Ralph Milton Raper

Ralph Milton Raper,  January 27, 1917 (Georgia) - October 24, 1988 (Stephens, Ga.)


VP candidate for Front Porch Party (aka Rocking Chair Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Connie N. Watts (1888-1964)

Popular vote: at least 7 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

Mr. Connie N. Watts, a retired 72-year old farmer living five miles south of Baldwin, Ga. was no stranger to publicity. You'll find his name in small down-home newspaper human interest stories long before 1960 regarding topics like remarkable chickens, snake-killing dogs, or predicting the weather. Although a Feb. 1961 article suggested Mr. Watts had been running for President every four years for quite some time, I could find nothing about that prior to 1960.

The Vice-Presidential nomination for this write-in campaign was Ralph Raper, a country music composer and independent producer from Demorest, Ga.

Watts, who ran a literal front porch campaign, was active with bird and wildlife preservation and this was reflected in his statements to the press. He wanted to employ thousands of jobless Americans with the task of boring holes into trees in order to provide more habitat for birds' nests. He also promised to donate the land in order to move the White House only 200 yards away from his front porch. Most famously he made a vow to create "a law to keep them 'vine-ripened' stickers off of them mushy green tomatoes."

Watts would not concede so fast after Election Day: "The trend seems to be running against me as late returns come in ... You may quote me as saying I know I got seven votes-- they just haven't been announced yet. Besides, the absentee ballots from a lot of places haven't been counted. You can't tell what might happen."
   
Election history: none

Other occupations: country music composer, owner of Gospel Jubilee Records, owner of Ralph's Radio Music

Buried: Yonah Memorial Gardens (Demorest, Ga.)

Notes:
Produced a number of 45 singles in the 1950s-1960s by various artists

Christopher Gian-Cursio

Christopher Gian-Cursio, February 5, 1910 (Rochester, NY) - July 26, 1985 (Rochester, NY)

VP candidate for American Vegetarian Party (aka Vegetarian Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Symon Gould (1894-1963)

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

The campaign:

He was the founder of the American Vegetarian Party, but in the three previous elections Symon Gould had placed himself in the role of running-mate. In 1960 he finally stepped up to the position of Presidential nominee.

The VP choice was Christopher Gian-Cursio, who has the distinction of being the first hyphenated surnamed running mate in American history. Gian-Cursio was a Miami-based naturopathic practitioner and chiropractor who was a professional associate with the better known Herbert M. Shelton, who had served as the AVP's Presidential nominee in 1956. And, like Shelton, Gian-Cursio had experienced years of finding himself in court under charges of practicing without a license. Shelton himself likened Establishment efforts to haul them into court with that of the Gestapo. Gian-Cursio was sentenced to a year in prison in 1947 when two of his patients died. Shortly after the 1960 election, Gian-Cursio would be convicted of manslaughter in Florida for the 1963 death of a patient and sentenced to five years of incarceration.

Beyond dietary policy the AVP endorsed the protest methods being used at the time by Martin Luther King. Said Gould, "The American Vegetarian Party endorses all forms of protest on the part of Negroes, especially the passive, non-violent kind, and takes special note in endorsing the Gandhian method of protest illustrated by the 'sit down' strike, especially that Mahatma Gandhi subscribed to the vegetarian ethical ideals in his procedures."

After the election Gould told the press he thought the Party polled half a million votes and he personally spent three hundred dollars on the campaign. On Gian-Cursio's role, Gould said, "He did an outstanding job, especially around Miami." I could not find any evidence that Gian-Cursio campaigned at all and his nomination did not seem to be counted as an important milestone or credential in his life by his followers or foes.

Gould's post-election summary included, "The 2-Party system is too limited for this big country. We're big enough to be exposed to all sorts of philosophies. It's a pity that we find it so difficult to have our names listed on Big City voting machines. We must depend on places where the voters mark their ballots or can write in the candidates of their choice."

Since they were not on any ballots and no votes for AVP were recorded it is difficult to ascertain the strength of their poll numbers. But Gould's guess of half a million is probably off by several zeroes.

