John B. Anderson
Encyclopedia
John Bayard Anderson is a former United States Congressman and Presidential candidate from Illinois
. He was a U.S. Representative from the 16th Congressional District of Illinois for ten terms from 1961 through 1981 and an Independent
candidate in the 1980 presidential election
. He was previously a member of the Republican Party
. He has been a political reform leader, including serving 12 years as chair of the board of FairVote
.
, where he grew up, the son of Mabel Edna (née Ring) and E. Albin Anderson, a Swedish immigrant. In his youth, he worked in his family's grocery store. He graduated as the valedictorian of his class at Rockford Central High School. He attended the University of Illinois
, but his education was interrupted by World War II
, when he enlisted in the Army
in 1943. He served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Field Artillery until the end of the war, receiving four battle stars. After the war, Anderson returned to complete his education, eventually earning a Juris Doctor
(J.D.) from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1946. He was admitted to the Illinois bar
the same year, and commenced the practice of law in Rockford.
Soon after, Anderson moved east to attend Harvard Law School
, obtaining a Master of Laws
(LL.M.) in 1949. While at Harvard, he served on the faculty of Northeastern University School of Law
in Boston. In another brief return to Rockford, Anderson practiced at the law firm Large, Reno & Zahm (now Reno & Zahm LLP)http://174.123.24.242/leagle/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=1950716339IllApp377_1623.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985. Thereafter, Anderson joined the Foreign Service
. From 1952 to 1955, he served in Berlin as the Economic Reporting Officer in the Eastern Affairs Division, as an adviser on the staff of the United States High Commissioner for Germany. At the end of his tour, he left the foreign service and once again returned to the practice of law in Rockford.
, first winning a four-person race in the April primary by 1300 votes and then the general election in November by 11,000 votes. After serving for one term, he was ready to leave that office when the local US Congressman unexpectedly stepped down in 1959. Anderson joined the race with four other contenders. He won first the primary (by 5900 votes) in April and then the general election (by 45,000 votes) in November. He served in the United States House of Representatives
in the solidly Republican 16th District of Illinois for ten terms, from 1961 to 1981.
Initially, Anderson was among the most conservative members of the Republican caucus. Three times (in 1961, 1963, and 1965) in his early terms as a Congressman, Anderson introduced a constitutional amendment
to attempt to "recognize the law and authority of Jesus Christ" over the United States. The bills died quietly, but came back to haunt Anderson in his presidential candidacy.
As he continued to serve, the atmosphere of the sixties weighed on Anderson and he began to re-think some of his beliefs. In the second half of his first decade in Washington, Anderson's positions on social issues shifted to the left, though his fiscal philosophy remained largely conservative. At the same time, he was held in high esteem by his colleagues in the House. In 1964, he won appointment to a seat on the coveted Rules Committee. In 1969, he became Chairman of the House Republican Conference, the number three position in the House Republican hierarchy in what was (at that time) the minority party.
Anderson increasingly found himself at odds with conservatives in his home district and other members of the House. He broke with the administration on Vietnam, was not always a faithful supporter of the Republican agenda, and was a very controversial critic of Richard Nixon
during Watergate. In 1974, he was re-elected in Rockford with the lowest percentage of his career. His spot as the chairman of the HRC was challenged three times after his election. And, when Gerald Ford
was defeated in the 1976 Presidential campaign, Anderson lost a key ally in Washington.
In late 1977, a fundamentalist television minister from Rockford, Don Lyon, announced that he would challenge Anderson in the Republican primary for the 16th congressional district. It was a contentious campaign, where Lyon with his experience before the camera proved to be a formidable candidate. He raised a great deal of money, won backing from many conservatives in the community and party, and put quite a scare into the Anderson team. Though Anderson was a leader in the House and the campaign commanded national attention, Anderson won the primary by 16% of the vote. Anderson was aided in this campaign by strong newspaper endorsements and crossover support from independents and Democrats.
