Joseph F. Loughlin

Joseph F. Loughlin, March 26, 1923 (Philadelpha, Penn.) - August 5, 2014 (Pennsylvania?)

VP candidate for Down With Lawyers Party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: William Gahres (1913-2005)
Popular vote: 1,718 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

"Barefoot Bill" Gahres was a New Jersey electrical contractor and perennial candidate who invented one-issue political parties such as the Right to Die Party as a method of being heard. The Down With Lawyers Party started in 1978 when he ran for the US Senate. In that one he placed 4th in a field of 15, right behind the Politicians are Crooks Party but ahead of the Libertarian Party. 

When he ran as the Down With Lawyers Party candidate for President he filed with the FEC under The Committee to Get Rid of Lawyer Legislators and Bureaucratic Bullshit. His running mate Joseph F. Loughlin of the Philadelphia area was a brother-in-law by marriage. Loughlin did not appear to have an active role in the campaign.

Some Gahres quotes from the 1980 campaign:

I'm not a lawyer-hater per se ... Anybody who had anything to do with lawyers knows they're in it solely for the money. They're in it for the buck and they have a death-grip on you.

They don't have enough brains to get in out of the rain.

I talk in flea markets, at yard sales. I don't go out of my way because I know I can't win. I do it to get my point across.

I don't believe that the two-party system gives voters enough of a choice. It's like the difference between Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee. I feel like a trailblazer into changing that system. And this year, I think independent candidates are finally making some inroads. From now on it won't be so easy to ignore us.

My secret is I've got a hide like an elephant and I have the guts to come back after defeat.

I don't hate all lawyers. There are just too many of them in the Legislature and I don't think that's good. I wouldn't keep all lawyers from holding office. I would just try to make it as difficult as possible. I would prohibit lawyer-legislators from the private practice of law, though, because I believe it's a conflict of interest for them to make laws that are so complex that people have to go out and hire other lawyers to get them interpreted and enforced.

Among the other issues on his platform, Gahres was pro-choice, pro capital punishment, and pro right to die.

Only on the ballot in New Jersey they finished with 0.06%, 11th out of 13. The following year Gahres ran for Governor under the banner of the Down With Lawyers Party, finishing 3rd out of 13 with 0.20%, just ahead of the Suffering Majority Party. Gotta love the Garden State when it comes to unique political party names!

Election history: none

Other occupations: soldier (US Army Air Force, WWII), depot superintendent with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Cheltenham, Penn.)

Notes:
Called "J.F. Loghlin" by several sources.
Buried in the same cemetery as Frank Rizzo.

Marian Ruck Jackson

Marian Ruck Jackson, May 5, 1922 (El Dorado, Kan.) - January 22, 2005 (Wichita, Kan.)

VP candidate for American Party (aka American Party of Kansas) (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Frank W. Shelton (1907-1983)
Popular vote: 1,555 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

When the American Party nominated Percy L. Greaves for President there were a couple insurgent groups who could not accept his libertarian leanings (he had in fact been a member of the Libertarian Party) and his moderate views on abortion among other things. The Minnesota faction ran a slate of unpledged American Party Electors but in Kansas they ran an entirely different ticket.

At first the Kansas faction of this party had placed Ronald Reagan's name on the ballot, but Reagan declined the honor. Then they nominated Illinois US Rep. Philip Crane, perhaps the most conservative member of Congress in his era, but he withdrew as well. When the national party placed Greaves' name in the ballot, the local Kansas group challenged the placement and won the case. In Sept. 1980 they filled the void by nominating Frank W. Shelton for President and Marian Ruck Jackson for VP.

Shelton and Jackson had previously run as the American Party ticket for Kansas Governor and Lt. Governor in 1978 (and would do so again in 1982), so they were sort of a known political commodity. Even though they already had a built-in network they certainly did not have a lot of time to build and organize a campaign. Documents concerning their 1980 run are scarce.

Shelton was an active Reagan Republican until about 1977 when he joined the American Party. Jackson had also left the Republican Party citing her disapproval of "power politics."

When Shelton died the UPI summarized some of his platform issues in the obituary: "He had recommended sterilization of welfare recipients and felons, deportation of immigrants and restriction of government employees' voting rights."

On the ballot only in Kansas, they placed 5th out of 8 in that state with 0.16%. In 1978 the pair had finished with 2.32% in the Governor/Lt. Governor election, a strong result for a third party in a statewide race (they were spoilers in that one, giving the victory to the Democrats). In 1980 they were competing for votes against Reagan, who no doubt ate into their base as he was really not all that far away from the American Party on the political spectrum.

Because both candidates were residents of the same state their ticket would have been Constitutionally questioned and probably contested if they had somehow been elected. 

If Shelton and Jackson had won and passed the resident hurdle, she would have assumed the Presidency on Nov. 28, 1983 upon his death. In a sad coincidence, Percy Greaves died on Aug. 13, 1984. Neither one of the American Party Presidential nominees would have lived long enough to finish their first term in the event of their victory.

Election history: 
1978 - Lt. Governor of Kansas (American Party) - defeated
1982 - Lt. Governor of Kansas (American Party) - defeated
1984 - US Senate (American Party) - defeated

Other occupations: utilities commissioner Eureka Kansas, ranching, oil business

Buried: Sunset Lawns Cemetery (El Dorado, Kan.)

