand that all financial and moral support to the State of Israel cease as a basis for the
        rebuilding of Arab American friendship.
    8. Favor complete separation of all non-White and dissatisfied racial minorities from "our White
        Folk Communities."
    9. Preservation of Indian national life in America and unlimited development of reservation
        facilities.
    10. Demand that total segregation be maintained in the nation's schools and that only "members of
          the White Folk Community be allowed to engage in the educational and cultural activities of
          our White society."

At their convention in Ohio in March 1960 they nominated segregationist Democratic Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus for President, and ex-Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin Jr. as his running mate. There are conflicting accounts about the Governor's attitude regarding the nomination, but he took an action to remove his name, and thus the NSRP, from the Florida ballot. Faubus endorsed the JFK/LBJ ticket.

One source claims that at the last minute the Party selected Robert Bolivar DePugh (1923-2009) as their standard bearer once it was clear Faubus was not interested. He was a Missouri veterinary drug manufacturer, survivalist, and John Birch Society member who in June 1960 founded the Minutemen anti-communist militia movement. In later years he would be charged and convicted of firearms violations (for which he did some hard time), charged but acquitted of bank robbery, and pornography and morals accusations involving underage girls. DePugh eventually joined the Christian Identity Movement. For a spell he was a fugitive from justice, living underground. In some states it was too late to remove the name of Orval Faubus from the ballot, so if DePugh was indeed the substitute the NSRP in a way were running two candidates for President. In Alabama and Arkansas only the Electors were listed, not the actual candidates, so it is difficult to confirm if DePugh was actually a candidate. Faubus' name did appear on the Tennessee ballot.

VP nominee Crommelin, a WWII Naval hero, was an outspoken participant in the 1949 "Revolt of the Admirals," protesting President Truman's unification of the Armed Forces which in the view of the admirals favored air power at the price of the Navy. This activity probably involuntarily shortened Crommelin's military career, but once released into civilian life he started a new pursuit as a perennial candidate in Alabama. Crommelin was an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, pro-segregation, anti-Federal Reserve, anti-UN, white supremacist and had exhibited some of these beliefs during his time as a Navy officer, which didn't exactly help his future professional prospects.

A staunch defender of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist activities, Crommelin was and would be an associate of Gerald L.K. Smith, Pedro Del Valle, David Duke, George Lincoln Rockwell, and John Kasper. Kasper introduced Crommelin to the poet Ezra Pound (incarcerated in a mental hospital at the time) in Jan. 1956, the same year as the "Ez for Prez" campaign took place and which for some that slogan was a fascist rallying cry. Kasper became an aide to the Admiral during his failed 1956 bid for the US Senate. In 1957 Kasper served 8 months in prison for conspiracy. Oddly, newspapers in 1960 reported that Kasper endorsed Nixon shortly before the election. In 1964 Kasper would be the NSRP Presidential nominee.

With votes recorded in 5 states, their strongest showing was in Faubus' Arkansas with 6.76%. In over half the counties their result ranged between 5.04% clear to 14.90%. Other results: Tenn. (1.07%), Ala. (0.77%), Del. (0.18%), Tex. (0.00%, i.e. 7 write-in votes).

Election history:
1950 - US Senate (Ala.) (Independent) - defeated
1954 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1956 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1958 - Governor of Alabama (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1959 - Mayor of Montgomery, Ala. - defeated
1960 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1962 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1964 - US House of Representatives (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1966 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1968 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1968 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1970 - Lt. Governor of Alabama (Independent) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy Rear Admiral, farmer

Buried: Greenwood Cemetery (Montgomery, Ala.)

Notes:
Winner of the 1954, 1960, 1966 primaries was John Sparkman
Buried in the same cemetery as George and Lurleen Wallace.
Known as "Bomb-Run John"

Kent Harbinson Courtney

Kent Harbinson Courtney, October 23, 1918 (St. Paul., Minn.) – August 12, 1997 (Alexandria, La.)

VP candidate for Conservative Party of New Jersey (aka Conservative Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Joseph Bracken Lee (1899-1996)

Popular vote: 8,708 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

Like some other third party figures (e.g. Symon Gould of the American Vegetarian Party) this is a case where the VP nominee was actually the true power behind the scenes.

Kent Courtney was a Louisiana-based extreme Right-wing segregationist, anti-communist and member of John Birch Society. Through the use of radio programs, pamphlets, letters to the editor, and his own newspapers he had been agitating for the creation of a new conservative third party.