"We face the future with confidence," Gould concluded, "I'll be 70 in 1964 when we try again." He wouldn't make it.
   
Election history: none

Other occupations: naturopathic practitioner, chiropractor, author, lecturer

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Rochester, NY)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Louise Brooks
Purchased Warner Castle in Rochester, NY in 1944 to use as a sanitarium called The Castle of Health.
  The building and land became part of a city park in 1951.
Moved from Rochester to New York City in 1952. Living in Miami, Fla. by 1960
Radio comedian Fred Allen appeared as a character witness in a 1947 trial on behalf of Gian-Cursio
 It didn't help.
Described by the press in 1947 as "a suave, dark man with a small mustache."

Georgia Olive Cozzini

Georgia Olive Cozzini, February 14, 1915 (Springfield, Mo.) – October 10, 1983 (Milwaukee, Wis.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee: Eric Hass (1905-1980)

Popular vote (1956): 44,300 (0.07%)
Popular vote (1960): 47,522 (0.07%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1956)

Eric Hass was nominated for a second time, and for the next two elections his running mate was Socialist Labor Party activist Georgia Cozzini of Milwaukee.

Cozzini's acceptance speech included: "Outside the Socialist Labor Party, there may be surprise over a woman being nominated on the national slate. But it is not as a woman that I accept the nomination! It is as a member of the only political party-- the only organization that represents the interests of the majority-- the working class. For the major economic struggle today recognizes neither division nor difference as to sex or race. This is the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class over the division of the products of labor."

The 1956 SLP platform is yet another long essay, which is the Party's style. The key paragraph that demonstrated the SLP remained the Party of De Leon purists would be this:

The Socialist Labor Party declares that the only alternative to social ruin and possible atomic war is the abolition of capitalism and all forms of class rule and the establishment of Socialism. We must add that bona fide Socialism has nothing in common with the bureaucratic despotism which, despite  the "collective leadership" that has replaced Stalin's one-man rule, masquerades as "Socialism" in Soviet Russia. Nor does Socialism mean "making the politician the boss." Socialism, as Karl Marx conceived it, as Daniel De Leon, the great American Marxist, developed it, and as advocated by the Socialist Labor Party, is a society of industrial democracy in which the factories, mills, mines, railroads and land, etc., are  owned collectively by all the people, where production is carried on for use instead of for sale and profit, and where the industries are operated and administered democratically by the workers themselves, organized in Socialist Industrial Unions.

A government ruling provided equal time for the third parties on television networks, making Corzzini one of the first SLP candidates to be televised. She was well spoken and articulate, although like most politicians of the era had not learned how to effectively play to the camera in this emerging technology. JFK would teach all the others how to do that in 1960.

The SLP had a stronger election result than any other political party of the Left in 1952. On the Ballot in 15 states, they finished with the highest percentages in Washington (0.65%), Colorado (0.50%), New Jersey (0.27%) and Massachusetts (0.24%). In King County, Wash. (i.e. Seattle) they polled 1.37%.

The campaign (1960)

The 1960 SLP platform thesis statement, offering the Party's version of socialism as an alternative to nuclear self-destruction:

The overriding issue of the 1960 campaign is SOCIALISM and SURVIVAL V. CAPITALISM and CATASTROPHE! This conclusion is based on a sober and realistic appraisal of a situation that actually exists and from which no one can hide. The whole human race  is poised on the razor edge of nuclear catastrophe. As each day ends with the missiles resting on their launching pads, the  danger is so much greater that the next will witness the outbreak, by accident or design, of a suicidal nuclear war.

This was not an exaggerated concern. 1960 was the first election I can remember. In school we had three drills each with their own special siren: fire, earthquake, and nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 only heightened the sense of urgency felt by younger people. As these little Boomers turned voting age, the SLP enjoyed a brief small spike in election results.

The SLP held steady with a similar national finish to the 1956 results. Top states out of 16 with recorded votes for SLP: Washington (0.88%), Colorado (0.38%), and Illinois (0.22%).