Notes:
Winner of the 1984 race was Nancy Landon Kassebaum.
Born Marian L. Fowler, buried as Marian L. Ruck.
Some sources state the running mate was Marian's husband George but I find no primary documents
 to support that.
Marian was an Elector for her own ticket.

Jewelie Ann Goeller

Jewelie Ann Goeller, July 7, 1952 (Valley City, ND) - October 2, 2004 (Grand Forks, ND)

VP candidate for Natural People's League (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Harley J. McLain (1951-2014)
Popular vote: 296 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Harley McLain, an organic farmer in Eckelson, N.D. met Jewelie (aka Julie) Goeller at a Democratic convention and she became the love of his life. She was also his running mate in 1980 when they ran under the banner of the Natural People's League.

McLain began his quest for elective public office in 1978 running for the US House originally under the Chemical Farming Banned Party and quickly encountered the typical Byzantine obstacles designed to discourage any third party or independent bids for office. This began a series of legal challenges that went on for years and apparently did result in some improvements.

The media coverage during the McLain/Goeller campaign had a chief focus on the court battles for ballot access, but once in awhile little bits of the Natural People's League platform would be mentioned. The NPL seemed to be a single issue entity-- organic farming-- and McLain told the press the party's symbol was the earthworm in contrast to the donkey and the elephant.

He also had some party slogans: "I am a man 'out standing in my field'" and "Organic is more Orgasmic" and "The law of the land is love."

McLain was running for US Senator and was on the ballot as a member of the Chemical Farming Banned Party at the same time he was running for President and on the ballot as a member of the Natural People's League. North Dakota listed only the surname of the Presidential candidates with their political party alongside the full names of the Electors. VP nominees were totally ignored on the printed ballot, but in at least one article Goeller was mentioned as the running mate.

The McLain/Goeller ticket were also 2/3 of the Electors for themselves.

Both candidates were in their 20s which is below the Constitutional minimum age of 35 to be President and VP. In the event of their victory, the US House and US Senate would have been in a position to select different people for both offices.

On the ballot in North Dakota only, the McLain/Goeller ticket placed 6th out of 11 with 0.10% of the vote. That is actually, relatively speaking, quite an achievement. First, they made it to the ballot and that alone is pretty impressive. Second, they outpolled several veteran third parties who had more resources and larger organizations.

Election history: none

Other occupations: motel manager, farmer, plant nursery owner, writer, poet

Buried: Memory Gardens Cemetery (Valley City, ND)

Notes:
Married McLain in 1983 and was known as Julie Ann Goeller McLain.

James William Barton

James William Barton, October 20, 1922 (Illinois) - February 22, 1999 (Missouri)

VP candidate for Independent Party of America (1980)

Running mate with nominee: William James Barton (1949-2002)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Chester, Illinois resident William James Barton of the Independent Party of America promised that as President "all my speeches will be live with no notes." He challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter to "a radio interview."

Barton selected a running mate he could trust-- his father, James William Barton of Granite City, Ill. This is the first instance of a son and father on the same ticket that I know of.

As far as I can ascertain this Independent Party of America was not connected with the later LDS-inspired party of the same name.

Precious little is known about this campaign or where they stood on the issues of the day. The ticket had some news coverage in Sept. 1979 but then were quickly ignored by the press.

Apparently no journalist made the connection between the Bartons' national campaign and a huge controversy taking place back home at the same time. The elder Barton, the Supervisor of Assessments of Madison County, Ill., was known as "the most powerful Democrat in Madison County." He had been appointed to the position Dec. 1972 and by the late 1970s he was embattled, beleaguered, and was in charge of an office in the midst of an organizational meltdown. By 1986 he entered a guilty plea when charged with bribery, but only after several years of prolonged court action. He was sentenced to six months in jail but his attorneys managed to postpone his original start date in 1987 and I cannot determine if he ever actually did serve some hard time or not.

If they had been elected the younger Barton at age 31 was legally too young to be President so the US House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats in that time period, would have selected the President.

But there is another possible legal issue. Both father and son were residents of the same state which poses a second Constitutional roadblock. But even if the elder Barton had somehow made it past that hurdle, it seems his illegal activity as a county public official would have caught up to him, forcing him to resign much like Vice-President Agnew in 1973 for the same reasons.

Election history:

1968-197- - District 7 School Board (Madison County, Ill.)
196--1972 - Granite City (Ill.) Assessor.

Other occupations: soldier (WWII), Supervisor of Assessments for Madison County, Ill. (1972-1984)

Buried: Goodbread Cemetery (Gorham, Ill.)

Notes:
Chester, Illinois is the "Home of Popeye"!
Was a pilot.

Dorothy Ann Evans

Dorothy Ann Evans

VP candidate for Independent (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Betty Jean Coyle (1933-2003)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Betty Jean Coyle, a single mother of five in Rowlett, Tex. and a former executive secretary who in 1980 was a producer of beauty pageants for children set her sights on the White House running as an independent. Her running mate was Dorothy Ann Evans of Phoenix, Ariz., the mother of three.

