Maureen Kennedy Salaman

Maureen Kennedy Salaman, April 4, 1936 (Glendale, Calif.) – August 17, 2006 (Atherton, Calif.)

VP candidate for Populist Party (aka Independent aka American Independent Party aka Conservative Party aka American Populist Party aka Constitution Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Robert E. Richards (b. 1926)
Popular vote: 65,328 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The far-Right anti-Establishment group Liberty Lobby had served as a haven for opponents of Communism and big government since the 1950s. It was also a safe place for anti-Semites, tax protesters, white supremacists, Holocaust deniers, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, Posse Comitatus, John Birch Society members, Christian nationalists, and alternative medicine advocates who opposed "Big Pharma." In an attempt to soften the image and broaden their appeal they took a distinct small-l libertarian populist stance in the 1980s and formed the Populist Party.

This Populist Party had no relation to the party of the same name that existed nearly a century earlier, but their platforms did share a nationalist / anti-immigrant / pro-tariff policy with racist undertones. The newer version of the Populist Party also opposed the personal income tax and advocated the elimination of the Federal Reserve. The original Populist Party was aiming for the agricultural labor force where the modern Populist Party was trying to connect with an angry white lower middle class that felt abandoned by the major parties. And they denied they were racist or anti-Semitic in spite of the track record of many leading Party activists.

Their 1984 Presidential nominee was Bob Richards, a noted pole vaulter and decathlete in the Olympic Games 1948-1956 (and first athlete to appear on the front of a box of Wheaties), and VP nominee was Freedom of Health Choice activist Maureen Kennedy Salaman. Both were celebrities in their own professional territories but neither had run for political office before-- but they were photogenic like right out of a 1950s toothpaste ad, and knew how to work with the press.

Acting as an umbrella party for the extreme Right in many respects, the new Populist Party absorbed what was left of the American Independent Party and ran under that label in California and Rhode Island. In Kansas it was with the Conservative Party, in Wisconsin the Constitution Party.

It could be argued that by 1984 the Republican Party itself had co-opted a lot of the issues previously advocated by Christian nationalist political parties of the past, except in more subtle ways. One major difference from the Reagan administration and the Populist Party was the latter's antipathy toward large corporations and desire for the U.S. to stay out of foreign military conflicts.

Salaman's place on the ticket is interesting and challenges the notion that New Age-type beliefs are strictly in the realm of the Left (although in her case the same sort of modern metaphysical notions and disdain for professional expertise were adapted to fit into a Christian model). She was continuing to promote distrustful views against the medical establishment that were expressed earlier in the 1950s and early 1960s by the American Vegetarian Party, particularly with 1960 AVP running mate Christopher Gian-Cursio. Today we see this same subculture expression in the anti-vaccination movement.

Salaman actually lacked any accredited education in the field of nutrition but she was a master in promotion and activism. The Internet-based Quackwatch.org ("Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions") has included her in their profiles of subjects.

The Party did not give itself a lot of time to campaign as third parties go having named their ticket in August. But it was enough of a spell for Richards to start distancing himself from the Liberty Lobby and claim they had little influence, a move that did not sit well with a segment of the Party base.

The Populist Party was on the ballot in 14 states, with Salaman as the running-mate in all but West Virginia where Charles Perry was the VP. They placed 6th nationally, which was fairly amazing considering how far they came in such a short time. In two states where they ran under the names of "host" parties they placed 3rd: Kansas (Conservative) and Rhode Island (American Independent). Strongest popular vote percentages (and the party they were listed under on the ballot) were in Idaho 0.56% (Populist), California 0.41% (American Independent), Kansas (Conservative) and North Dakota (Populist) 0.35% each, and Washington (Populist) 0.30%. All of them states west of the Mississippi River.

Election history: none

Other occupations: nutritionist, alternative medicine lobbyist, author, lecturer, publisher, television and radio host, President of the National Health Federation

Buried: Oak Hill Memorial Park (San Jose, Calif.)

Notes:
Findagrave lists her burial place in two different cemeteries in California both called "Oak Hill
 Memorial Park."
Buried in the same cemetery as Sylvia Browne, William Henry Eddy, and Paul Masson.
Her son Sean David Morton, an alleged psychic and "America's Prophet" is currently serving time in
 federal prison for various financial crimes including tax fraud.
Member of the Knights of St. John.
According to her daughter, Salaman was a member of the John Birch Society.

Harold Milton Cosand

Harold Milton Cosand, May 12, 1924 (Cottonwood, Idaho) - August 30, 1995 (Clarkston, Wash.)

VP candidate for New American's Mount Zion Party (aka New Americans of Mount Zion Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Roy E. Woodward (b. 1928)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

John Leabo (1912-2002) seemed to have been involved in all kinds of projects that could be viewed as either visionary or the work of a crank depending on your point of view. He was interested in things like developing Antarctica in the name of the Lord, UFOs, reincarnation, cold fusion, investigating an unknown race of people living in the South Pole, and his own church called New American's Mount Zion (NAMZ) created 1956 in (Washington State trivia alert!!!) Port Angeles, Wash.