anyway, joining a crowded field that included Robert Dole, John Connally
, Howard Baker
, George H. W. Bush
and Ronald Reagan
. He did not fare much better as an announced candidate in the summer and fall, but the last six weeks of 1979 saw a modest reversal of his fortunes. He introduced (as congressional legislation) his signature campaign proposal, advocating that a 50-cent a gallon gas tax be enacted with a corresponding 50% reduction in social security taxes. This idea, while not broadly supported, was hailed as interesting and innovative. Experts agreed that it would reduce consumption dramatically and cost average families nothing if they drove less than about 18,000 miles a year, depending upon the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. He also improved in other areas: his modest fund-raising improved to the point where he qualified for federal matching funds. He built modest state campaigns in four targeted states -- New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He won some political support among Republicans, picking up a few important endorsements along the way that helped legitimize him in the race. Most importantly, he began to build support among media elites, who appreciated his articulateness, straight-forward manner, moderate positions, and his refusal to walk down the conservative path that all of the other Republicans were traveling.
The turning point for Anderson occurred in the first political event of 1980 - a Republican candidates debate in Des Moines, Iowa on January 5, 1980. On stage Anderson successfully showed that he was very different from the others in the GOP race. He was alone in supporting Jimmy Carter
's grain embargo against the Soviet Union as a reaction to their recent invasion of Afghanistan - an unpopular position in farm country. Anderson also took issue with the other candidates who criticized his 50/50 plan, when they came up with no new strategies for dealing with the energy crisis other than worn out strategies such as decontrolling the industry and mining more coal. When questioned about which episode in their career did they most regret, none of the other candidates would answer the question -- except Anderson who cited his vote for the Gulf of Tonkin
resolution. Unlike the others, he said the concept that we could lower taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget was simply impossible. In a stirring summation, Anderson invoked his father's emigration to the United States and said that we would have to make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow. For the next week, Anderson's name and face were all over the national news programs, in newspapers, and in national news magazines.
Anderson was not competing in the Iowa caucuses and he spent less than $2000 in the state, but he finished with a surprising 4.3% of the vote, good for sixth place. In New Hampshire, he campaigned very hard and made one memorable appearance before a gun owners group. After all of the other candidates took the stage and invoked their personal histories as patriots, hunters, and members of the NRA, Anderson stood before them and made a modest statement about licensing gun owners. He said that it was an important thing to do to get cheap guns out of the hands of criminals, mental incompetents, and convicted felons. He left the stage to a chorus of lusty boos, catcalls and threats. But, the television networks were covering the event and they admired Anderson's courage for facing a hostile crowd. Again, Anderson was portrayed to a national audience as a man of character and principle. When the voters in New Hampshire went to the polls, Anderson again exceeded the expectations, finishing fourth with just under 10% of the vote.
Anderson was hitting his stride just after he left New Hampshire for the next round of primaries. Campaigning in a moderate state like Massachusetts and riding the wave of national media coverage and greater campaign funds coming into his effort, he rose in the polls dramatically. When voters went to the voting booths, Anderson was at his peak. He was declared the winner in both Massachusetts and Vermont by the Associated Press, but in the wee hours of the morning ended up losing both primaries by an eyelash. In Massachusetts, he lost to George Bush by 3/10's of 1% and in Vermont he lost to Reagan by 690 votes. Nonetheless, Anderson was now a top-tier candidate in the Republican race and for the first time a true contender for the nomination.
The next major primary for Anderson was in Illinois, his home state. He arrived there after his New England triumph and had a lead in the state polls. But his Illinois campaign struggled despite endorsements from the state's two largest newspapers. His campaign, no longer taken lightly by his opponents, was overmatched organizationally and he was ganged up upon in a candidate's debate. Reagan defeated him 48% to 37%. Anderson carried Chicago and Rockford (the state's two largest cities at the time), but he was clobbered in the southern section of the state. The next week there was a primary in Connecticut, which (while on the ballot for) Anderson's team had chosen not to compete in. While this strategy of bypassing the event by not campaigning there had worked for Anderson in some southern primaries, as a front runner he no longer could pick and chose his campaigns. He finished third in Connecticut with 22% of the vote and it seemed to most like any other loss, whether Anderson said he was competing or not. Next was Wisconsin, and this was thought to be Anderson's best chance for victory. But the bloom was off the rose by this time and he again finished third, winning 27% of the vote.