"I am filled with a patriotic spirit," she said in explaining her motives, "and what this country needs is more of that. I told myself, 'Jean, if you are not going to do it, then who is?' So I decided to do it."

Her slogans included: "It's time for a lady in 1980," "Put manners, morality and motherhood back in America," and "America First with mother power."

Although highlighting the strength of her gender, she was not exactly a feminist. In defending herself against criticism of being involved in beauty pageants she said, "Of course, the feminists do criticize this kind of thing but I believe that women were made to be women and men were made to be men and they should appreciate each other."

Coyle on other issues:

You cannot make enemies of Congress or the media. And I would try to keep from becoming paranoid - up to now creeping paranoia seems to go along with the job.

I'm most interested in the effects that the environmentalists have in holding back the country to a great degree. I would like to support all the Western states and Alaska where the governors are asking government to turn loose of federal lands so they can get on with the business of producing oil and gas in those lands that are tied up ...

There should be no energy crisis, with our vast resources, but the government is now responsible for what we are now experiencing. They should give back all that federal land in the west and Alaska so we can get the coal and gas, and be less strict about strip mining.

Some of our schools create only chaos. There should be more public control by parents over the schools; we should determine if the teachers are teaching and if they are teaching the right things ... When you lose control over your schools, you lose control of your country.

I don't have much background in foreign policy, but then we don't have much of a foreign policy now anyway. Right now our foreign policy is handling us.

Money to men means power, but a woman knows the value of money and will stretch a dollar to the limit.

Even though she had a running mate and couple nationally distributed media articles as well as an appearance on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show, Coyle kept saying she had yet to make a "formal" announcement of her candidacy. Her campaign vanished from sight in early 1980.

In some ways Coyle anticipated Sarah Palin.

For the time being Dorothy Ann Evans remains one of our mystery third party VPs.

Election history: ?

Other occupations: ?

Buried: ?

Notes:
She could possibly be the same Dorothy Ann Evans of Phoenix who lived from June 10, 1938 to March 10, 2010, but I cannot verify that.

Richard Arnold Grayson

Richard Arnold Grayson, June 4, 1951 (New York, NY) -

VP candidate for any political party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Fred Silverman (1937-2020)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The 1980 Presidential election year must have been extra interesting for NBC. Part of their talent, David Brinkley, was nominated for VP by James Zalmer Hardy for his Correction, Punishment and Remedy Ticket and the CEO of the network itself, Fred Silverman had his name filed with the FEC for President by Richard Grayson and Jerry Weinberger. As you might recall this duo was also behind the Nixon/Agnew 1980 Nostalgia Party ticket. 1980 appears to have been Grayson's debut year in what would be a long career in sometimes using elections as a venue for political satire, usually as a write-in candidate.

The Silverman for President with Grayson as the running mate campaign was announced in Sept. 1979. The platform included intriguing issues such as banning religious bookstores and returning royalty to America.

Some select quotes from "The Committee to Draft Fred Silverman":

I selected Fred as my running mate because I figure being a TV executive is good training to be president. After all, under President Fred, if one of his programs doesn't work out, he can cancel it after three weeks.

We need a prime-time president. All we've got now is the equivalent of a summer rerun or an early morning sermonette.

If Fred and I get in, we're going to do something about fuel allocations right away. We'll have Ed McMahon host a television special. We'll call it "Bowling for Gallons." I think it's as fair a way as any to distribute gasoline.

Grayson on choice of political party: Jimmy, Jerry, Teddy, they're all the same to me.

NBC sent Grayson a huffy letter stating, "Mr. Silverman is not a candidate for the Presidency or any other office" with the legal threat that the jokester's "unauthorized, possibly illegal, and self-serving activities" could land him in court. "I'd love it," Grayson responded.

Around the same time Grayson was attempting to draft Gloria Vanderbilt into a race for the US Senate under the banner of the Right to Be the Life of the Party Party. Vanderbilt's attorney said the effort was "unauthorized and unappreciated."

Some people.

Also in 1980 Grayson registered the Ayatollah for Congress Committee with the FEC, running the Ayatollah Khomeini as a Democrat running for US Congress out of Brooklyn as a way to diminish his threat to US security, "Then he would be as ineffective as any other congressman."

Aside from Silverman's refusal to accept the nomination there were other problems with this ticket. Grayson was only 29 in 1980, far short of the Constitutionally mandated age of 35 to be VP. Also, with Grayson's parallel effort to get Nixon and Agnew back in the White House, he created his own competition. So far as we know, neither one of them threatened legal action so maybe they had more of a sense of humor than we give them credit for.

In 1984 Grayson reflected on Silverman, "He threatened to sue. But he would have been great. I wanted someone in show business because politics is basically entertainment. I bet he's sorry now that he's fired. The presidency is a sure four years ... I wasn't too far off, though. We've got someone in show business anyway."

Apparently in this election Grayson ended up supporting Rep. John Anderson's third party bid.

Grayson's name will show up in profiles of other third party VPs as I continue this project.