The Church seems to have been a spinoff of a spinoff of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the faith in which Leabo was raised. In 1944 he joined the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), the same church which 1940 Greenback Party VP James Elmer Yates had been an Apostle. Leabo's journey led him to the work of W.A. Draves and also the Aaronic Order before he started his own church. If this all sounds very esoteric that is because it is.

In his Church newspaper late in the campaign season, Leabo selected Roy Woodward of Mona, Utah as the NAMZ nominee for US President and Harold Cosand of Montrose, Colo. as the running-mate. Both would have to run as write-ins. Woodward was a carpenter,  former "Mr. Utah" of 1951, former "Mr. Rocky Mountain," health club owner, massage therapist, former freelance scriptwriter, and long-time vegetarian.

Cosand had formerly been a resident of Kellogg, Idaho and while there was arrested in 1980 on an extortion charge by the FBI for threatening two Oregon residents. Before Kellogg he had lived in McCall, Idaho. It seems he was also an anti-Semitic white supremacist, Nazi sympathizer, and tax protester.

Woodward did not know his candidacy was "official" until he was contacted by the media. Leabo had neglected to share the announcement with him.

Some Woodward quotes regarding his Presidential effort:

John Leabo, like myself, has been waiting to see what God wants. The thing has been boiling for quite some time but I had not been doing anything to campaign. I felt someday I may have a call in this direction but the how and the when I did not know.

I believe the x-factor, the missing factor, in American politics is that government is seeking to keep church and state separate and higher levels of spirituality out of their dealings. The only hope for any nation is to stay close to God and His guidance or they will decay. America right now is very close, if not further down the road of ancient Rome and Babylon and yet we punish and ridicule and legislate so that we might not even have a silent prayer in our schools.

If I am to be put forth it will take a tremendous commitment to handle my end as I should ... God is the real strength in my life. Otherwise, without His help, I would make a mess of my life and America.

Nostradamus mentions my name, "Roy" and the land of America.

We must get a whole new look at the office of the president and not be afraid to change ... I don't think the common man has enough say-so, especially due to the electorial [sic] college system of voting. Surely in the future that will change to a per capita basis ... I sit and laugh at myself as far as my abilities as president. My schooling, my lacks, my past mistakes make me see that only a miracle of a raised spiritual movement by the American people could do it and it would be impossible without God's leading hand.

Utah appears to be the only state where the ticket had any media coverage. Their popular votes have not been reported from any jurisdiction.

Woodward ran for President as a write-in in 1996 under the banner of the New American Pioneers Party.

Election history:
1988 - Montrose County Commission (Colo.) (Anti-Kabala Mason Party) - defeated

Other occupations: construction, medical technician

Buried: ?

Notes:
Also called Harold Cosen.
Convicted of tax evasion in 1989 and served some jail time. Threatened violence to the Court and
 said he was going to Idaho to join the Aryan Nations and American Nazi Party.
Claimed he had a doctorate in the "Masonic Secret Works of Darkness."

Naomi L. Azulay

Naomi L. Azulay, July 24, 1950 -

VP candidate for Independent (aka New Alliance Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Dennis L. Serrette (b. ca1940)
Popular vote: 2,544 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Fred Newman (1935-2011) was a Maoist with pretensions of being a psychologist (he wasn't) who had formed a communal movement around 1970 combining Leftist politics with New Age pseudoscience. Within a short time he had temporarily joined forces with Lyndon LaRouche, but personality-driven political parties can only tolerate one guru at a time, so they parted company-- or so it seemed. A possible subsequent Newman-LaRouche connection would forever be a point of conjecture.

From 1975-1978 Newman's group, now called the International Workers Party and claiming allegiance to Marx, Mao, and Lenin, attempted to work with the confederation of organizations and parties that collaborated under the umbrella of the People's Party. In 1976 the People's Party ran the Presidential ticket of Margaret Wright and Benjamin Spock. Apparently Newman and his entourage were shown the door out of the People's Party in 1978 by other progressive activists who held the IWP in low esteem.

In 1979 the New Alliance Party was formed by Newman with Lenora Fulani, who unlike her mentor was a real psychologist. Critics charged that the group was using a technique called "Social Therapy," designed to keep followers in line and manipulated with techniques such as large group awareness training, social isolation, and assignment of party-oriented tasks that were so time consuming there was little room for individual pursuits or critical self-reflection. There were charges that the supposedly defunct International Workers Party was simply operating on an underground basis and involved in secret authoritarian decision-making while using the NAP as a front organization.

Their first Presidential ticket was comprised of African American activist Dennis Serrette and Newman loyalist Nancy Ross. She had the distinction of being the first of Newman's followers to be elected to public office when she successfully gained a seat on the Community School Board 3 in New York City in 1977.