Anderson was at a crossroads. He seemed to have three options: to continue as a Republican despite the fact that the calendar was not friendly and he had lost three consecutive primaries in states where he needed to do well; to drop out of the race; or to mount an independent candidacy. The third option had a huge amount of support. The presumptive major party nominees, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, at the time engendered little enthusiasm. Pollsters were finding that Anderson was much more popular across the country with all voters than he was in the Republican primary states. Without any campaigning, he was running at 22% nationally in a three-way race. With the support of one of the premier media strategists of the day, David Garth, Anderson decided to join the race.
Anderson faced a huge number of obstacles as a non-major party candidate: having to qualify for 51 ballots (which the major parties appeared on automatically), having to raise money to run a campaign (the major parties received close to $30 million in government money for their campaigns), having to win national coverage, having to build a campaign overnight, and having to find a suitable running mate among them. Initially, Anderson did very well as an independent. He built a new campaign team, qualified for every ballot, raised a great deal of money, and rose in the polls to as high as 26% in a Gallup poll.
But the summer was cruel to Anderson. He had an overseas campaign tour to show his foreign policy credentials and it took a drubbing on national television. The major parties, particularly the Republicans, basked in the spotlight of their national conventions where Anderson was left out of the coverage. Anderson made an appearance with Ted Kennedy and it too was a huge error. By the third week of August he was in the 13-15% range in the polls.[18]
Anderson again recovered and went on a modest spree of successes. A critical issue for him was appearing in the fall presidential debates and he won an important victory when the League of Women Voters created a qualification threshold of 15% for him to appear. Late in August, Anderson released a 317-page comprehensive platform that was very well received. In late August, he named Patrick Lucey, the former two-term Democratic Governor of Wisconsin and Ambassador to Mexico as his running mate. In early September, a court challenge to Federal Election Campaign Act was successful and Anderson qualified for post-election public funding. Also, Anderson submitted his petitions for his fifty-first ballot. Then, the League ruled that the polls showed that he had met the qualification threshold and said he would appear in the debates.
This set off a controversy. Carter said that he would not appear on stage with Anderson, and sat out the debate, which hurt the President in the eyes of voters who had considered him a fair and moral fellow. Reagan and Anderson had a debate in Baltimore on September 21, 1980. Anderson did well, and polls showed he won a modest debate victory over Reagan. But Reagan, who had been portrayed by Carter throughout the campaign as an ogre and warmonger, proved to be a reasonable candidate and carried himself well in the debate. The debate was Anderson's big opportunity. He needed a break-out performance, but what he got was a modest victory. In the following weeks, Anderson slowly faded out of the picture with his support dropping from 16% to 10-12% in the first half of October. By the end of the month, Reagan debated Carter alone and Anderson's support continued to fade. Although Reagan would win a landslide victory, the polls showed the two major party candidates even (the New York Times had it 44-43-8) going into the last weekend and it was clear that many would-be Anderson supporters were now supporting their second choice. In the end, Anderson finished with just under 7% of the vote.
Most of Anderson's original support came from Rockefeller Republican
s who were more liberal than Reagan, but it bled away. Many prominent intellectuals, including the author and activist Gore Vidal
, All in the Family
creator Norman Lear
, and the editors of the liberal magazine The New Republic
, also endorsed the Anderson campaign. He also had the support of many independents. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau
's Doonesbury
ran several strips sympathetic to the Anderson campaign. According to the recently published journals of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
voted for Anderson, as did Schlesinger himself. Although the Carter campaign feared Anderson could be a spoiler
, Anderson's campaign turned out to be "simply another option for frustrated voters who had already decided not to back Carter for another term. Polls found Anderson voters nearly as likely to list Reagan as their second choice as Carter.".
Anderson did not carry a single precinct in the country.. Anderson's finish was still the best showing for a third party candidate since George Wallace
's 14% in 1968, and the sixth best for any such candidate in the 20th century (trailing Theodore Roosevelt
's 27% in 1912, Robert LaFollette's 17% in 1924, Wallace, and Ross Perot
's 19% and 8% in 1992 and 1996, respectively).
His inability to make headway against the de facto two-party system as an independent in that election would later lead him to become an advocate for Instant Runoff Voting, helping to found FairVote
in 1992.