Election history:
1942 - Governor of Wisconsin (Independent Socialist Labor) - defeated
1944 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1946 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1948 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1957 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1958 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1962 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1970 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1974 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated

Other occupations: door-to-door encyclopedia sales, "housewife," community activist

Buried: cremated, ashes spread at a lake in Bayfield County, Wis.

Notes:
Family moved to Milwaukee, Wis. in 1924.
Georgia Olive Purvis married Artemio Cozzini in 1936.
Joined the SLP in 1939.
One of her opponents in the 1944 Governor's race was George Nelson, Socialist Party of America VP
 nominee from 1936.
The winner for the 1946 US Senate race was Joe McCarthy.
The winner for the 1957 and 1958 US Senate races was William Proxmire.
The winner for the 1962 US Senate race was Gaylord Nelson.
The winner for the 1970 and 1974 Governor's race was Patrick Joseph Lucey, later the 1980 National
 Unity Party VP nominee

Edward Kirby Meador

Edward Kirby Meador, November 6, 1885 (Chamblissburg, Va.) - December 25, 1981 (Riverside County, Calif.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee (1956): Frederick C. Proehl (1880-1970)
Running mate with nominee (1960): Whitney Hart Slocomb (1885-1961)

Popular vote (1956): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1960): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1956):

Proehl (pronounced Pray-el), aged 76 decided to run for a second time as a Greenback, seldom leaving his grocery store in Edmonds, Wash. He never met his running mate, 70-year old Edward Kirby Meador, a Boston-based book publisher.

Any press coverage they received usually had a focus on them as colorful antiquated characters. Proehl stated the use of checkbooks was creating what he called "false money" (I wonder if he accepted checks at his store?) and Meador advocated the eradication of income tax. All of the country's financial problems, Meador added,  traced to "Jewish, American and British Bankers." You can see where this is going.

Not on any ballots, no votes recorded.

The campaign (1960):

In their final campaign the Greenback Party could have been called the Throwback Party. The relatively youthful 65-year old Whitney Hart Slocomb, a Los Angeles "ambulance first-aid man" and sometime author was the Presidential nominee with his publisher who was none other than Meador, now 74, once again as the Party's running mate. Their campaign slogan "all reform waits for money reform— then let us get money reform first!" didn't exactly set the electorate on fire.

After the election, where they were not on any ballots and had no recorded votes, Greenback Party head honcho John Zahnd, now in his 80s, resigned as Party chair on Jan. 1, 1961. He died a month later and the Party basically died with him.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: book publisher

Buried: Olivewood Cemetery (Riverside, Calif.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Del Lord.
If elected in 1960 would have become President in 1961 upon the death of Slocomb.
One of 12 children.
Claimed to be a descendant or close relative of Ben Franklin.

Anna Marie Yezo

Anna Marie Yezo, July 30, 1918 (Hoboken, NJ) - Nov. 18, 2012 (New Jersey)

VP candidate for American Third Party (1956), Poor Man's Party (1960, 1964)

Running mate with nominee (1956, 1960, 1964): Henry B. Krajewski (1912–1966)

Popular vote (1956): 1,829 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1960): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1964): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537
Electoral vote (1964): 0/538

The campaign (1956):

Henry B. Krajewski had gone through some changes since he ran for President on the Poor Man's Party in 1952. He ran for New Jersey Governor in 1953 under the Jersey Veterans Bonus Party, under the American Third Party for the US Senate in 1954, and he made an attempt for Mayor of Secaucus, NJ in 1955. He was now solidly a perennial candidate character.

He had also since the last election sold his pig farm and now relied on his tavern for regular income but continued to make the improvement of the farmers condition a staple in his campaign. His 1956 platform included a moratorium on income tax for families of 3+ people with incomes $5000 or less, veterans bonuses, 18-year olds having the right to vote, a national lottery to benefit hospitals and schools, and the USA should be able to annex Canada in payment of the UK's debt. He stated his goal was to be placed on the ballot in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, and Indiana.