Ross was also head of the "Rainbow Lobby" (the lobbying branch of Newman's "Rainbow Alliance"), an opportunistic and unauthorized variant of the term "Rainbow Coalition" as popularized by the Jackson campaign. Rev. Jesse Jackson himself had co-opted the phrase from earlier more radical political elements. Later Jackson had to clarify that he had nothing to do with the NAP "Rainbow" incarnations.

Lifting the term "Rainbow Alliance," the NAP acted as if was continuing the work of Jackson, who had failed in his attempt to gain the nomination of the Democratic Party. Note Serrette's tactical use of the term "second party"--

We want to get enough votes so someone like Jesse can win in 1988. Let me make it clear. We're not going to win by numbers but by impact. We're starting the embryo of a second party that will express the needs of the people. We are taking up the issues the Democratic party has rejected. We will be out in the streets the day after election day building this second party momentum.

Realizing that many Democrats felt their party had compromised too much and drifted to the Right in order to attract centrist voters, Serrette and Ross attempted to woo this bloc of voters by stating they were upholding the true progressive ideals. "Mondale is not the lesser of two evils," said Ross, "He is the loser of two evils." Their rhetoric was Left of center but somewhat vague on details.

There was a bit of bad press surrounding the running mate question. Dorothy Muns Blancato, an interior decorator and Jazz pianist from Vanport, Penn. was selected as the VP and planned to be listed in three states: Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Although news reports indicate she was originally intended to be a stand-in candidate, in August 1984 she withdrew from the ticket without informing Serrette first and instead endorsed Sonia Johnson of the Citizens Party. Part of the result of this complicated episode was that Serrette failed to find a place on the Pennsylvania ballot.

Amazingly well funded compared to other Leftist parties, NAP managed to gain ballot positions in DC and 31 states. A very impressive achievement for a first-time national run. Ross was the running mate in all but three states. In Kansas the VP nominee was Naomi L. Azulay. Mississippi and West Virginia voters found a blank spot in the VP slot with Serrette where other parties included the name of the running mate.

Naomi Azulay was a New York-based campaign worker for NAP when she was used as a probable stand-in candidate for VP in Kansas. An April 1984 news account found her gathering nominating petition signatures in South Dakota, where the reporter said she had been for almost a month. As it turned out, South Dakota gave the NAP the highest percentage of their popular vote of any state in 1984 so she must have been a pretty effective volunteer.

The Serrette/Azulay ticket finished with 0.25% of the vote in Kansas, placing 5th out of 6. It was the 4th highest percentage the NAP won when compared to their other states. If elected Azulay would not have been to able take office since she was just barely under the Constitutionally required of 35 at the time.

Serrette broke with the NAP shortly after the election. In a scathing article written in 1988, he concluded with:

These few pages offer but an overview of a complex, and, in my opinion, dangerous organization. Dangerous, not only to the innocent, well-intentioned people who are caught in its grasp, but to the many it will try to exploit. Dangerous, because it uses a very progressive line, and untold millions of dollars, to prey on black communities, to attack black leaders and institutions, and to assault progressive organizations at whim. Dangerous because it can lie outright— lie about being black-led when blacks do not sit on the top, do not control the resources, do not control personnel; lie to its members about its participation with LaRouche; lie about Charles Tisdale; lie about me; lie about whatever serves Newman's interests, and put forth spokespersons who come to believe these lies. Dangerous because many members will do whatever they are told to do without ever evaluating what they have been told.

In conclusion, while I believe it is important that NAP be exposed for what it truly is, it is our job not to dwell on the organization, which craves controversy, but to concentrate our energies in our communities and organize, organize, organize. It is a vacuum that has been left open that allows NAP and other oppressive organizations to abuse our communities. We must fill that vacuum with genuinely pro­gressive, community-controlled organizations.

Meanwhile, Fred Newman has been recognized by the Cult Education Institute as a historical cult figure and leader.

Election history:
1982 - New York City Council (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1982 - New York City Council (New Alliance Party) - defeated

Other occupations: physical therapist, activist with Committee for a Unified Independent Party, Texas coordinator for the New Alliance Party in 1988

Notes:
Later registered with the Independence Party of New York.

Nancy Ross

 today

Nancy Ross, ca1943-

VP candidate for New Alliance Party (aka Alliance Party aka Independent aka Independent Alliance Party aka United Citizens Party aka Liberty Union Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Dennis L. Serrette (b. ca1940)
Popular vote: 43,460 (0.05%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Fred Newman (1935-2011) was a Maoist with pretensions of being a psychologist (he wasn't) who had formed a communal movement around 1970 combining Leftist politics with New Age pseudoscience. Within a short time he had temporarily joined forces with Lyndon LaRouche, but personality-driven political parties can only tolerate one guru at a time, so they parted company-- or so it seemed. A possible subsequent Newman-LaRouche connection would forever be a point of conjecture.