, Duke University
, University of Illinois College of Law, Brandeis University
, Bryn Mawr College
, Oregon State University
, University of Massachusetts
, and Nova Southeastern University
(his most recent post). He was Chair of FairVote
from 1996 to 2008 and continues to serve on its board, served as President of the World Federalist Association and on the advisory board of Public Campaign
and the Electronic Privacy Information Center
, and is of counsel
to the Washington, DC-based law firm of Greenberg & Lieberman
, LLC
In the 2000 U.S. presidential election
, he was briefly considered as possible candidate for the Reform Party
nomination but instead endorsed Ralph Nader
. In January 2008, Anderson indicated strong support for the candidacy of fellow Illinoisan, Democratic contender Barack Obama
.
, but he insists on voting his conscience instead of party." - Gerald Ford
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. He was a U.S. Representative from the 16th Congressional District of Illinois for ten terms from 1961 through 1981 and an Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
candidate in the 1980 presidential election
United States presidential election, 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
. He was previously a member of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. He has been a political reform leader, including serving 12 years as chair of the board of FairVote
FairVote
FairVote is a U.S. non-profit organization based in Takoma Park, Maryland, whose mission is to achieve universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices and majority rule with fair representation for all...
.
Early life, education, and early career
Anderson was born in Rockford, IllinoisRockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
, where he grew up, the son of Mabel Edna (née Ring) and E. Albin Anderson, a Swedish immigrant. In his youth, he worked in his family's grocery store. He graduated as the valedictorian of his class at Rockford Central High School. He attended the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, but his education was interrupted by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when he enlisted in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1943. He served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Field Artillery until the end of the war, receiving four battle stars. After the war, Anderson returned to complete his education, eventually earning a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(J.D.) from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1946. He was admitted to the Illinois bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...
the same year, and commenced the practice of law in Rockford.
Soon after, Anderson moved east to attend Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, obtaining a Master of Laws
Master of Laws
The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. The University of Oxford names its taught masters of laws B.C.L...
(LL.M.) in 1949. While at Harvard, he served on the faculty of Northeastern University School of Law
Northeastern University School of Law
Northeastern University School of Law is a law school in Boston, Massachusetts. From the time of its founding in 1898, the law school's mission has focused on addressing the needs of students and of society....
in Boston. In another brief return to Rockford, Anderson practiced at the law firm Large, Reno & Zahm (now Reno & Zahm LLP)http://174.123.24.242/leagle/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=1950716339IllApp377_1623.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985. Thereafter, Anderson joined the Foreign Service
United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is a component of the United States federal government under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of approximately 11,500 professionals carrying out the foreign policy of the United States and aiding U.S...
. From 1952 to 1955, he served in Berlin as the Economic Reporting Officer in the Eastern Affairs Division, as an adviser on the staff of the United States High Commissioner for Germany. At the end of his tour, he left the foreign service and once again returned to the practice of law in Rockford.
Political career
Soon after his return, Anderson was approached about running for public office. In 1956, Anderson was elected State's Attorney in Winnebago County, IllinoisWinnebago County, Illinois
Winnebago County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 295,266, which is an increase of 6.1% from 278,418 in 2000...
, first winning a four-person race in the April primary by 1300 votes and then the general election in November by 11,000 votes. After serving for one term, he was ready to leave that office when the local US Congressman unexpectedly stepped down in 1959. Anderson joined the race with four other contenders. He won first the primary (by 5900 votes) in April and then the general election (by 45,000 votes) in November. He served in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in the solidly Republican 16th District of Illinois for ten terms, from 1961 to 1981.
Initially, Anderson was among the most conservative members of the Republican caucus. Three times (in 1961, 1963, and 1965) in his early terms as a Congressman, Anderson introduced a constitutional amendment
Constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...
to attempt to "recognize the law and authority of Jesus Christ" over the United States. The bills died quietly, but came back to haunt Anderson in his presidential candidacy.
As he continued to serve, the atmosphere of the sixties weighed on Anderson and he began to re-think some of his beliefs. In the second half of his first decade in Washington, Anderson's positions on social issues shifted to the left, though his fiscal philosophy remained largely conservative. At the same time, he was held in high esteem by his colleagues in the House. In 1964, he won appointment to a seat on the coveted Rules Committee. In 1969, he became Chairman of the House Republican Conference, the number three position in the House Republican hierarchy in what was (at that time) the minority party.