Election history:
1982 - Davie Town Council (Fla.) (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1982 - US Senate (Fla.) (Republican) - primary - defeated
1984 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1984 - US President (Citizens Running for Election as President Party) - defeated
1986 - Florida State Commissioner of Education (Democrat) - primary - defeated
1988 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1994 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (Democratic) - defeated
1996 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (Independent) - defeated
2000 - US Senate (Fla.) (Independent) - defeated
2004 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (Independent) - defeated
2006 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (Independent) - defeated
2008 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
2008 - US House of Representatives (Ariz. CD4) (Republican) - primary - defeated
2008 - US House of Representatives (Ariz. CD6) (Democratic) - primary - defeated or withdrew
2010 - US House of Representatives (Ariz.) (Green Party) - defeated
2012 - Green Party nomination for US President - defeated
2012 - US House of Representatives (Ariz.) (Green Party) - primary - defeated
2012 - US House of Representatives (Ariz.) (Americans Elect) - defeated
2014 - US House of Representatives (Wyo.) (Democratic) - defeated
2016 - US House of Representatives (Wyo.) (Democratic) - withdrew
2018 - Arizona House of Representatives (Green) - defeated

Other occupations: author, teacher, satirist

Notes:
Winner of the 2000 race was Bill Nelson
Winner of the 2010 race was Jeff Flake
Supported McGovern in 1972 and McCarthy in 1976
In 1989 Grayson identified my late friend Crad Kilodney as "Canada's funniest fiction writer." For
 that viewpoint alone Grayson would get my vote. I interviewed Kilodney (his pen name) in the early
 1990s for City Limits Gazette as his street-vending case went to the Canadian Supreme Court.
Attempting to document Grayson's kinetic runs for offices is quite challenging, which I'm sure must
 delight Mr. Grayson! I'll keep retooling the list as I learn.

James Harlan Boren

James Harlan Boren, December 10, 1925 (Wheatland, Okla.) - April 24, 2010 (Tahlequah, Okla.)

VP candidate for any political party (1980)

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

The campaign:

James H. Boren, an academic with a career and background in government had run a mock campaign for US President in 1972 under the Bureaucratic Party label partly to promote his newly published book, When in Doubt Mumble: A Bureaucrat's Handbook (1972). Around this time he also formed the International Association of Professional Bureaucrats which had the improbable acronym of INATAPROBU according to Boren. Unfortunately, I was unable to identify any running mate with Boren for the 1972 effort.

In 1980 he was back, but this time he had no pretensions of running for President. He wanted the job of Vice-President as he was attracted to "the promise of good food, world travel, the opportunity to meet many nice people, and no heavy lifting." [In 1976 Bob Dole said he accepted the position of running mate with Ford because the VP job was "inside work, no heavy lifting."]

He didn't care who was elected President, he could work with whoever. "I have been around Washington long enough that I no longer have any political philosophy, and I could parrot any official line of any president of any party." He said was not Left or Right  wing, but "a neutral gray. You tell me what you're for, and I'll take that position."

His qualifications? "I have done nothing for years, but I have done it with style." And "I have done nothing for so long that I think I am qualified for this particular job."

His platform, such as it was, included the motto "I am from Washington, so I have all the answers."
--Inflation: "Every three months, we should adjust the salaries of all the Washington policymakers downward the same percentage inflation has gone up."
--The population explosion: "Double the human gestation period from nine to 18 months."
--Streamlining government: "Reorganization is no threat. It's an opportunity to put new layers on old layers."
--Committees: "If you study a problem long enough, it may go away."
--Jimmy Carter: "Any president who sets foot in this town without a full briefing on dynamic inaction, decision-postponement patterns and creative status quo cannot go very far."
--Political promises: He was "ready to tell the public what they want to hear-- whatever that may be. Money in every pocket, gas in every tank and a promise in every sentence." "Each voter deserves her or his own set of promises."
--Policy decision-making: "When a bureaucrat makes a mistake and continues to make it, it usually becomes policy."
--Cutting red tape: "Bureaucrats are not opposed to cutting red tape, as long as it is cut lengthwise."
--Health care: "I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know what those doctors were wearing masks for."

As the final three months as the campaign season heated up, Boren's media coverage declined. Voting for a President/Vice-Presidential combined ticket is a matter of custom which is not mandated in the Constitution. In an ideal situation, voters would have the opportunity to vote for the VP in a separate ballot line.

Election history:
1972 - US President (Bureaucratic Party) - defeated
1984 - US President (Bureaucratic Party) - defeated
1986 - US House of Representatives (Va.) (Democratic) - defeated
1992 - US President (Apathy Party) - defeated
1996 - US Senate (Okla.) (Democratic) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy (WWII), Chief of Staff for US Sen. Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex.), Deputy Director of the U.S. Economic Mission to Peru, President of Development Services International, author, lecturer

Buried: Fort Gibson National Cemetery (Fort Gibson, Okla.)

Notes:
Cousin of Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.)

Spiro Theodore Agnew

Spiro Theodore Agnew, November 9, 1918 (Baltimore, Md.) – September 17, 1996 (Berlin, Md.)

VP candidate for Nostalgia Party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Richard Grayson (self-described moderate radical) and Jerry Weinberger (self-described radical moderate), two twentysomethings from Queens, NY formed the tongue-in-cheek Nixon-Agnew in '80 Committee and said they registered the ticket with the FEC. Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, who both resigned their last public offices in disgrace, were listed under the Nostalgia Party.

