American Independent Party
American Independent Party | |
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Political parties |
The American Independent Party (AIP) is a political party in the United States founded in 1968.[4] The party experienced a split in 1976, resulting in the formation of the American Party and the continuation of the American Independent Party. The AIP was affiliated with the national Constitution Party from 1992 to 2008. A leadership dispute occurred within the AIP during the 2008 election cycle following its disaffiliation from the Constitution Party.
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History
Wallace campaign and early history
In 1967, the AIP was founded by Bill Shearer and his wife, Eileen Knowland Shearer. It nominated George C. Wallace (Democrat) as its presidential candidate and retired
In 1969, representatives from forty states established the
The party flag, adopted on August 30, 1970, depicts an eagle holding a group of arrows in its left talons, over a compass rose, with a banner which reads "The American Independent Party" at the eagle's base.
The American Party had gained ballot access in Tennessee in 1970 as the result of George Wallace's strong (second-place) showing in the state in 1968, easily crossing the 5 percent threshold required, and held a primary election which nominated a slate of candidates including businessman Douglas Heinsohn for governor. However, neither Heinsohn nor any other candidate running on the American Party line achieved the 5 percent threshold in the 1970 Tennessee election, and it likewise failed to do so in 1972, meaning that the party lost its newfound ballot access, which as of 2021 it has never regained.[7]
In 1972, the American Party nominated
After the 1976 split
In 1976, the American Independent Party split into the more moderate American Party, which included more northern conservatives and Schmitz supporters, and the American Independent Party, which focused on the Deep South. Both parties have nominated candidates for the presidency and other offices. Neither the American Party nor the American Independent Party has had national success, and the American Party has not achieved ballot status in any state since 1996.
In the early 1980s, Bill Shearer led the American Independent Party into the Populist Party. From 1992 to 2008, the American Independent Party was the California affiliate of the national Constitution Party, formerly the U.S. Taxpayers Party, whose founders included the late Howard Phillips.
2007 leadership dispute
A split in the American Independent Party occurred during the 2008 presidential campaign, one faction recognizing Jim King as chairman of the AIP with the other recognizing Ed Noonan as chairman. Noonan's faction claims the old AIP main website while the King organization claims the AIP's blog. King's group met in Los Angeles on June 28–29, elected King to state chair.[9] Ed Noonan's faction, which included 8 of the 17 AIP officers, held a convention in Sacramento on July 5, 2008. Issues in the split were U.S. foreign policy and the influence of Constitution Party founder Howard Phillips on the state party.[10]
The King group elected to stay in the Constitution Party and supported its presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin. It was not listed as the "Qualified Political Party" by the California Secretary of State and Baldwin's name was not printed on the state's ballots.[11] King's group sued for ballot access[12] and their case was dismissed without prejudice.[13]
The Noonan group voted to pull out of the Constitution Party and join a new party called America's Party, put together by perennial candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Alan Keyes as a vehicle for his own presidential campaign.[10] Since Noonan was on record with the California Secretary of State as (outgoing) party chairman, Keyes was added to the state ballots as the AIP candidate.[14] This group elected Markham Robinson as its new chair at the convention.
Presidential tickets
Year | Presidential nominee[15] |
Home state | Previous positions | Vice presidential nominee |
Home state | Previous positions | Votes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | campaign )
|
Alabama | Governor of Alabama (1963–1967) |
Curtis LeMay |
California | Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force (1957–1961) (1948–1957)
Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command |
9,906,473 (13.5%) 46 EV |
[16] |
1972 | John G. Schmitz |
California | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 35th district (1970–1973) |
Thomas J. Anderson |
Tennessee | Magazine publisher | 1,099,482 (1.4%) 0 EV |
|
1976 | Lester Maddox |
Georgia | Governor of Georgia (1967–1971) Lieutenant Governor of Georgia (1971–1975) |
William Dyke |
Wisconsin | 1974 )
|
170,531 (0.2%) 0 EV |
|
1980 | John Rarick |
Louisiana | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 6th district (1967–1975) |
Eileen Shearer | California | Co-founder of the American Independent Party | 41,268 (<0.1%) 0 EV |