Early in 1960 Courtney ran for Governor of Louisiana as a member of the States' Rights Party. After that failed he worked to have US Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) become the Republican Party nominee. When Goldwater was defeated by Richard Nixon, Courtney returned to the notion of starting a new far-Right party. In 1960 there was a plethora of conservative political parties already in existence and it isn't clear by his actions if Courtney wanted to unite them under his leadership or simply do his own thing.

Also in 1960 Courtney was a States' Rights Party Presidential "Unpledged" Elector for Louisiana. This ballot choice finished with 20.99% of the vote in that state, winning in 17 parishes.

Courtney's efforts to create a strong conservative third party ticket ran into some problems. His idea of the ideal candidate was the populist segregationist Democratic Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus. The Governor claimed he had to concentrate on being re-elected to the office he already held so he was dropped from consideration, but as it turned out the National States' Rights Party nabbed Faubus' name for their Presidential nominee. Next was US Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-SC), but at the end of August 1960 Thurmond refused to run: "I have declined previously to be a candidate of a third party for the presidency this year, and I again decline to be an independent candidate, or to permit my name to be used on such a ticket."

When the newly formed Conservative Party managed to file for the only state where they qualified for the ballot-- New Jersey-- they got around the Strom-for-President problem by making the Senator the VP nominee instead! Sen. Goldwater was listed as the nominee for President. But both senators wanted nothing to do with the Conservative Party of New Jersey, so at the last minute the embryonic political group put Joseph Bracken Lee in the Presidential slot and Kent Courtney as his running mate.

Lee, the former Republican Governor of Utah and 1956 VP nominee for the Texas Constitution Party, was now the newly elected Mayor of Salt Lake City. I could not locate any comment by Lee regarding his 1960 Presidential nomination.

On the ballot in New Jersey only, their 8708 poll amounted to 0.31% of the popular vote in the Garden State, where they placed 4th behind the Socialist Workers Party.

Election history:
1954 - City Council, New Orleans, La. (Democratic) - defeated
1960 - Governor of Louisiana (States's Rights Party) - defeated
1976 - US House of Representatives (Independent) - defeated

Other occupations: sailor (US Navy WWII), airline pilot, commercial officer with the British consulate in New Orleans, public relations, teacher, newspaper publisher, author, radio personality

Buried: Bayou Ridge Baptist Cemetery (Evergreen, La.)

Notes:
Also called Kent Harbenson Courtney
Reluctantly supported Goldwater in 1964 even though he felt the Senator was too liberal.
Worked in the American Independent Party for Wallace in 1968
Saw a UFO while piloting a plane from Brazil to Africa in 1944 and became a lifelong UFOlogist.
Was a close associate of JFK assassination conspiracy figure Guy Banister.

Merritt Barton Curtis

Merritt Barton Curtis, August 31, 1892 (San Bernardino, Calif.) – May 16, 1966 (Washington, DC)

VP candidate for Texas Constitution Party (aka Constitution Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Charles Loten Sullivan (1924-1979)

Popular vote: 18,162 (0.03%)    
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

The Texas branch of the Constitution Party once again split from the national party and nominated their own ticket-- Mississippi attorney and segregationist Democrat Charles L. Sullivan for President and retired Marine Corps General Merritt B. Curtis for Vice-President.

Curtis, who just to confuse things was also running for President the same year under the national Constitution Party banner (but only on the ballot in Washington State), did not seem to be very active in the campaign. In fact I can find no record of him acknowledging his nomination one way or the other.

Curtis was pretty much an under-the-radar figure across the country but seemed to be celebrated in extreme Right-wing circles for his involvement with a group known as Defenders of the American Constitution in the 1950s, an anti-Semitic and anti-communist paramilitary organization. The DAC was co-founded by another retired Marine Corps general, Pedro del Valle, who was said to have urged a military coup in America. Gen. del Valle later became a peripheral figure alleged to be implicated in JFK assassination conspiracy theories by some writers.

On the ballot in Texas only, the Sullivan/Curtis third place result of 18,162 was 0.79% of the popular vote in the Lone Star State.    

Election history:
1960 - US President (Constitution Party) - defeated

Other occupations: soldier (WWI, WWII), attorney, insurance executive

Buried: Arlington National Cemetery (Arlington, Va.)

Notes:
Member of the National Sojourners.

Edward Joseph Silverman

Edward Joseph Silverman, August 2, 1913 (Davidson County, Tenn.) - August 12, 1980 (Kenbridge, Va.)