A couple problems here. Nixon had already been elected twice to the Presidency and according to the term limits set by the Constitution that includes the phrase "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice ..." would certainly make him ineligible for a third round. No such restriction applies to the VP, so Agnew would be safe.

Grayson's response, "Since when did Nixon care about the Constitution?"

Secondly, as frequently the case when big names are appropriated by third parties, neither candidate gave permission to use their names.

"Well, we tried to contact both Nixon and Agnew but we had a problem ... They wouldn't take our calls. I don't think they're even speaking to each other anymore. They're sort of like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis after they split up."

Some more quotes from Grayson and Weinberger:

Life was a lot better when Nixon and Agnew came into office. The Beatles were still together. Gasoline dealers had price wars and gave away free dishes.

Nixon and Agnew have learned a lot since leaving office. They've both written two books and have matured.

Look at how things were when these two were in office. Interest rates were down and hemlines were up. Students were active in social issues. No disco.

I regret never having voted for Nixon. I'm not going to let it happen again. You know, I really miss seeing him. I miss seeing his upper lip sweat. Carter doesn't sweat. How can you trust a man who doesn't sweat?

Remember how great he was on TV? When that man lied, you knew he lied. What more could you ask for in a president?

The Nixon/Agnew ticket enjoyed some novelty publicity in the spring of 1980 and even though news coverage of the Nostalgia Party faded it is an easy bet they received some write-in votes in November. In the event they won, Agnew would have once again served as VP, but the Democratic controlled US House would have been placed in the position of electing a President between two runner ups (Carter and Reagan) as long they also had Electoral votes. Let the conjecture begin!

Election history:
1960 - Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge - defeated
1962-1966 - Baltimore County (Md.) Executive (Republican)
1967-1969 - Governor of Maryland (Republican)
1969-1973 - US Vice-President (Republican) - resigned

Other occupations: US Army (WWII) (Korea), attorney, Baltimore County Board of Zoning Appeals, author, international business consultant

Buried: Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens (Timonium, Md.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Johnny Unitas.
His father was a Greek immigrant to the US in 1897, original name was Theophrastos
 Anagnostopoulos.
Was a Democrat until after WWII.
Brush with fame: I was in a college class with one of Agnew's daughters about six years after he
 resigned and she was really a delightful person.

Martin Joseph McNally

Martin Joseph McNally, ca1944 (Michigan) -

VP candidate for Nationalist Christian Democratic Party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Garrett Brock Trapnell (1938-1993)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The evening of Thanksgiving Eve, 1971 was a typically nasty one here in Washington State for that time of year. Lots of rain and high winds. I remember it very well as we were glued to the local TV watching a live skyjacking taking place by a fellow the media later called D.B. Cooper. He was holding a Northwest Orient Airlines jet and crew hostage in exchange for 200 grand at Sea-Tac Airport. If the weather had not been so awful we could've run outside and watched the jet pass over our farm just minutes before Cooper bailed out two counties away and became part of Pacific Northwest folklore.

Personally, I think he sunk to the bottom of a lake or river and since Mt. St. Helens blowed up real good whoooee (as my friends Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok like to say) in May 1980, the odds of finding his body are pretty slim.

And speaking of 1980, among the Vice-Presidential candidates that year was one of Cooper's many imitators, one Martin Joseph McNally (aka Robert Wilson). He skyjacked a passenger airliner in 1972 and in the '80 election was serving a life sentence plus 75 years in prison in Marion, Ill.

The presidential candidate was Garrett Brock Trapnell, another Cooper-inspired skyjacker, who was also a bigamist, con man, bank robber, jewel thief, and, as it turns out, politician. When Trapnell took control of the jet in 1972 he not only demanded money, he wanted Angela Davis (a future third party VP candidate!) released from prison and he wanted a pardon from President Nixon among other things. Instead he was made an involuntary guest of the Crowbar Hotel. During the 1980 election he was also incarcerated in Marion.

Trapnell and McNally's escapades both before and after they met are the stuff of adventure movies. But I'll just focus on their much less action-packed run for the White House in 1980-- otherwise this profile will turn into a book.

Trapnell had announced his Presidential run in 1979 under the Nationalist Christian Democratic Party banner. His platform was short on specifics but he did state he wanted Secret Service protection and some of that public money doled out to the other major politicians running for the White House. McNally's name as the VP choice first appears in news articles around April Fools Day 1980.

By 1980 both Trapnell and McNally had become sort of jailhouse lawyers and they kept the courts constantly busy with various cases. In terms of their campaign, they went to court to be placed on the Indiana ballot during the primary, but learned that "minor" parties were excluded from the primaries in the Hoosier State. At the same time this was going on the duo were also in court over their alleged involvement with a prison breakout.

There is a legal point that could have complicated things in the event the Trapnell/McNally ticket had won. There is no law preventing felons or imprisoned people from serving in office as President if elected although getting on the ballot appears to be a state-by-state decision. It is plausible that President Trapnell could have pardoned himself. However the fact they were both "residents" of the same state poses a Constitutional problem that has never been tested. McNally's last address had been in Michigan so maybe he could have argued that was his real residence.

There have been a few previous tickets where one of the candidates was in jail or prison during part or all of the election but this was the first time I am aware of where both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees were behind bars.