From 1975-1978 Newman's group, now called the International Workers Party and claiming allegiance to Marx, Mao, and Lenin, attempted to work with the confederation of organizations and parties that collaborated under the umbrella of the People's Party. In 1976 the People's Party ran the Presidential ticket of Margaret Wright and Benjamin Spock. Apparently Newman and his entourage were shown the door out of the People's Party in 1978 by other progressive activists who held the IWP in low esteem.

In 1979 the New Alliance Party was formed by Newman with Lenora Fulani, who unlike her mentor was a real psychologist. Critics charged that the group was using a technique called "Social Therapy," designed to keep followers in line and manipulated with techniques such as large group awareness training, social isolation, and assignment of party-oriented tasks that were so time consuming there was little room for individual pursuits or critical self-reflection. There were charges that the supposedly defunct International Workers Party was simply operating on an underground basis and involved in secret authoritarian decision-making while using the NAP as a front organization.

Their first Presidential ticket was comprised of African American activist Dennis Serrette and Newman loyalist Nancy Ross. She had the distinction of being the first of Newman's followers to be elected to public office when she successfully gained a seat on the Community School Board 3 in New York City in 1977.

Ross was also head of the "Rainbow Lobby" (the lobbying branch of Newman's "Rainbow Alliance"), an opportunistic and unauthorized variant of the term "Rainbow Coalition" as popularized by the Jackson campaign. Rev. Jesse Jackson himself had co-opted the phrase from earlier more radical political elements. Later Jackson had to clarify that he had nothing to do with the NAP "Rainbow" incarnations.

Lifting the term "Rainbow Alliance," the NAP acted as if was continuing the work of Jackson, who had failed in his attempt to gain the nomination of the Democratic Party. Note Serrette's tactical use of the term "second party"--

We want to get enough votes so someone like Jesse can win in 1988. Let me make it clear. We're not going to win by numbers but by impact. We're starting the embryo of a second party that will express the needs of the people. We are taking up the issues the Democratic party has rejected. We will be out in the streets the day after election day building this second party momentum.

Realizing that many Democrats felt their party had compromised too much and drifted to the Right in order to attract centrist voters, Serrette and Ross attempted to woo this bloc of voters by stating they were upholding the true progressive ideals. "Mondale is not the lesser of two evils," said Ross, "He is the loser of two evils." Their rhetoric was Left of center but somewhat vague on details.

There was a bit of bad press surrounding the running mate question. Dorothy Muns Blancato, an interior decorator and Jazz pianist from Vanport, Penn. was selected as the VP and planned to be listed in three states: Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Although news reports indicate she was originally intended to be a stand-in candidate, in August 1984 she withdrew from the ticket without informing Serrette first and instead endorsed Sonia Johnson of the Citizens Party. Part of the result of this complicated episode was that Serrette failed to find a place on the Pennsylvania ballot. 

Amazingly well funded compared to other Leftist parties, NAP managed to gain ballot positions in DC and 31 states. A very impressive achievement for a first-time national run. Ross was the running mate in all but three states. In Kansas the VP nominee was Naomi L. Azulay. Mississippi and West Virginia voters found a blank spot in the VP slot with Serrette where other parties included the name of the running mate.

Of the remaining 28 states the Serrette/Ross ticket finished strongest in such diverse places as: South Dakota 0.36%, Massachusetts 0.31%, Ohio 0.27%, Arkansas 0.21%, Nebraska 0.16%, Maine and Vermont 0.14% each. The Party overall placed 7th nationally with 46,853 votes (0.05%), behind Lyndon LaRouche and Sonia Johnson incidentally. The ticket with Ross accounted for 43,460 of those votes.

Serrette broke with the NAP shortly after the election. In a scathing article written in 1988, he concluded with:

These few pages offer but an overview of a complex, and, in my opinion, dangerous organization. Dangerous, not only to the innocent, well-intentioned people who are caught in its grasp, but to the many it will try to exploit. Dangerous, because it uses a very progressive line, and untold millions of dollars, to prey on black communities, to attack black leaders and institutions, and to assault progressive organizations at whim. Dangerous because it can lie outright— lie about being black-led when blacks do not sit on the top, do not control the resources, do not control personnel; lie to its members about its participation with LaRouche; lie about Charles Tisdale; lie about me; lie about whatever serves Newman's interests, and put forth spokespersons who come to believe these lies. Dangerous because many members will do whatever they are told to do without ever evaluating what they have been told.

In conclusion, while I believe it is important that NAP be exposed for what it truly is, it is our job not to dwell on the organization, which craves controversy, but to concentrate our energies in our communities and organize, organize, organize. It is a vacuum that has been left open that allows NAP and other oppressive organizations to abuse our communities. We must fill that vacuum with genuinely pro­gressive, community-controlled organizations.