VP candidate for Conservative Party of Virginia (aka Conservative Party aka Virginia Conservative Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Claiborne Benton Coiner (1912-1963)

Popular vote: 4204 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

In sort of a spin on the unpledged electors wave of the 1950s-1960s, the newly formed Conservative Party of Virginia ran a ticket that were pledged electors for other people. Originally the Party nominated Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. (D-VA) for President with Sen. Barry M. Goldwater (R-AZ) as his running mate. Both senators asked to be removed from consideration.

So the Party nominated segregation activists C. Benton Coiner for President with Edward J. Silverman as his running mate, making it the literary sounding Coiner/Silverman ticket. The fact that both were residents of Virginia and as such would pose a Constitutional problem if elected didn't seem to bother anyone. Remember, Harry Krajewski and Anna Marie Yezo of the Poor Man's Party had been kept off the ballot in New Jersey in 1960 for that very reason.

Coiner and Silverman pledged that if they won they would instruct their Electors to cast their votes for Byrd and Goldwater in a bid to throw the election into the US House. Goldwater's objection was strong enough that they substituted the pledged VP votes to arch-conservative journalist Thomas Jefferson Anderson (who would become a future third party VP and Presidential nominee himself).

Many conservatives in Virginia, although sympathetic to the new third party's platform, felt the election in Virginia was going to be too close and that Coiner/Silverman might hand the state to JFK, so they expressed their support but their votes still went to Nixon.

Silverman, who was connected with a small weekly newspaper in Blackstone, Va., was the segregationist du jour by virtue of his leading a rousing rally called the Bill of Rights Crusade while exhibiting his gift for oratory in Mar. 1959. Newspapers at the time identified him as a charismatic spokesperson for The Defenders of State Sovereignty. The demonstration, described with terms like "a last ditch effort" and "highly dramatic yet minimally effective" by reporters and historians, brought 5000 angry Virginians to the capitol steps at Richmond and launched Silverman's short 1960-1966 foray into elective politics.

On Election Day their 4204 votes amounted to 0.54% of the Virginia results. Their strongest showing was in Silverman's own Lunenburg County with 3.78%, followed by Orange County 3.00%, Surry County 2.77%, Nottoway County 2.56%. Nixon took the state by a comfortable margin.

C. Benton Coiner committed suicide by hanging, Oct. 3, 1963.

Election history:
1966 - US House of Representatives (Va.) (Conservative Party of Virginia) - defeated

Other occupations: newspaper advertising salesman, worker at Railway Handle Corp., newspaper editor

Buried: Kenbridge Heights Cemetery (Kenbridge, Va.)

Notes:
Sometimes listed as Edward M. Silverman

Reginald Carter

Reginald Carter, May 6, 1906 (Kimball, W. Va.) - September 6, 2000 (Inglewood, Calif.)

VP candidate for Independent Afro-American Unity Party (aka Afro-American Unity Party aka Independent Afro-American Unity Liberation Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Clennon Washington King, Jr. (1920-2000)

Popular vote:  1485 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

Clennon Washington King's troubled life was reflected in his erratic political journey, which earned him the nickname "The Black Don Quixote."

He was raised in a prominent family in Albany, Ga. (birthplace of Ray Charles!), but no matter how cultured and educated he became, he still encountered the restrictions of American Apartheid as he attempted to pursue a professional career in various fields, including education and law.

As a history teacher at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in the mid-1950s, King was very outspoken with iconoclastic public statements such the NAACP was "a tool for conniving whites." As far as school integration went, King said "Negroes segregate themselves, even in voluntary situations" and that "Negroes can be discriminated against just as effectively in unified school systems." In response the students called him an Uncle Tom, hung him in effigy, and boycotted the entire school.

At the same time this controversy was taking place, King was accused of embezzling funds from the Methodist Church where he served as pastor. Finding himself fired from the position and locked out of the building, for some reason he broke into in the church and was arrested and jailed.

Shortly after the Alcorn boycott came to an end, King testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in favor of a bill that would provide loans for African Americans who desired to relocate to Liberia. The bill failed, but King was receiving some editorial support from white segregationists.

After being fired from Alcorn in 1958, King attempted to enroll in a graduate program at the all-white University of Mississippi, purposely generating his own publicity in the process. The powers that be proclaimed him to be a lunatic and for a spell he was confined in the Mississippi State Hospital. Voices raised in King's defense included Medgar Evers, Roy Wilkins, Hodding Carter, and Martin Luther King.

After his release he packed up his family and fled to Mexico, where he actually sought political asylum from American racial abuse. The Mexican government advised him to return to the United States.

By 1959 King's domestic life fell apart (he would be dogged for not providing support payments for years) and in November of the same year he sounded the call in Los Angeles to hold a convention in an effort to organize "The Movement for Negro Unity and Liberation."