His running mate was Anna Marie Yezo, described by the press as a "North Bergen mother and housewife," she was actually a former Democrat, recent mechanic and gas station owner who was outspoken on the issue of women's rights. When the announcement of her being the VP nominee was made in January, 1956, Krajewski stated, "Having a woman on the ticket will help my chances. Also, it will give women someone to vote for." They danced to Krawjewski's campaign polka theme song to the delight of the media. Also present was the Party's mascot, a piglet named "Little Miss Secaucus."

In March it was reported New Jersey Sec. of State Edward J. Patten, a Democrat, informed Krajewski it was unconstitutional to have Yezo on the ticket since they were from same state. Krajewski/Yezo apparently were later listed on the ballot, so some sort of negotiating must have taken place. Perhaps the candidate's stated goal of running in other states helped make the difference? In 1952 his running mate Frank Jenkins was also from NJ and no one objected at that time.

Three days before Election Day Krajewski endorsed Eisenhower but still voted for himself. He and his family and Yezo as well were actually invited to Ike's 1957 Inaugural Ball.

Krajewski/Yezo placed 7th out of seven parties on the ballot in New Jersey with 1,829 votes (0.07%), a much lower result than the 1952 run.

The campaign (1960):

Same ticket, but in the recycled round they returned to the original name of Krajewski's party, the Poor Man's Party.

This time New Jersey Sec. of State Patten flat-out refused to include electors for the Poor Man's Party on the ballot on the grounds that a Presidential ticket cannot have two people from the same state according to his interpretation of the US Constitution. His decision was upheld by NJ Attorney General David D. Furman. Journalists quoted Patten as telling Krajewski: "Your petition is a farce and a sham and an insult to the sacredness of our democratic processes ... You told me the other day that you have no plans to file in other states that would make you a bona fide candidate. You come into the office with a Victrola and started to play records. Another time you entered the office with a pig." Patten later claimed he meant "nothing personal" in his remarks.

The ruling, which Krajewski called "a dirty, lousy deal which stinks to high heaven," didn't slow down the campaign as they shifted into write-in mode. As late as Nov. 1960 Krajewski was still making campaign appearances, such as the Levittown (Penn.) Shop-a-Rama sponsored by the Levittown Businessmen's Association.

The campaign (1964):

Undaunted by petty legalities, Krajewski announced in Sept. 1964 he and Yezo would run a third time together, this time starting out from Day One as write-in candidates under the Poor Man's Party banner. The campaign was evidently more subdued than the previous efforts.

Also in 1964 Krajewski had offered himself as the VP nominee for President Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats, but response had he none.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: housewife, auto mechanic, gas station owner, stationary packer

Buried: Ocean County Memorial Park (Toms River, NJ)

Notes:
Sometimes called Anne Marie Yezo, Ann Marie Yezo, Ana Marie Yezo, Anne Mario Yezo.
Later lived in Brick, NJ
Anna Dopyera married Louis Yezo (1917-1969) in 1941.
Parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Her father was an auto mechanic.
If elected in 1964 Yezo would have become President upon the death of Krajewski in 1966.

Myra Tanner Weiss

Myra Tanner Weiss, May 17, 1917 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – September 13, 1997 (Indio, Calif.)

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Militant Workers Party aka Workers Party) (1952, 1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee (1952, 1956, 1960): Farrell Dobbs (1907-1983)

Popular vote (1952): 10,312 (0.02%)
Popular vote (1956): 7,797 (0.01%)
Popular vote (1960): 40,175 (0.06%)
Electoral vote (1952, 1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1952):

Farrell Dobbs was once again nominated for President by the Socialist Workers Party, as he would be in 1956 and 1960. In all three elections his running mate was Myra Tanner Weiss, marking the first time in American history any party nominated the same ticket three elections in a row.

Long a SWP activist in the Los Angeles area, Weiss moved to New York in 1952 and worked as writer for the Militant. Her selection as a running mate was a balancing of the ticket in the sense that Myra and her husband Murry were considered from the Right wing of the Party and had their own distinct following.

The overly long 1952 SWP platform was anti-Stalin, anti-war, proposed the creation of a Labor Party, and demanded an end of the domestic anti-Communist persecutions by the US government.