Meanwhile, Fred Newman has been recognized by the Cult Education Institute as a historical cult figure and leader.

Election history:
1977-1978 - Community School Board 3, New York, NY (Nonpartisan)
1981 - New York City Council (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1982 - Governor of New York (New Alliance Party) - defeated
1984 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US Vice-President - defeated

Other occupations: housewife, Parents Association President Public School 75 (NYC), head of the Rainbow Lobby, "part-time psychologist," founder of Independent Options LLC (2005), board member and officer of Committee for a Unified Independent Party, board member of Transpartisan Alliance

Notes:
Graduate of New York University
Jewish
Winner of the 1982 race was Mario Cuomo.
Was part of the Reform Party and then the Independence Party of New York.

Andrea González

Andrea González, ca1951 (New York, NY) -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Melvin T. Mason (b. 1943)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 1984 the SWP nominated Melvin T. Mason for president, and in their perpetual act of Constitutional civil disobedience, nominated Andrea González of Jersey City, age 33 on Election Day, as the VP. Matilde Zimmermann (1980 SWP running mate) was selected as the stand-in VP and she was on the ballot in 23 states and DC with Mason. As far as I can ascertain, although González was the official nominee and campaigned hard as if she was, her name did not appear on a single ballot.

In the time period between the 1980-1984 elections the SWP had experienced a major upheaval in leadership and direction. In general terms it was no longer a party advocating Trotsky's permanent revolution. Now it could be more accurately described as a Castroist party. In-house critics, later purged or self-exiled from the Party, accused the SWP of returning to a Stalinist philosophy and embracing personality-driven regimes. Some of them went so far as to label the SWP a cult.

Mason, a former member of the Black Panther Party, told a reporter: "The greatest example of a Socialist government is Cuba, and Nicaragua is right behind, but it's still developing." Zimmermann seemed to have had a low profile in this campaign if news accounts are any reflection, which granted is not an entirely accurate indicator.

The massive loss of SWP membership was reflected in the rapidly diminishing popular vote compared to previous elections. As low as the 1984 returns were, the SWP would never again (as of 2016) equal it.

Election history:
1981 - District of Columbia School Board (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1985 - Mayor of New York City (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1991 - St. Louis, Mo. School Board (Nonpartisan) - defeated

Other occupations: transit employee, steel mill worker, aerospace worker

Notes:
Sometimes called Andrea Gonzales
Opponents in 1985 race included Edward Koch (winner), Lenora Fulani, and Jarvis Tyner
Of Puerto Rican heritage

Sandra M. King

Sandra M. King, May 30, 1952 - July 8, 2008


VP candidate for Independent (1984, 1988, 1992)

Running mate with nominee: Henry R. King (1923-2013)
Popular vote (1984): 2 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1988): 157 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1992): 10 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1984, 1988, 1992): 0/538

The campaign (1984):

There is not a lot of information available concerning Henry and Sandra King or their platform issues. They ran three registered write-in campaigns for US President in Ohio 1984-1992. They were a husband and wife political team.

Henry was a worker at the Ford Motor Co. Lorain Assembly Plant in Ohio when he first began to run for office in the late 1960s, almost always as a write-in. Prior to 1984 he ran for the US House in 1968, for the US Senate in the Democratic primary in 1974, for Mayor of Lorain, Ohio in 1975, and on a ticket with Sandra for Governor/Lt. Governor of Ohio in the Democratic primary for 1980. When King had announced for the US Senate in 1974 he told the press "Being a Ford worker, and knowing the needs of the working man, I am the working man's candidate."

Identified by one newspaper as both being residents of Ohio, there would have been a Constitutional problem in the event the King/King ticket had won the election.

The King's earned 2 write-in votes in 1984.

The campaign (1988):

In 1988 they gained 157 votes.

The campaign (1992):

In one article Henry King stressed the importance of job creation. Sandy King pointed out she would be First Lady as well as Vice-President, "I think he wants me to do clerical duties, plus other things as well."

10 votes in 1992. Henry King filed with the FEC in 1996 and was a certified write-in again in Ohio but I could not find any evidence of a running-mate.

Election history:
1980 - Lt. Governor of Ohio (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1990 - Lt. Governor of Ohio (Democratic) - primary - defeated

Other occupations: ?

Buried: Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery (Rittman, Ohio)

Notes:
1990 race was a write-in 
Henry King ran in 1990 race in the general election as an Independent for Lt. Governor of Ohio.
Married for a year, divorced in 1977, remarried in 1980.