Anderson increasingly found himself at odds with conservatives in his home district and other members of the House. He broke with the administration on Vietnam, was not always a faithful supporter of the Republican agenda, and was a very controversial critic of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
during Watergate. In 1974, he was re-elected in Rockford with the lowest percentage of his career. His spot as the chairman of the HRC was challenged three times after his election. And, when Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
was defeated in the 1976 Presidential campaign, Anderson lost a key ally in Washington.
In late 1977, a fundamentalist television minister from Rockford, Don Lyon, announced that he would challenge Anderson in the Republican primary for the 16th congressional district. It was a contentious campaign, where Lyon with his experience before the camera proved to be a formidable candidate. He raised a great deal of money, won backing from many conservatives in the community and party, and put quite a scare into the Anderson team. Though Anderson was a leader in the House and the campaign commanded national attention, Anderson won the primary by 16% of the vote. Anderson was aided in this campaign by strong newspaper endorsements and crossover support from independents and Democrats.
1980 Presidential campaign
Feeling that his time in the House was coming to an end (because of elements of boredom, restlessness, and his unwillingness to face the indignity of other challenges to his leadership position and House seat), Anderson began considering other options soon after the 1976 presidential campaign. While many urged him to run for the Senate seat held by Adlai Stevenson III (even after Stevenson dropped out of the race), Anderson had higher sights: the Republican presidential nomination. In 1978 he ran a true exploratory campaign but found little public or media interest in his potential campaign. Anderson postponed his decision to run, lost his campaign manager, and struggled to raise money, but in late April of 1979 he made the decision to enter the Republican primaryPrimary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
anyway, joining a crowded field that included Robert Dole, John Connally
John Connally
John Bowden Connally, Jr. , was an influential American politician, serving as the 39th governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in...
, Howard Baker
Howard Baker
Howard Henry Baker, Jr. is a former Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a former United States Ambassador to Japan.Known in Washington, D.C...
, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
. He did not fare much better as an announced candidate in the summer and fall, but the last six weeks of 1979 saw a modest reversal of his fortunes. He introduced (as congressional legislation) his signature campaign proposal, advocating that a 50-cent a gallon gas tax be enacted with a corresponding 50% reduction in social security taxes. This idea, while not broadly supported, was hailed as interesting and innovative. Experts agreed that it would reduce consumption dramatically and cost average families nothing if they drove less than about 18,000 miles a year, depending upon the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. He also improved in other areas: his modest fund-raising improved to the point where he qualified for federal matching funds. He built modest state campaigns in four targeted states -- New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He won some political support among Republicans, picking up a few important endorsements along the way that helped legitimize him in the race. Most importantly, he began to build support among media elites, who appreciated his articulateness, straight-forward manner, moderate positions, and his refusal to walk down the conservative path that all of the other Republicans were traveling.
The turning point for Anderson occurred in the first political event of 1980 - a Republican candidates debate in Des Moines, Iowa on January 5, 1980. On stage Anderson successfully showed that he was very different from the others in the GOP race. He was alone in supporting Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
's grain embargo against the Soviet Union as a reaction to their recent invasion of Afghanistan - an unpopular position in farm country. Anderson also took issue with the other candidates who criticized his 50/50 plan, when they came up with no new strategies for dealing with the energy crisis other than worn out strategies such as decontrolling the industry and mining more coal. When questioned about which episode in their career did they most regret, none of the other candidates would answer the question -- except Anderson who cited his vote for the Gulf of Tonkin
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is an arm of the South China Sea, lying off the coast of northeastern Vietnam.-Etymology:The name Tonkin, written "東京" in Hán tự and Đông Kinh in romanised Vietnamese, means "Eastern Capital", and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam...
resolution. Unlike the others, he said the concept that we could lower taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget was simply impossible. In a stirring summation, Anderson invoked his father's emigration to the United States and said that we would have to make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow. For the next week, Anderson's name and face were all over the national news programs, in newspapers, and in national news magazines.
Anderson was not competing in the Iowa caucuses and he spent less than $2000 in the state, but he finished with a surprising 4.3% of the vote, good for sixth place. In New Hampshire, he campaigned very hard and made one memorable appearance before a gun owners group. After all of the other candidates took the stage and invoked their personal histories as patriots, hunters, and members of the NRA, Anderson stood before them and made a modest statement about licensing gun owners. He said that it was an important thing to do to get cheap guns out of the hands of criminals, mental incompetents, and convicted felons. He left the stage to a chorus of lusty boos, catcalls and threats. But, the television networks were covering the event and they admired Anderson's courage for facing a hostile crowd. Again, Anderson was portrayed to a national audience as a man of character and principle. When the voters in New Hampshire went to the polls, Anderson again exceeded the expectations, finishing fourth with just under 10% of the vote.