In January 1960 he felt compelled to announce he was running for President of the United States with Richard Nixon as his running mate, which was probably news to Nixon. In the presence of two reporters and photographer at the Casablanca Hotel in Miami Beach he outlined part of his Party's platform was "to seek a mutually satisfactory solution to the racial problem within one year after the new administration has been inaugurated ... In case no mutually satisfactory solution of the racial plan can be agreed upon, Congress would call a Negro plebiscite after one year to vote on the creation of a separate Negro nation within or without the United States."

Apparently Richard Nixon did not accept the nomination for running mate, so Reginald Carter was named as the replacement VP nominee in June 1960. Carter appears to have been a jack-of-all trades businessman who settled on printing/publishing/editing newspapers and moved to Los Angeles from the Bluefield, West Virginia/Virginia area in 1959. Perhaps King and Carter met at the time the former was in Los Angeles late 1959.

King's campaign was not without incidents. He was arrested for vagrancy in New Orleans in April, and arrested for disturbing the peace/disorderly conduct while soliciting campaign funds in Florida in March and May. Apparently he attempted to kidnap his children from their mother in California, failed, was arrested, jumped bail, and spent the later part of the campaign in Hawaii.

The King/Carter ticket did manage to be listed on the ballot of one state-- Alabama. Well, actually in 1960 Alabama did not list any Presidential candidates on the ballot by name, only the electors and party, but the Independent Afro-American Unity Party was represented. Their 1485 Election Day tally was 0.26% of the Alabama result.

King went on to have a roller-coaster political career, continuing to be a magnet for controversy and conflict. Carter, on the other hand, seemed to have continued the life of a successful businessman and lived well into his 90s.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: bottling company worker, coal miner, insurance agent, neon sign company owner, false teeth maker, printing company owner, newspaper publisher/editor, artist.

Buried: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Notes:
Publisher/editor of: Los Angeles News, The Banner, Negro Reporter, Tabloid Teen Post, Independent Observer.
Buried in the same cemetery with a zillion celebrities.

Bryan Marcellus Miller

Bryan Marcellus Miller, August 23, 1900 (Caldwell, Idaho) - October 18, 1984 (Boca Raton?, Fla.)

VP candidate for Constitution Party (aka Constitution Party of the USA) (1960)
VP candidate for Tax Cut Party (aka American Party aka America First Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee (Constitution): Merritt Barton Curtis (1892-1966)
Running mate with nominee (Tax Cut): Lar Daly (1912-1979)

Popular vote (Constitution): 1401 (0.00%)
Popular vote (Tax Cut): 1767 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (Constitution and Tax Cut): 0/537

The campaign (Constitution):

The Constitution Party national convention held April, 1960 in Indianapolis nominated retired Marine Corps General Merritt Curtis for President.

The selection for VP took several ballots. Bryan M. Miller, who owned a welding company in Arlington, Va. was nominated over  Party chair Curtis Dall (FDR's former son-in-law, a stockbroker, and a well known Right-wing conspiracy theorist). Miller's political credentials for such an honor were never made clear. Many sources claim Dall was actually chosen as the running mate but the evidence does not bear that out.

Party spokesmen outright said they were attempting to force the election into the US House.

Dall, in his role as Party Chair, made the following statement which was published in the Princeton Alumni Weekly:

The Constitution Party of the U.S.A. is growing rapidly. It is well established in about 20 States. Soon it will become the real opposition party; the party of all conservatives, by combining many scattered groups of citizens who are dismayed in beholding the basic similarity of both Republican and Democratic parties. This country was built by sound Constitutional principles which can preserve it for the benefit of its present and future generations against snide encroachments by the present United Nations set-up, from depredations by the Frankfurter Supreme Court, from ill-advised Executive Fiat, and from other attempts to destroy our present form of Government which most of us hold dear.

Our platform is blunt and clear. It is a "Made in America" product for tax-paying Americans, and not one which will appeal to starry-eyed "what will Europe think" free-wheelers!

Our two candidates, Merritt B. Curtis, Washington, D.C. for President (a retired Marine Corps General) and B.M. Miller of Arlington, Va., a sound successful business man for Vice President, can be counted on to turn the tide once more towards a sound and solvent U.S.A. for the benefit of all.

To complicate matters, Gen. Curtis was also the VP nominee for the Texas Constitution Party, running with Charles Loten Sullivan.

The Curtis/Miller ticket made it to the ballot in one single state-- Washington. Members of the Party's Washington State branch at the Seattle convention in Sept. 1960 said they would concentrate all their funds for their national ticket rather than nominate candidates for local statewide offices.