Not on the ballot and apparently not certified write-ins, there is no record of how many votes the Trapnell/McNally ticket received. A couple sources mention McNally himself ran for President, year unspecified, but I cannot ascertain if this is in error or if he really ran and I have never come across a solid reference to it. [Update: An observant reader provided documentary verification that McNally filed with the FEC in 2000 for President as a member of the National Christian Party]

Election history:
2000 - US President (National Christian Party) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy, service station attendant, skyjacker

Notes:
Served 37 years in prison and was released Jan. 27, 2010.
A couple years ago I went on a long road trip and stayed the night in Marion, Ill. The drinking water
 alone in Marion might be punishment enough for anyone.
McNally's skyjacking plan was complicated when a drunken would-be hero named David J. Hanley
 rammed the jet at takeoff with his wife's Cadillac. So they had to switch to another jet. Hanley later
 ran for President in the Democratic Party primaries in 1976.

David McClure Brinkley

David McClure Brinkley, July 10, 1920 (Wilmington, NC) – June 11, 2003 (Houston, Tex.)

VP candidate for Correction, Punishment and Remedy Ticket (1980)

Running mate with nominee: James Zalmer Hardy (1929-1993)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

James Zalmer Hardy of Louisville, Ky. had run for President in 1976 (mostly advertising in newspaper classified ads) and filed complaints with the FEC that his campaign had been ignored and deserved some of those public dollars the major party candidates were receiving. In 1980 he was back with his Correction, Punishment and Remedy Ticket.

Among his platform issues: opposition to all churches and political parties, "a new nation with guaranteed satisfaction for all citizens," and "federal aid and assistance 100 percent of the time."

Hardy believed some Canadians, with the aid of the National Hockey League, were plotting to somehow "violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens."

Hardy selected NBC News journalist David Brinkley as his running mate by "commendation" in Jan. 1979. In his filing statement Hardy's description of his party included the phrases, "The nerves expand ... and contracts (spirals) spasticity ... Organic juice is a must for correction." Once Brinkley's name appeared in the FEC filing, NBC quickly disavowed any association with Hardy's campaign.

The Hardy/Brinkley juggernaut failed to materialize and it is possible the candidate for the Correction, Punishment and Remedy Ticket withdrew from the race at some point in late 1979/early 1980.

Election history: none

Other occupations: television and radio newscaster, journalist, author, soldier,

Buried: Oakdale Cemetery (Wilmington, NC)

Notes:
Rick Moranis had a dead-on impersonation of Brinkley on SCTV.
See, I made it through this whole profile without mentioning the phrase many of us grew up hearing,
 "Good night, Chet -- Good night, David." But I guess by mentioning I didn't mention it I have
 mentioned it after all. I couldn't help it. Such are persistent TV ear worms even decades later.

Leo Frank Suiter

Leo Frank Suiter, September 18, 1925 (Fairfield, Mo.) - December 25, 2017 (Daleville, Ala.)

VP candidate for Independent (aka 19 Independent 80 Party) (1980)

Running mate with nominee: James Robert Montgomery (1941-2001)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

James R. Montgomery, a laborer in Oronogo, Mo., former employee of Webb City's Rex Casket Co., and apparent recent cancer patient, had a murky story that didn't seem to make sense. He was ticked off that the Social Security Administration deemed him to be incompetent and sent money to his mother instead. Or something like that. So he decided to run for President as an independent to change the system.

His platform included "breaking up" the US Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, opposition to abortion, opposition to busing for racial integration, and a belief that the gasoline shortage was fake.

More than one reporter mentioned his striking resemblance to the late Wally Cox, which I must say is indeed true in the photos. If you remember Cox in the TV series The Adventures of Hiram Holiday, then looking like that actor who played a hero was not a bad thing. Also, Cox was the voice for the animated superhero Underdog, which in Montgomery's case was probably an appropriate parallel.

Montgomery placed an ad for a running mate in Country Music magazine and Leo Suiter, a retired US Army Major who was in 1980 a country singer living in Daleville, Ala. responded.

Suiter was the more articulate and distinguished looking of the two and he was able to boil down their platform in simple terms. Some quotes from a Suiter speech in Lamar, Mo. as reported by Randy Turner:

Our lives are being controlled by the one-world socialist government conspiracy ... Their goal is to strip all nations of their sovereignty and bring the world under one socialist government.

These people are everywhere, President Jimmy Carter, David Eisenhower, George Bush, U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, Shirley Temple Black, Vice President Walter Mondale and the president of Coca-Cola. Is it any wonder that the people of Coca-Cola knew about the normalization of relations with China before the congress?

Our problems can be blamed on two things-- the Federal Reserve System and the graduated income tax.

A prolific letter to the editor writer throughout the 1980s-1990s, Suiter used this venue during the campaign stating his strong opposition to the existence of the Trilateral Commission.

In Dec. 1979 Montgomery and Suiter both attended a gathering called, and I am not kidding, the Presidential Kookie Convention in Atlanta, Ga. The pair were an oddity among oddities in that they were seemingly the only two-person ticket present. "This convention is the greatest thing that ever happened to us," Montgomery stated. "All the candidates have a lot of good qualities and a lot of good ideas, but I was kinda surprised that a great many don't have vice presidents yet."

