Prohibition Party embroiled in civil war

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

http://www.politics1.com/prohibition04.htm

 

PRESIDENCY 2004:

 

GENE AMONDSON of Alaska

Prohibition Party

Presidential Nominee 

 

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GENE AMONDSON'S BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS:

 

POLITICAL: None.

 

PROFESSIONAL: Temperance Lecturer (reenacts early-1900s evangelist Billy Sunday's "Sermon Against Alcohol"). Landscape Painter. Minister.

 

EDUCATION: B.S. (Zoology), Warner-Pacific College. M.Div., Asbury Seminary.

 

PERSONAL: Born 1943 in Morton, Washington. Divorced. Four children. Church of God.

 

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LEROY PLETTEN of Michigan

Prohibition Party

Vice Presidential Nominee 

 

Leroy Pletten -- a historian and anti-alcohol advocate -- first joined the Prohibition Party in 1998. Since then, he's become State Chair in Michigan and the National Secretary of the party. Pletten, 58, was originally from Minnesota. He each his B.A. degree in history from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and later served as a civilian employee of the Army. He lost a race for local school board in 2003 as the party's nominee (6%) -- but notes in party literature that he's "been elected twice to the board of directors of his condominium owner's association."

 

 

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ANALYSIS:

 

For years -- despite declining results -- Prohibition Party National Chairman Earl Dodge was repeatedly the party's nominee for President. In fact, Dodge ran on the party's national ticket seven times beginning in 1976. After Dodge captured just 208 votes in the 2000 election -- the party's worst finish in nearly 130 years -- a faction within the party wanted new leadership. They argued that Dodge ran the party like a personal fiefdom and seemed to be using the party to promote his personal business activities (i.e., selling campaign buttons). The anti-Dodge faction -- which grew out of activists within the Partisan Prohibiton Historical Society (linked above) -- called a national meeting and wrested control of the party's national committee away from Dodge in September 2003. The Prohibition National Committee elected Don Webb of Alabama as the new National Chairman and retired Dodge to "Chairman Emeritus." However, that came too late to stop Dodge from calling a Presidential Nominating Convention in August 2003. Dodge's "convention" consisted of eight people -- most of whom were Dodge relatives -- who met in Dodge's living room and nominated Dodge again for President. The party's new leadership later voided that convention as improperly called and demoted Dodge to "provisional nominee" pending a new vote of the Prohibition National Committee. When the vote was held in February 2004, the party nominated anti-alcohol minister Gene Amondson for President. They tried to pacify the Dodge faction by offering the VP spot to Howard Lydick -- who was Dodge's designated 2004 runningmate and also a member of both the old and new Prohibition National Committee -- but Lydick refused to run with anyone except Dodge. Dodge, FYI, refuses to recognize the new leadership and maintains that he still leads the party and is the party's official 2004 Presidential nominee (see below). Now the party has to contend with the rival Amdonson-Pletten ticket and Dodge-Lydick ticket both seeking ballot status as the "official" nominees. The Webb factions vows to go to court to ensure Dodge cannot appear on the ballot anywhere -- but all this infighting and legal battling may result in the party failing to achieve any ballot access for its Presidential ticket for the first time since 1872.

 

See.. that's what happens when you don't drink!

 

It'll be a shame if the Prohibition Party doesn't make ballot status.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Here's all the independent candidates for 2004:

 

http://www.politics1.com/ind04.htm

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Fuckin' A, Jack Grimes is running again. I can't decide between him and Muadin.