They placed a very distant 4th out of 5 in the Evergreen State with 1401 votes (0.11%). Even though they were the only Right-wing third party on the ballot, there were several counties where they had zero votes. Nixon edged a thin victory there with 50.68%, a testimony to his campaign's ability to keep the Washington conservatives in the Republican column.

The campaign (Tax Cut):

Four delegates met in a hotel in Lansing, Michigan to place the name of US Sen. Frank J. Lausche of Ohio ("The Democrat with a small 'd'") as the Presidential nominee for the newly formed Tax Cut Party. "I believe in the two-party system," Lausche responded, "I don't subscribe to the development of splinter parties."

So feeling pressed for time, the tiny party scrambled and approached Lar Daly.

Lawrence Joseph Sarsfield Daly, better known as Lar Daly was a colorful perennial candidate known for frequently wearing an Uncle Sam costume while campaigning. Although generally a conservative of the nationalist Christian segregationist bent, he was not too particular about which of the major parties to use as a springboard for public office-- which he never obtained.

Some of Daly's proposals involved shooting certain elements of the population on sight and dropping atomic weapons on America's foes.

1960 was unusual for Daly on two accounts. First, it was one of the very few times in his decades-long office-seeker career that he ran under the label of a third party. Second, he was able to force television networks to give obscure candidates "equal time," citing Section 315 of the Communications Act. You can bet that was quickly amended after the 1960 election.

Exactly how and when Bryan M. Miller became Daly's running mate is sort of a mystery although his name comes up in the press as the VP choice shortly after the convention. Several sources cite Gen. Merritt B. Curtis (see above) as Daly's running mate. But in Michigan, the only state where the Tax Cut Party made it to the ballot, it was Miller's name in the VP slot, not Curtis.

In Michigan the Daly/Miller ticket placed 5th out of 7 with 1767 votes (0.05%).

Election history: none.

Other occupations: railroad welder, welding shop owner, inventor

Buried: ?

Notes:
Sometimes called B.N. Miller, Bryan A. Miller, B. North. Miller, Byron M. Miller
Was granted a patent for an Oxy-acetylene burner in 1933.
Living in Boca Raton, Fla. in 1977.
Was red-haired and freckled.
First VP nominee to run simultaneously in two parties with different Presidential nominees.
Probably named after William Jennings Bryan during the 1900 campaign.
Both of the tickets with Miller were endorsed by the John Birch Society

Raymond Leland Teague

Raymond Leland Teague, June 23, 1903 (Mortons Gap, Ky.) - December 27, 1978 (Klamath Falls, Ore.)

VP candidate for Theocratic Party (aka Church of God Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Homer A. Tomlinson (1892-1968)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

After his splashy defeat in 1952 as the Presidential candidate for the Church of God Party, Homer Tomlinson ran a very passive, underground campaign in 1956 without a running mate. But 1960 was going to be different.

At their May 1960 convention in Fulton, Mo., the group changed their name from the Church of God Party to the more academic sounding Theocratic Party. Raymond L. Teague, who was serving as a missionary in Anchorage, Alaska at the time in the Eastchester Church of God, was selected as the running mate. For some unspecified reason, one information source has called Teague an "eccentric."

Teague has the distinction of being the first Alaska resident on a national ticket. The Last Frontier had just become the 49th state in 1959.

Here is the Theocratic Party platform for 1960:

1. For Union of Church and State In Jesus, Prince of Peace.

2. To Keep U.S. Constitution, Freedom of Worship, Liberty.

3. For 10% Tithes - for Church and Nation. Instead of Taxes.

4. To Maintain 1960 Scale of Wages, Profit, Progress.

6. For Unlimited Production, lO% Profits for Farmers.

6. To End Wars, Crime, Delinquency.

7. To Unite Families, End Divorces.

8. To End Use of Tobacco, Itoxicants. Narcotics, Gambling.

9. To Assure Equality for all Races, Nations.

10. To Abandon Roman Law, English Common Law, Establish New Codes, Civil and Criminal.

11. Establish King James Bible as Foundation of Righteousness.

12. Follow New Revelations In Government and Peace.

On their leaflet promoting write-in votes, the header proclaimed: "The handwriting on the ballot for Brother Homer will be the handwriting on the wall for Communism."

Tomlinson traveled with a crown, robe, special flag, inflatable globe of the world, and portable throne (which appeared to be a folding lawn chair) used as props in a special coronation ceremony of his own invention as he proclaimed himself King of whatever jurisdiction he visited, in the name of Jesus of course.