Anderson was hitting his stride just after he left New Hampshire for the next round of primaries. Campaigning in a moderate state like Massachusetts and riding the wave of national media coverage and greater campaign funds coming into his effort, he rose in the polls dramatically. When voters went to the voting booths, Anderson was at his peak. He was declared the winner in both Massachusetts and Vermont by the Associated Press, but in the wee hours of the morning ended up losing both primaries by an eyelash. In Massachusetts, he lost to George Bush by 3/10's of 1% and in Vermont he lost to Reagan by 690 votes. Nonetheless, Anderson was now a top-tier candidate in the Republican race and for the first time a true contender for the nomination.
The next major primary for Anderson was in Illinois, his home state. He arrived there after his New England triumph and had a lead in the state polls. But his Illinois campaign struggled despite endorsements from the state's two largest newspapers. His campaign, no longer taken lightly by his opponents, was overmatched organizationally and he was ganged up upon in a candidate's debate. Reagan defeated him 48% to 37%. Anderson carried Chicago and Rockford (the state's two largest cities at the time), but he was clobbered in the southern section of the state. The next week there was a primary in Connecticut, which (while on the ballot for) Anderson's team had chosen not to compete in. While this strategy of bypassing the event by not campaigning there had worked for Anderson in some southern primaries, as a front runner he no longer could pick and chose his campaigns. He finished third in Connecticut with 22% of the vote and it seemed to most like any other loss, whether Anderson said he was competing or not. Next was Wisconsin, and this was thought to be Anderson's best chance for victory. But the bloom was off the rose by this time and he again finished third, winning 27% of the vote.
Anderson was at a crossroads. He seemed to have three options: to continue as a Republican despite the fact that the calendar was not friendly and he had lost three consecutive primaries in states where he needed to do well; to drop out of the race; or to mount an independent candidacy. The third option had a huge amount of support. The presumptive major party nominees, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, at the time engendered little enthusiasm. Pollsters were finding that Anderson was much more popular across the country with all voters than he was in the Republican primary states. Without any campaigning, he was running at 22% nationally in a three-way race. With the support of one of the premier media strategists of the day, David Garth, Anderson decided to join the race.
Anderson faced a huge number of obstacles as a non-major party candidate: having to qualify for 51 ballots (which the major parties appeared on automatically), having to raise money to run a campaign (the major parties received close to $30 million in government money for their campaigns), having to win national coverage, having to build a campaign overnight, and having to find a suitable running mate among them. Initially, Anderson did very well as an independent. He built a new campaign team, qualified for every ballot, raised a great deal of money, and rose in the polls to as high as 26% in a Gallup poll.
But the summer was cruel to Anderson. He had an overseas campaign tour to show his foreign policy credentials and it took a drubbing on national television. The major parties, particularly the Republicans, basked in the spotlight of their national conventions where Anderson was left out of the coverage. Anderson made an appearance with Ted Kennedy and it too was a huge error. By the third week of August he was in the 13-15% range in the polls.[18]
Anderson again recovered and went on a modest spree of successes. A critical issue for him was appearing in the fall presidential debates and he won an important victory when the League of Women Voters created a qualification threshold of 15% for him to appear. Late in August, Anderson released a 317-page comprehensive platform that was very well received. In late August, he named Patrick Lucey, the former two-term Democratic Governor of Wisconsin and Ambassador to Mexico as his running mate. In early September, a court challenge to Federal Election Campaign Act was successful and Anderson qualified for post-election public funding. Also, Anderson submitted his petitions for his fifty-first ballot. Then, the League ruled that the polls showed that he had met the qualification threshold and said he would appear in the debates.