Gloria Estela La Riva

 Above: Washington State Voters Pamphlet 1984; Below, 1988

 Moorehead and La Riva

 La Riva confronts President Clinton, 1996

 Above, 1996; Below, 2000

Gloria Estela La Riva, August 13, 1954 (Albuquerque, NM) -

VP candidate for Workers World Party (aka Independent) (1984, 1988, 1996, 2000)

Running mate with nominee (1984, 1988): Lawrence A. Holmes (b. 1952)
Running mate with nominee (1996, 2000): Monica Gail Moorehead (b. 1952)
Popular vote (1984): 15,329 (0.02%)
Popular vote (1988): 6,908 (0.01%)
Popular vote (1996): 29,083 (0.03%)    
Popular vote (2000): 4,795 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign (1984):

The Workers World Party waited to see if the Rev. Jesse Jackson attained the nomination of the Democratic Party, in which case they planned to endorse him. When that failed to become reality they could not back Mondale and nominated their own ticket for the second time in WWP history. The official nominees were Larry Holmes and Gloria LaRiva.

The WWP openly admired countries like the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua and Mozambique. They were suspicious of the Solidarity Movement in Poland, seeing it as a possible US-backed capitalist plot.

Other Leftist parties ridiculed the WWP for being willing to back Jackson, and continued to regard the Party as a neo-Stalinist cult.

Both of the candidates were under the age of Constitutionally mandated of 35 for holding the offices they were seeking. Holmes said, "If we were elected, I'm quite sure that our ages would be the least of our problems. It's not a serious issue. It's antiquated."

But their youth apparently looked like was a serious issue to some state election officials. Holmes' wife Gavrielle, age 35 and Milton Vera, age 49, were stand-in candidates in Ohio. Secondary sources say they were also on the ballot in Rhode Island and I'll just have to take it on faith that they were.

The Holmes/La Riva ticket made it to the ballot in at least 7 states and DC, with their strongest popular vote results in New Jersey 0.26% and Mississippi 0.12%.

The campaign (1988):

Same ticket as before, meaning yet again the Party nominated an under-35 VP candidate. Naomi Cohen served as the stand-in running-mate for Michigan, this time obtaining ballot status, and as the official write-in VP for Ohio.

The WWP platform included: $10 per-hour minimum wage, prohibit plant closings, require all businesses to provide day care for employees, public funding for abortions, reduce the defense budget.

As in 1984, the WWP said they would step aside and endorse Rev. Jesse Jackson in the event he won the Democratic nomination. But 1988 was the year of Dukakis.

The WWP had to go to court in a well-publicized successful effort to gain a spot on the New Mexico ballot. Eileen La Riva, Gloria's sister, was state chair of the WWP at the time.

The Holmes/La Riva ticket was listed on the ballot in four states, here in order of popular vote percentages: Washington 0.08%, New York 0.06%, New Mexico 0.05%, and New Jersey 0.03%.

The campaign (1996):

The team of Monica Moorehead and Gloria La Riva was touted as the first ticket in US history to be comprised of women of color.

By 1996 the WWP had very enthusiastically added the new dynastic regime in North Korea to their roster of admired states.

La Riva was arrested and briefly jailed Sept. 30, 1996 for trespassing when she refused to leave a grocery store parking lot in Salt Lake City while campaigning. Moorehead was also present. "This never would have happened to Clinton, Dole or Perot," La Riva said.

In October La Riva heckled President Clinton at a New Jersey campaign stop. Clinton responded and the heckling morphed into a shouting match lasting several minutes over the Cuban and Iraqi trade embargo. Some reports indicate La Riva might have been arrested.

On the ballot in a dozen states, the Moorehead/La Riva ticket finished strongest in Ohio 0.24%, Washington 0.10%, Louisiana 0.09%, Arkansas and Michigan 0.08% each.

The campaign (2000):

This was a relatively quiet campaign for the WWP. With no arrests or dramatic confrontations to report, journalists pretty much ignored the WWP. Ralph Nader's Green Party had sucked out most of the energy the major media outlets were willing to expend on any other third party coverage.

On the ballot in only four states, the Moorehead/La Riva ticket finished here in order of popular vote percentages: Washington 0.08%, Rhode Island 0.05%, Wisconsin 0.04%, Florida 0.03%.

In the subsequent splintering of the WWP, Moorehead would remain with the Party while La Riva shifted to the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Election history:
1983 - Mayor of San Francisco, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1991 - Mayor of San Francisco, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
1992 - US President (Workers World Party) - defeated
1994 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
1996 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for Vice-President - defeated
1998 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
2008 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for President - defeated
2008 - US President (Party for Socialism and Liberation) - defeated
2010 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Peace and Freedom Party) - defeated
2012 - US President (Party for Socialism and Liberation) - defeated
2016 - US President (Party for Socialism and Liberation) - defeated
2018 - Governor of California (Peace and Freedom Party) - primary - defeated
2020 - US President (Party for Socialism and Liberation) - pending

Other occupations: author, filmmaker, artist, typesetter, union activist, civil rights activist

Notes:
Winner of the 1983 race was Diane Feinstein
Winner of the 1994 race was Pete Wilson
Winner of the 1998 race was Gray Davis
Winner of the 2010 race was Nancy Pelosi
In 2012 was a stand-in candidate for US President in several states.
First person to run as a third party VP in four elections

Milton Vera

Milton Vera, 1935-January 2014

VP candidate for Workers World Party (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Gavrielle Holmes (b. 1949)
Popular vote: 2656 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The Workers World Party waited to see if the Rev. Jesse Jackson attained the nomination of the Democratic Party, in which case they planned to endorse him. When that failed to become reality they could not back Mondale and nominated their own ticket for the second time in WWP history. The official nominees were Larry Holmes and Gloria LaRiva.