After the initial news coverage in late 1979 the Montgomery/Suiter effort sort of faded away as they failed to gain access to any ballots. It is easier to find news announcements of Suiter's musical gigs in 1980 than it is to locate articles about his role as a VP candidate.

Montgomery and Suiter went their separate ways but both ran for public office again. In 1982 Suiter ran to the Right of his opponent George Wallace for the position of Alabama Governor as part of the Alabama Conservative Party.

Election history:
1973 - Mayor of Daleville, Ala. - defeated
197- - Mayor of Daleville, Ala. - defeated
1982 - Governor of Alabama (Alabama Conservative) - defeated

Other occupations: country singer, radio disc jockey, soldier (WWII), US Army Major, flight instructor, radio advertising sales, chewing gum vending machine sales, Chief Executive Officer at Computer Tax Service

Buried: Westview Cemetery (Ozark, Ala.)

Notes:
His work appeared in albums and cassettes.
Captured and held a POW by the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge in WWII.
Appears in archival film footage used in the movie Forrest Gump.

Henry Kerry Good III

Henry Kerry Good III, June 24, 1944 (Spokane, Wash.) -

VP candidate for Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party (Puritan Epic, Prohibition and Magnetohydrodynamics Party aka Puritan Epic - MHD and Prohibition Party aka Puritan Ethic-Prohibition-Magnetohydrodynamics Party) (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Merrill Keith Riddick (1895-1988)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Merrill Riddick, one of Montana's more colorful perennial candidates, grew up in a political household. His father Carl was a US Congressman (R-Mont.) 1919-1923 and in 1922 lost an open-seat election for the US Senate to none other future third party Vice-presidential candidate Burton Kendall Wheeler.

The son Merrill became an early aviator and flight instructor as well as a prospector. He became interested in politics following World War II and ran for Governor of Montana a couple times as a Democrat, then switched to the Republican Party and ran for the US Senate. In 1980 made his second of three attempts for the US Presidency under a third party of his own creation called the Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party (in 1984 he squeezed the word "Ethic" into the official name somewhere). Not a believer in accepting special interest monetary contributions, he campaigned across the nation as a passenger in a Greyhound bus and was financed by his Social Security checks.

His two main issues were fighting the corrupting influence of special interests in government and responsible, efficient development of natural resources.

His running mate in 1980 was Kerry Good of Seeley Lake. Good was a boilermaker working in Colstrip, Mont. at the time. His family lived at Lindbergh Lake. Riddick said he picked Good to be his VP after watching him repair a Xerox machine in Denver. The full ticket was announced in July 1978. Sometimes he could not quite place his Vice-Presidential choice's name, as one reporter noted Riddick fumbled around in his notebook and muttered, "the name is ... darn it ... see, I'm getting senile."

In fact, Riddick turned 85 in 1980, considerably older than eventual victor Ronald Reagan.

Good and his wife Stacy became friends with Riddick although they were not active in electioneering activities. Even though Good was in Colorado for a spell, it looks as if he was a Montana resident, which could have presented a Constitutional problem with two candidates from the same state in the event they won.

Riddick actually gained quite a bit of newspaper coverage in 1980 compared to others in his candidate league, especially in Montana. But he dismissed a lot of reporting as "man-bites-dog articles." "Instead of talking about realities," he complained, "People talk about other things" such as "sex, Gay rights, and Bigfoot." He also said President Carter was doing a wonderful job but he could do better.

Returns for the Riddick/Good write-in ticket were apparently not reported.

Election history: none

Other occupations: boilermaker, Xerox repair

Notes:
Yes! Another fellow Spokane native in these profiles!
Good appears to have supported members of the Democratic Party and progressive causes in recent years.

Earl Farwell Dodge Jr.

Earl Farwell Dodge Jr., December 24, 1932 (Revere, Mass.) - November 7, 2007 (Denver, Colo.)

VP candidate for Prohibition Party (aka National Prohibition Party aka Independent) (1976)
VP candidate for National Statesman Party (aka Independent aka Statesman Party) (1980)

Running mate with nominee (1976, 1980): Benjamin Calvin Bubar Jr. (1917–1995)
Popular vote (1976): 15,932 (0.02%)
Popular vote (1980): 7,206  (0.01%)
Electoral vote (1976, 1980): 0/538

The campaign (1976):

The Prohibition Party nominee for President was Benjamin Bubar, a Maine printer and ordained Baptist preacher. He had experience being elected to public office serving in the State Legislature and local offices as a Republican.

Commenting on the Party's conservative non-alcohol platform issues, Bubar said in later years "We're not a one-issue party. We've always had more than one string in our fiddle. We've been around for a long time ... We believe in a representative republic, but what we've got right now is a socialist democracy bordering on anarchy."

The 1976 platform reads like a Christian nationalist document although there are some nods to social welfare. Apparently the convention narrowly voted to oppose capital punishment, but that plank did not make it to print.

The AP described the convention:

The national convention, first ever held west of the Mississippi River, was attended by about 100 delegates from 19 states, but only about 60 were still on hand to sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and wave their signs after the candidates were selected. Most were in their 60's and 70's and had been party members all their lives. There were almost no young people in attendance as the 106-year-old party prepared to shut down its gathering.