This set off a controversy. Carter said that he would not appear on stage with Anderson, and sat out the debate, which hurt the President in the eyes of voters who had considered him a fair and moral fellow. Reagan and Anderson had a debate in Baltimore on September 21, 1980. Anderson did well, and polls showed he won a modest debate victory over Reagan. But Reagan, who had been portrayed by Carter throughout the campaign as an ogre and warmonger, proved to be a reasonable candidate and carried himself well in the debate. The debate was Anderson's big opportunity. He needed a break-out performance, but what he got was a modest victory. In the following weeks, Anderson slowly faded out of the picture with his support dropping from 16% to 10-12% in the first half of October. By the end of the month, Reagan debated Carter alone and Anderson's support continued to fade. Although Reagan would win a landslide victory, the polls showed the two major party candidates even (the New York Times had it 44-43-8) going into the last weekend and it was clear that many would-be Anderson supporters were now supporting their second choice. In the end, Anderson finished with just under 7% of the vote.
Most of Anderson's original support came from Rockefeller Republican
Rockefeller Republican
Rockefeller Republican refers to a faction of the United States Republican Party who held moderate to liberal views similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller...
s who were more liberal than Reagan, but it bled away. Many prominent intellectuals, including the author and activist Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
creator Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
, and the editors of the liberal magazine The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, also endorsed the Anderson campaign. He also had the support of many independents. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
's Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
ran several strips sympathetic to the Anderson campaign. According to the recently published journals of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
voted for Anderson, as did Schlesinger himself. Although the Carter campaign feared Anderson could be a spoiler
Spoiler effect
The spoiler effect describes the effect a minor party candidate with little chance of winning has in a close election, when that candidate's presence in the election draws votes from a major candidate similar to them, thereby causing a candidate dissimilar to them to win the election...
, Anderson's campaign turned out to be "simply another option for frustrated voters who had already decided not to back Carter for another term. Polls found Anderson voters nearly as likely to list Reagan as their second choice as Carter.".
Anderson did not carry a single precinct in the country.. Anderson's finish was still the best showing for a third party candidate since George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
's 14% in 1968, and the sixth best for any such candidate in the 20th century (trailing Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
's 27% in 1912, Robert LaFollette's 17% in 1924, Wallace, and Ross Perot
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot is a U.S. businessman best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988...
's 19% and 8% in 1992 and 1996, respectively).
His inability to make headway against the de facto two-party system as an independent in that election would later lead him to become an advocate for Instant Runoff Voting, helping to found FairVote
FairVote
FairVote is a U.S. non-profit organization based in Takoma Park, Maryland, whose mission is to achieve universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices and majority rule with fair representation for all...
in 1992.
Later career
By the end, Anderson's support was on college campuses, and he capitalized on that by becoming a visiting professor at a series of universities: Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, University of Illinois College of Law, Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
, Oregon State University
Oregon State University
Oregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
, University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
, and Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University, commonly referred to as NSU or Nova, is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian, research university located in Broward County, Florida, with its main campus in the town of Davie...
(his most recent post). He was Chair of FairVote
FairVote
FairVote is a U.S. non-profit organization based in Takoma Park, Maryland, whose mission is to achieve universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices and majority rule with fair representation for all...
from 1996 to 2008 and continues to serve on its board, served as President of the World Federalist Association and on the advisory board of Public Campaign
Public Campaign
Public Campaign is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics. Public Campaign works to bring Clean Elections, or publicly financed elections to local, state, and federal elections...
and the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...
, and is of counsel
Of counsel
Of counsel is often the title of an attorney who is employed by a law firm or an organization, but is not an associate or a partner. Some firms use titles like "counsel," "special counsel," and "senior counsel" for the same concept...
to the Washington, DC-based law firm of Greenberg & Lieberman
Greenberg & Lieberman
Greenberg & Lieberman is a national and international law firm based in Washington, D.C. Established in 1996 by Michael Greenberg and Stevan Lieberman, the firm is known for its expertise in the technology-law areas of intellectual property, trademark infringements, domain names, virtual worlds, ...
, LLC
In the 2000 U.S. presidential election
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
, he was briefly considered as possible candidate for the Reform Party
Reform Party of the United States of America
The Reform Party of the United States of America is a political party in the United States, founded in 1995 by Ross Perot...
nomination but instead endorsed Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
. In January 2008, Anderson indicated strong support for the candidacy of fellow Illinoisan, Democratic contender Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Quotes
"He's the smartest guy in CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, but he insists on voting his conscience instead of party." - Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...