They were on the ballot in seven states and performed poorly in all of them: New Jersey (0.16%), Wisconsin (0.08%), Minnesota (0.04%), New York (0.03%), Pennsylvania (0.03%), Michigan (0.02%) and Washington (0.01%).

The campaign (1956):

The Party had lost a number of members in the Detroit and Cleveland areas due a leadership dispute involving the definition and direction of Trotskyism.

With the death of Stalin in 1953 and Khrushchev's de-Stalinization efforts underway, the SWP openly courted refugees from the Communist Party USA who were looking for a new political home.

Weiss, ever the purist Trotskyite, attacked the CPUSA as much as she was the major political parties. One news source said she "condemned American Communists as complacent champions of bureaucracy and both Democrats and Republicans as 'big business' parties."

In a miserable election year for third parties in general, the SWP had a result that was more miserable than most. They were on the ballot in only four states but also waged a write-in campaign in California (0.00%): New Jersey (0.16%), Minnesota (0.08%), Pennsylvania (0.04%), and Wisconsin (0.04%).

The campaign (1960):

A small faction had left SWP in 1958 in a disagreement over the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The official Party line did not support the suppression of Hungarians on Trotskyist grounds. The Cuban Revolution was already starting to create further divisions within the SWP, especially as younger political activist recruits joined their ranks.

Murry Weiss suffered a stroke in 1960 around the same time the Weiss' were distancing themselves from the Party. It was dawning on Myra that SWP had some gender issues in their organization and that Marxist men could be just as sexist as capitalist men.

The CPUSA endorsed the Kennedy/Johnson ticket and in doing so took a swipe at the SWP: " ... it would be a still greater error to adopt a negative, defeatist, 'curses-on-both-your-houses' position" as this would "only encourage 'stay-at-home' moods and feed such sects as the SLP or the Trotskyites [i.e. the SWP], who render only lip service to socialist aims."

By the next election Murry and Myra Weiss would no longer be members of the Socialist Workers Party. Eventually they became involved with the Freedom Socialist Party.

The 1960 election results were, relatively speaking, a big upswing for the SWP. The Party was on the ballot in 11 states with New Jersey continuing to be their best showing at 0.41%. They finished with 0.20% in New York and Minnesota.

Election history:
1945 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1948 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Independent) - defeated
1949 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1950 - Los Angeles Board of Education (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1950 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Independent) - defeated
1953 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated

Other occupations: author, waitress, migrant worker, cannery worker, labor organizer

Buried: ?

Notes:
One of her opponents in the 1949 mayoral election was Jack B. Tenney, who she later competed with
 in 1952 when he was the VP nominee for the Christian Nationalist Party.
Suffered a severe stroke ca. 1992 and died in a nursing home.
Joined the Workers Party in Salt Lake City 1935, became a founding member of the Socialist
 Workers Party 1938.
Organizer of the Los Angeles SWP 1942-1952.
Brooklyn College BA 1969, NYU MA 1972
Originally studied to be a chemist but realized she might be employed to create weapons so she
 dropped that field of study.
Dropped out of SWP ca. 1963, was part of the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party
 1978-1980, then joined the Freedom Socialist Party.
#11 on the "Most Famous Person Named Myra" list on playback.fm
Was socially and politically connected with Lyndon Larouche in the 1960s.
" ...Murray and Myra were typical party leaders, intolerant to a fault and convinced of their own
 intellectual and political superiority to everybody else. At a big cocktail party in the 1950s, Junius
 was having a pleasant chat with Alger Hiss who spotted Myra Tanner Weiss. Also at the party was a
 left-wing Labour Party MP who Hiss mischievously decided to introduce to Myra. He brought the
 two together and within a matter of minutes the two of them were castigating each other loudly and
 had drawn a circle of onlookers about them, as if a fist-fight was going on. Hiss stood on the
 sidelines enjoying the spectacle thoroughly."--Synopsis of an interview with Junius Scales.
Descended from Mormon pioneers.