The real story behind the 1976 race for the Prohibition Party was the debut national-level appearance of the VP choice, who according to some accounts was an obstructionist in his role as a Party official in implementing some of Bubar's ideas for streamlined management and marketing of the Party.

Earl Dodge had been involved with the Party for over two decades before he stepped into the role of a national candidate. After 1976 he would basically be the face of the Party for a quarter century or so. Like many other third parties where one individual has been in power too long, his tenure as a Party leader was a good news/bad news thing, and according to present day Prohibition Party literature the bad news half got worse with each passing year until he was finally overthrown.

Oddly, the 1976 convention took place in the same area where Dodge's body was laid to rest decades later.

On the good news side Dodge kept the home fires burning during a period of time where the Prohibition Party could have easily died. Granted, those fires were allowed to become feeble embers with each passing election. The controversial side will emerge in the course of my profiles of Prohibition Party VPs and inner conflict within this organization over the subsequent decades.

As the campaign began, Dodge told the press the Party needed to change their image from that of stovepipe hat wearing humorless moralists who look like "they are perpetually sucking on a sour lemon." He added, "I'm sure most people think members of the party have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel."

Also early in the campaign Bubar told a newspaper that he aimed to, in the reporter's words, "Broaden the party's appeal to the same constituency as Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace."

After the initial news coverage of the June 1975 convention the media all but ignored the Bubar/Dodge ticket except for the occasional fluff jokey article.

The Bubar/Dodge ticket had results from a dozen states including some write-ins. As testimony to how well regarded Mr. Bubar was in his home state, they finished with 0.72% of the popular vote in Maine. Next best results were in Alabama 0.56%, Colorado 0.27%, and Kansas 0.15%. This would be the last election to date (Dec. 2019) that the Prohibition Party earned more then 10,000 votes or finished with a percentage as high as 0.02% of the national popular vote.

The campaign (1980):

The same ticket was revived in 1980 but with less success. In an effort to add some pizzazz and get away from the image of being a single-issue party, the name was changed to the National Statesman Party. Although the name had changed, the platform remained in the hard Right.

The ascent of Ronald Reagan had provided Christian conservatives and Protestant evangelicals with a political home and no doubt robbed the Prohibition/National Statesman Party of potential voters. To this day the Prohibition Party platform seems almost parallel and redundant with the Republican Party and other Right-wing groups in many ways-- except for alcohol.

Any centrists or progressives who might agree with the Party about the seriousness to public safety and general well-being posed by alcohol or other substances would find it difficult to support the rest of their platform. Years later Prohibition Party Presidential candidate Gene Amondson lamented to me how it bugged him that it was actually the Democrats who clamped down on public smoking. The Prohibition Party missed a chance to focus on different aspects of public health and form positive alliances across the political spectrum. Earl Dodge bears quite a bit of responsibility for perpetuating this political isolation and having the Party's platform be an extension of his own extremely conservative views. As we have seen in election results and dwindling membership one could propose this has not done them any favors in terms of a broader appeal.

If the media had not covered the Party very well in the 1976 campaign they practically ignored the Bubar/Dodge ticket in 1980. The true descent into near oblivion had begun.

With votes reported in a dozen states including write-ins they finished strongest in New Mexico 0.28%, Arkansas 0.16%, Alabama 0.13%, Colorado 0.10%, and Kansas 0.08%. The 0.01% national vote result was the worst percentage in the long history of the Prohibition Party.

Although the organization had changed their name to the National Statesman Party they were listed as either Statesman Party or Independent on the ballots. The Party returned to their previous name by the next election.

Other occupations: dealer in political memorabilia, Prohibition Party editor, Colorado State Elections Advisory Board 1974, Prohibition Party Presidential Elector 1968 (Mich.)

Election history:
1954 - Massachusetts Governor's Council (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1956 - Massachusetts Secretary of State (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1958 - Kosciusko County Commission (Ind.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1959 - Winona Lake (Ind.) Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1960 - US House of Representatives (Ind.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1966 - US Senate (Kan.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1969 - Kalamazoo (Mich.) City Commission (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1974 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1978 - Governor of Colorado (National Statesman Party) - defeated
1982 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1984 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1986 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1988 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1990 - US Senate (Colo.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1992 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1994 - Governor of Colorado (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1996 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1998 - Regent At Large, Colorado State University (Prohibition Party) - defeated
2000 - Independent American Party nomination for US President - defeated
2000 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
2004 - Prohibition Party nomination for US President - defeated
2004 - US President (National Prohibition Party) - defeated
2008 - US President (National Prohibition Party) - died before election

Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery (Wheat Ridge, Colo.)

Notes:
Joined the Prohibition Party in 1952. He was formerly a Republican. 
Member of the National Christian Citizens Committee.
Alternate sources give his birthplace as Malden, Mass., which is where he was raised.
Winner of the 1960 election was Charles Halleck.
Winner of the 1974, 1978, 1982 elections was Dick Lamm.
Buried in the same cemetery as Barbara Bates, Richard James Biggs, and ironically, Adolph Coors.
Baptist.
Quite possibly holds the record among third party VPs for running for office the most times without
 ever winning.