The WWP openly admired countries like the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua and Mozambique. They were suspicious of the Solidarity Movement in Poland, seeing it as a possible US-backed capitalist plot.

Other Leftist parties ridiculed the WWP for being willing to back Jackson, and continued to regard the Party as a neo-Stalinist cult.

Both of the candidates were under the age of Constitutionally mandated of 35 for holding the offices they were seeking. Holmes said, "If we were elected, I'm quite sure that our ages would be the least of our problems. It's not a serious issue. It's antiquated."

But their youth apparently looked like was a serious issue to some state election officials. Holmes' wife Gavrielle, age 35 and Milton Vera, age 49, were stand-in candidates in Ohio. Secondary sources say they were also on the ballot in Rhode Island and I'll just have to take it on faith that they were.

Gavrielle had made a run in the Peace and Freedom Party 1984 primary but placed a distant fourth.

Although the Holmes/Vera ticket was legal in the age issue, both candidates were residents of New York City, which posed a different Constitutional obstacle in the event they emerged victorious on Election Day. They earned 0.06 % of the vote in Ohio and 0.01% in Rhode Island.

Election history: none

Other occupations: discotheque manager (Dudes 'n' Dolls), mailroom supervisor at advertising firm,

Buried: ?

Notes:
Father of triplets
Once managed a club owned by Joe Namath
Joined the WWP around 1976
Called a "Puerto Rican revolutionary" in a memorial essay by his wife.

Traves Virgil Brownlee

Traves Virgil Brownlee, April 24, 1947 (Keokuk, Iowa) - April 2, 2016 (Lexington, Ky.)

VP candidate for American Party (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Delmar Dennis (1940-1996)
Popular vote: 13,154 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

When it comes to high drama, the 1984 American Party ticket is hard to beat.

After their episode in the 1980 election that resulted in a fracturing party and low poll numbers, the American Party returned to their hot button issue roots with policies influenced by the Bible and Brother John Birch. Their bitter rivals the American Independent Party merged with the Populist Party in the 1984 election, eliminating a certain degree of confusion for extreme Right wing voters and election officials who had previously easily mixed up the American and American Independent parties. At first blush the AP and AIP might seem like anti-federal government Tweedledum and Tweedledee but upon closer examination they really had two very different base groups. Since the Presidency was already occupied by someone from the far Right you know the American Party had to be pretty hardcore.

Roughly, generally, shotgun approach speaking here-- the AP seemed to me to be more concerned about philosophical purity and had a foundation of being an anti-Communist, survivalist, Christian nationalist, John Birch Society group. The John Schmitz wing. The AIP, on the other hand, appeared to be more a regional Dixie party for the diehards who refused to accept the fact that desegregation was the law of the land. By 1984 the AIP ceased being a national party.   

The American Party Presidential selection was Delmar Dennis, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan turned FBI informer. To most political parties that would be a double negative whammy, but not for the American Party. I would have loved to heard the nomination speech for that one. Dennis' story is pretty engaging, but we are going to focus on his even more interesting running mate, Traves V. Brownlee of Frederica, Del., nominated in Dec. 1983.

The Delaware newspapers called Brownlee a "perennial nonconformist." And as we shall see, he would not have much time for campaigning.

Starting around 1980 Brownlee would smugly inform tax protester (Brownlee liked the term "tax patriot" better) crowds that he had not paid any income tax since 1976. That method of political agitation is bound to attract the kind of attention most people would prefer to avoid, but Brownlee almost dared the government to do something about it as he promoted his group, Americans for Constitutional Taxation. A simple search on Internet reveals that dozens of tax protester court cases include plaintiffs or defendants involved with ACT.

He became a public figure and appeared willing to shoulder the burden of legal consequences that seemed almost inevitable. Brownlee told the press he believed the concept of public schools and income tax came directly from the Communist Manifesto. He contended the US Constitution and the Bible supported his acts of civil disobedience.