Teague's campaigning was pretty much limited to the new state of Alaska. He told the Anchorage media, "We're in it to win. I believe this is God's appointed time for this to take place. With faith, hope, and charity, we'll win."

As usual, the Party failed to obtain ballot or even certified write-in status in any of the now 50 states.

Election history: none

Other occupations: soldier, sailor, minister

Buried: Eagle Point National Cemetery (Eagle Point, Ore.)

Notes:
Also called Raymond Lee Teague, Raymond Leeland Teague.
Teague appears to have joined the military at a young age and was stationed in Fort Randolph,
 Panama in 1930. By the late 1930s he was a Church of God minister in Portland, Ore. From
 Portland, he joined the Navy at nearly 40 years of age in 1942.  His first marriage ended in divorce
 and he remarried in [Washington State trivia alert!!!] Vancouver, Wash. Nov. 30, 1944 in a
 Pentecostal ceremony. Later in life Teague lived in Chiloquin, Ore.

Addison Brown

Addison Brown, April 23, 1922 (Los Angeles, Calif.) - January 17, 2000 (Portland, Ore.)

VP candidate for Outer Space Party (aka Flying Saucer Party aka Universal Flying Saucer Party aka Independent Nonpartisan) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Gabriel Green (1924-2001)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

It all started with economics. Addison Brown had cooked up an economic theory in 1947 called "Prior Choice Economics," and this was expanded upon in 1955 by Gabriel Green. This system could be described as sort of a competitive free-market  utopian system where physical money and taxes are abolished and purchasing power is gained by how many "points" one has earned on a labor card, the amount to be determined by some sort of government body.

Shortly after publishing his 1955 economics book, Gabriel Green went public with his belief that he was in contact with aliens and organized the Los Angeles Interplanetary Study Group in 1956 which morphed into the national group, Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs in 1959.

In 1958 Green ran for US Congress in California under the Economic Security Party (ESP, get it?) banner.

Green was sitting in his home in Whittier, Calif. in the spring of 1960 when an alien in a business suit from Alpha Centauri paid him a visit and told him, in English, "We want you to run for President of the United States." Or at least that's his story.

Prior Choice Economics godfather Addison Brown was named as the running mate. He was living in Illinois at this time. Yes, I know, a Green/Brown ticket. Brown was also known as "John Believer."

The Party platform included: "... Free permanent insurance on everything, no more taxes, free medical and dental care for everyone without the disadvantage of socialized medicine and cradle to grave economic security."

Green quotes from media:

"With the help of spacemen I believe I can carry millions of votes ... Hundreds of space people are walking the streets."

"All of our high scientists have been taken to other planets. President Eisenhower flew out to Edwards Air Force Base for a briefing with a saucer crew. I know Nixon has been contacted, but I am not sure about Kennedy."

"I may not win in 1960, but I'm sure of 1964."

Green endorsed JFK shortly before the election saying an "extraterrestrial electronic brain" predicted a Democratic landslide. Also, he explained, "Not enough Americans have yet seen flying saucers or talked to outer space people."

Outer Space Party campaign manager Elary John Willsie (1921-2005) told the press that JFK's razor-thin victory was due to Green's endorsement, otherwise "it appears likely that he [Green] would have polled at least 500,000 votes." Since the Green/Brown ticket was not on any ballots, those votes would have been write-ins.

Within a short time Green had managed to integrate Prior Choice Economics into his extraterrestrial/political agenda, informing us that this economic system was also used by alien civilizations. We will read more about this in elections to come. Meanwhile, being the VP nominee did not seem to be a milestone in the life of Addison Brown, who was involved in much more important projects.

Election history: none

Other occupations: author, physicist, economist, inventor, futurist

Buried: ?

Notes:
Addison Brown managed to somehow expand the Prior Choice Economics theory into a whole complicated cosmology that included "resonation physics" and the ability to overcome Death itself. Brown and his Canadian disciple Alan K. Wu had developed a piece of software that was downloadable on any home computer called "Miracle.zip" that would somehow enable one to begin this process. After Brown's stroke in 1996 and death in 2000, Wu had set up a website (now extinct) as a way of honoring Brown's desire to set up a foundation continuing his work.

Summarizing Brown's cosmological model looks to be extremely complicated, but Wu gave it go:

We are dedicated to the preservation and continuation of the work of the Prophet-Writer-Inventor Addison Brown, sometimes known as John Believer, of Portland,  Oregon.

April 23 1922 - January 2000

     Mr Brown is a writer of scientific and economical theories. He is a Prophet in the Eastern and original sense of the word, yet he 'sees' life and life's mysteries and their unraveling through the eyes of contemporary science. He is an inventor as well as a futurist, a visionary in the formost avangarde tradition, or anti-tradition, as some would have it. His theories and New Cosmology leads to Human Understood Reincarnation and Resurrecting the Dead Project.

PERSONNEL :

        Before his stroke in 1996, I used to work with and under the supervision of Mr Brown.  At the present time I am the sole member of this research.

        It was the hope of Mr Brown before his stroke to found a foundation which would continue his research. 

BASIC THEORIES and WORKS : 

       Addison's work consist mainly of these basic parts : A New Cosmology in Resonation Physics with application to Human Understood Reincarnation and Resurrecting the Dead Project, and Theories on Economics known as Prior Choice or Permanent Credit System Economics which if implemented will solve all of the problems of unemployment, taxation, Medical care, old age retirement, funding for public and private education, child and adult welfare, joblessness and loss of jobs to the third world or a foreign country, and most of the economical problems of the latter 20th century. It will also help to fulfill, along with resurrection of the dead, the major CREATIVE prophecies of Christianity. It serves as a Mirror that reflect and echoes prophecies of the Christian religion, how "in the Last Days the dead shall be resurrected ' and how "by thy WORK, thy shall be judged (as to how  much work is done and performed etc." for the whole world to see.

       It also fulfill CREATIVE prophecies of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and other major religions.

...

The main work is how to time the birth of a child using computerised horoscope timing so as to exhibit the highest possible Human Potential Quotient, or duplicate the soul shape and consciousness of a person previously alive but now 'deceased'. (Soul seperated from body because body no longer exist due to expiry at old age or some other causes.) The term Human Potential Quotient is developed and introduced by Addison and I based on computer programs developed here for the IBM PC and applies to the overall intelligence, abilities, potential, courage, integrity and personalities etc. of a unborn child based on, for lack of a better term, 'Astrological considerations' or computerized Horoscope timing. This computerized Horoscoping  is based on the theories and techniques developed by Mr Brown, the Prophet from Portland, Oregon.

       You can download programs ---Miracle.zip--- developed for the IBM PC on Human Understood Reincarnation and Resurrecting the Dead project. As mentioned before, the programs will enable you to predict the best time for birth of a child so as to have the highest Human Potential Quotient.  

       If you find this incredible or hard to believe, and if you are not interested in over coming death, there are other files and programs available in the zipped file that discuss economics, life's mysteries and other topics and problems.
-------------------------------------

More trivia I cannot resist. The concept of resurrecting the dead is a main theme in Ed Wood's cult-classic late 1950s film Plan 9 From Outer Space. In the movie, the leader of the aliens, the one who has approved the plan to bring the deceased back to life, is played by the actor John Cabell "Bunny" Breckinridge in his only cinematic role. Breckinridge was the great-grandson of another John Cabell Breckinridge, who ran for President in 1860 as part of a third party-- the Constitutional Democratic Party! And to add to our joy of  trivia involving the Pacific Northwest, his third party VP running mate, Joseph Lane, died in Oregon just like Addison Brown! As one of Plan 9's gravediggers says, "Yeah, kind spooky-like."

Joffre Le Mar Stewart

Joffre Le Mar Stewart, April 17, 1925 (Chicago, Ill.) – March 12, 2019 (Chicago, Ill.)

VP candidate for American Beat Consensus Party (aka Beat Party of America aka Beatnik Party aka Beat Anti-Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: William Lloyd Smith (1924-1995)

Popular vote: -0 (-0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

The American Beat Consensus Party was the brainchild of Myron Reed "Slim" Brundage (1903-1990), a writer, poet, radical activist who founded the Hobo College and Beat gathering place College of Complexes, based in Chicago. And here's a true Washington State trivia connection, around 1919-1920 he lived in Aberdeen, Washington as an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. I live in the same county so we are getting pretty close here.

Brundage hosted the Beatnik Party nominating convention July 1960 in the New York branch of the College of Complexes and even tossed his own beret into the ring, but on the 4th or 5th ballot the victors were Chicago poets Bill Smith and Joffre Stewart. The fact they were from the same state posed a Constitutional problem, but Smith and Joffre were actually anti-candidates with the slogans, "Don't get out the vote!" and "Don’t vote, but if you must, vote for yourself, and if you don't have enough ego to do that, vote for us."

Their campaign consisted of riding freight trains to various college campuses and beatnik hangouts across the country in order to address their target audience.