In Apr. 1981 Brownlee was arrested for failing to appear in court on a charge of operating a business without a license (convicted in 1982). In May 1981 he was sued by the local school district for home schooling his five children, around ages 9-14, without certification (the judge ruled against him). In Nov. 1981 their local municipality got on his case for having livestock within city limits and the Brownlees were arrested. In Jan. 1982 he was convicted for building a stable without a permit. Brownlee also did not believe in cooperating with the US Census, possessing a driver's license, renewing license plate tabs, or registering a vehicle. He gave up being a Baptist minister in order to be a full time tax protester .. excuse me, tax patriot.

In Jan. 1984 federal agents and state police raided the Brownlee's home and the local American Party headquarters, taking away boxes of documents and "an armload of rifles."

During the campaign it was made public the Brownlees were in the process of divorce.

Brownlee wrote a letter to the editor of the Morning News (Wilmington, Del.), published Feb. 24, 1984. It summarizes his mission but interestingly omits any mention of his Vice-Presidential campaign:

Taxation by state is theft

The U.S. Supreme Court said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. However, the policies of every modern state equate the power to tax with the power to create social progress.

But the command of God to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth is not given to institutions but to man himself. Man, by means of God's law, by work, thrift, is called to establish God's Kingdom in every area of life and thought. The state, by its system of taxation apart from Scripture, assumes independence from God. A non-biblical form of taxation by the state becomes theft.

Taxation is a means whereby man seeks to create a false Kingdom of God, in reality the Kingdom of Humanism, by means of theft. The American tax revolt evades the basic theological issue.

Patriots should arm themselves with repentance and weapons. God may grant us Liberty of soul and social order.

Traves Brownlee
Frederica

The editor attached a note about Brownlee's VP status. Brownlee joins many other candidates in declaring God is on their side.

A bit of trivia. On Apr. 21, 1984 Brownlee was part of a "No-Tax Seminar" in Almonesson, NJ on a panel that included 1972 America First Party VP nominee Irving Homer.

Brownlee on other issues:

--We could eliminate millions of [government] jobs, put a freeze on hiring and move to start eliminating people who were worthless. For example, there are hundreds of people working for the Tennessee Valley Authority who wouldn't be missed if they did not show up for work.

--I don't think we should feed murderers. I'd just as well have his head cut off and get it over with.

During the entire campaign Brownlee watched as his ACT colleagues, one by one, were arrested. Some were also American Party candidates for public office in Delaware. His disciples wanted Brownlee to act as their defense attorney but the courts would not allow it since he was not an attorney although he acted as his own. Brownlee would attend their trials and appear to silently direct them from the audience.

In Sept. 1984, while other candidates were in full electioneering mode, Brownlee was arrested on the tax charges and held in Gander Hill Prison. Initially the bail was $500,000 but reduced to $100,000. He finally made bail right after the election by putting up his house and with help from "a Texas lawyer" (Joseph Izen?).

A former associate of Brownlee's who testified against him at the trial later told the press, "Traves Brownlee was a combination of P.T. Barnum and the Rev. Jim Jones. He believed in Barnum's philosophy that there is sucker born every minute and he had the mania of Jim Jones to control people's thoughts and emotions."

In Dec. 1984 Brownlee was convicted in a US District Court of conspiracy to obstruct the IRS from assessing and collecting taxes.  Prior to sentencing he was held without bail as the Court felt he was a flight risk due to alleged evidence that Brownlee had set up safe houses and in addition could be considered an instigator of anti-government violence. In Jan. 1985 he was sentenced to five years in prison, but walked from a prison camp in Kansas less than two months after being incarcerated and made his way out of the country with the help of his father, who later served time for aiding in the escape.

Brownlee had eventually found his way to the Dominican Republic, had another family or two, and was finally apprehended Jan. 1, 1991 at the town of his birth, Keokuk, Iowa. 13 months was added to his prison sentence. At the end of 1991, Brownlee's father, the one who had helped him escape, was murdered in Keokuk in what is politely called a crime of passion.

Apparently in Century 21 Brownlee was involved in some kind of operation called the Guardian Equity Group or Guardian Equity Fund and he used the name Robert or Roberto Ledesma. Alleged to have been an enormous scam by clients who lost their money, Brownlee's operation was ended with a government raid in 2010.

The Dennis/Brownlee ticket was on the ballot in five states: South Carolina 0.36%, Indiana 0.34%, Utah 0.21%, Delaware 0.11%, and Kentucky 0.03%. In Delaware and Indiana they placed third although in the former it was by only one vote ahead of the Libertarian Party, 269-268.

In the event the Dennis/Brownlee ticket would have won, the VP would have been in prison but there is nothing on the Constitution that would have prevented him from taking office even behind bars.

Election history:
1982 - Delaware Attorney General (American Party) - defeated

Other occupations: US Air Force, Baptist minister, self-employed contractor, founder of Americans for Constitutional Taxation, alleged insurance agent

Buried: Camp Nelson National Cemetery (Nicholasville, Ky.)

Notes:
Was raised in the area of Peoria, Ill.
Basically had four families within his life.
Was a "Colonel" in the local Posse Comitatus.