Right-wing paleolibertarian Murray N. Rothbard wrote the following regarding the ABCP:

... But the real glory of the Beat Party is not so much that candidate as the platform. Let me hasten to say that the platform is, at times, vague and even inconsistent, but what platform isn't? There is no point in being too purist about all this; after all, every platform is a compromise of contending interests. One plank calls for "abolition of the working class," presumably a reference to the future glories of automation. Another calls for a $10,000,000,000 subsidy to artists – apparently a sop to the socialist faction. A third was a little unclear in transmission, but it called for something like a "balanced debt" and a "repudiated budget," instead of the other way around. (So, all right, do you think Galbraith's economics any better?) But the true greatness of the Beat Party platform lies in its foreign policy plank, and its main political philosophy plank. Both are the most libertarian to be found in any party this year, if not any year. The foreign policy position is remarkably clear-cut and free of contradiction: absolute peace with all nations, because the "Beatniks are cowards."

The all-time purest libertarian plank, however, is the following: Bill Smith pledges that, when elected, his first act will be the immediate announcement of the dissolution of the Federal government. His second act will be his instant resignation. No one, not Barry Goldwater, not even J. Bracken Lee, will ever top that one.

And so – Mr. And Mrs. Conservative, if you want a real choice this year, if you are tired of the socialism of the Democrats and the me-tooism of the Republicans, and if you have given up hope of the third party that has been long promised and never fulfilled, awake and take heart! There is a real choice this year, there is a real third party in the field. Maybe it’s not everything you hoped for, but it is by far the best you will have. So face the facts of political life, and vote for Bill Smith for President and Joffre Stewart for Vice-President. Don’t waste your vote again!

During the campaign Smith, on live television, said the difference between Kennedy and Nixon was the same as the difference between "syphilis and gonorrhea, cholera and cancer."

Running mate Stewart wrote an essay-length letter to the Hyde Park Herald for Aug. 24, 1960. Some excerpts:

 ... As an anti-candidate, I campaign against voting. Thus I am not asking for anyone's vote unless you say that I am asking for your conscientious NONvote ... I ask people not to vote, because to vote is to participate in the State which is predicated on armed coercion. Thus, to vote is to participate in violence, whereas I encourage people to participate nonviolently in struggles for peace and freedom ...

Rather than vote, I urge people to veto governments by refusing to pay taxes. Your dollar, the greenbacked ballot, is the most significant balloting instrument you have. Every time you pay in a tax dollar, you vote for the continuance of government(s). Every time you withhold taxes from government(s), you veto all the violence that government(s) organize and perpetuate thru the elemental violence of cops-courts-jails-taxes.

The cops-courts-jails-taxes constitute the basic infra-structure on which is raised the gigantic superstructure of violence visible as the Pentagon, the Presidency, the UN, barely visible as the CIA, and invisible as fallout until someone goes under with leukemia.

Or look at it this way: as a conscientious objector to war, I point out that it is impossible to vote for peace. The constitution sets up the President as commander-in-chief of the army and navy. No peace loving man would want to be president--and we know how proud Kennedy, Nixon, et al, are of their war records. Thus any vote is a vote against the sincere peacemaker. Any vote is a vote against the anti-candidate(s) of the Beat Anti-Party Movement, which should be added to the Peacemakers, and the Catholic Workers, as a contra-cratic pacifist tendency.

The very last thing we want is your "vote."

And thus I have answered the most important question that can come up in any election: whether one should ever vote.

A conscientious withdrawal from politics means taking back from bureaucrats and politicians the power of decision over the most important questions that concern atomic age humanity. It means deciding responsibly by acting directly on problems in the manner above indicated, rather than shucking responsibility into the remote recesses of the loveless labyrinths of Leviathan. A conscientious withdrawal from politics signifies a vote of confidence in one's self, as well as reliance on latent and actual powers of kindness in mankind generally.

Since the Smith/Stewart ticket was not on any ballots, and in their eyes a deliberate nonvote was a vote in line with their political philosophy, it is difficult to say if they had any impact on this very close election. 

35 years after the election, Smith recalled, "I sent Kennedy and Nixon telegrams on election night that said, 'As more people didn't vote than voted for either of you, we claim victory. Therefore, meet me at Appomattox with your broken swords.'"

Election history: none

Other occupations: poet, anarchopacifist, anti-Zionist pamphleteer, soldier (WWII),

Buried: ?

Notes:
Alan Ginsberg's poem Howl makes a reference to Stewart as a person "with big pacifist eyes sexy in their dark skin passing / out incomprehensible leaflets."