|
1984 | Bob Richards (Populist) |
Texas | Retired Olympic athlete (1948; 1952; 1956) | Maureen K. Salaman |
California | Writer, nutritionist | 66,336 (0.1%) 0 EV |
|
1988 | James C. Griffin | Texas | Nominee for 1982) (1986)
Nominee for Lieutenant Governor of California |
Charles Morsa | California | 27,818 (<0.1%) 0 EV |
||
1992 | U.S. Taxpayers' )
|
Virginia | Chairman of 1978 )
|
Albion W. Knight | Florida | Presiding Bishop of the United Episcopal Church of North America (1989–1992) |
43,369 (<0.1%) 0 EV |
|
1996 | U.S. Taxpayers' )
|
Virginia | Chairman of 1978 ) Nominee for President of the United States (1992) |
Herbert Titus | Oregon | Lawyer, writer | 184,656 (0.2%) 0 EV |
|
2000 | Howard Phillips (Constitution) |
Virginia | Chairman of 1978 )Nominee for President of the United States (1992; 1996) |
Curtis Frazier | Missouri | Candidate for United States Senator from Missouri (1998) | 98,020 (0.1%) 0 EV |
[17] |
2004 | Michael Peroutka (Constitution) |
Maryland | Lawyer Founder of the Institute on the Constitution |
Chuck Baldwin |
Florida | Pastor, radio host | 143,630 (0.1%) 0 EV |
|
2008 | Alan Keyes (campaign) (America's Independent) |
New York | 2004 )
|
Wiley Drake | California | Minister, radio host | 47,694 (<0.1%) 0 EV |
|
2012 | Tom Hoefling (America's) |
Iowa | Activist | Robert Ornelas
|
California | Activist | 40,641 (<0.1%) 0 EV |
|
2016 | Donald Trump (campaign) |
New York | Businessman Chairman of The Trump Organization (1971–2017) |
Mike Pence |
Indiana | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana (2001–2013) Governor of Indiana (2013–2017) |
62,984,825 (46.1%) 304 EV |
[18] |
2020 | Rocky De La Fuente (Alliance; Reform) |
California | Businessman and perennial candidate | Kanye West ( campaign) ; Birthday)
(Independent |
Wyoming | Rapper, producer and fashion designer; 2020 presidential candidate
|
60,160 (0.34%) 0 EV |
[19] |
2024 | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Following the split within the American Independent Party into factions led by Jim King and Ed Noonan, the Noonan faction has maintained control over the party's operations and ballot access in California. The party did not nominate Chuck Baldwin, the 2008 Constitution Party presidential candidate, nor Virgil Goode, the 2012 nominee, and both candidates were unable to secure independent positions on the California presidential ballot.
California gubernatorial candidates
Year | Candidate | # Votes | % Votes |
---|---|---|---|
1970 | Bill Shearer | 65,847 | 1.01 |
1974 | Edmon V. Kaiser | 83,869 | 1.34 |
1978 | Theresa F. Dietrich | 67,103 | 0.97 |
1982 | James C. Griffin | 56,249 | 0.71 |
1986 | Gary V. Miller | 50,547 | 0.68 |
1990 | Jerome McCready | 139,661 | 1.81 |
1994 | Jerome McCready | 133,888 | 1.55 |
1998 | Nathan Johnson | 37,964 | 0.45 |
2002 | Reinhold Gulke | 128,035 | 1.71 |
2003
|
Charles Pineda, Jr. | 1,104 | 0.01 |
2003
|
Diane Beall Templin | 1,067 | 0.01 |
2006 | Edward C. Noonan | 61,901 | 0.71 |
2010 | Chelene Nightingale | 166,312 | 1.65 |
2014 | No Candidate[a] | N/A | N/A |
2018 | No Candidate[b] | N/A | N/A |
2021 | No Candidate[c] | N/A | N/A |
Chairmen/Vice-Chairmen
- Bill Shearer: 1967–1999
- Nathan Johnson: 1999–2002
- Jim King/[who?]: 2002–2004
- Nancy Spirkoff: 2004–2006
- Edward C. Noonan/Mark Seidenberg: 2006–2008
- Disputed: Jim King and Markham Robinson claim chairmanship: 2008–present
California membership issues
In 2016, approximately 3% of California's 17.2 million voters were registered with the American Independent Party (AIP), ranking it as the third-largest political party in the state by registration, following the Democratic (43%) and Republican (28%) parties and those who registered as "no party preference" (24%).[20]
However, it has long been proposed by political analysts that the party, which has received very few votes in recent California elections, maintains its state ballot status because people join the American Independent Party mistakenly believing that they are registering as
A 2016 Los Angeles Times investigation suggested that a significant number of voters registered with the AIP may have done so under the misconception that they were registering as independent, unaffiliated voters, which is officially designated as "no party preference" in California. A poll of voters registered with the AIP indicated that a majority may not have intended to register with the party. The investigation highlighted potential confusion caused by the party's name.[2][20]
A 2016 poll conducted of California voters registered with the AIP showed that 73% identify themselves as "no affiliation" and 3% identify themselves as "undecided."
This confusion results in accidentally registered AIP members being unable to vote in presidential primary elections and, in prior years, in all partisan primary elections other than those of the AIP.[21][20] A number of California registrars of voters had expressed concern over the confusion that the party's name causes.[20] Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said that the California voter form was "confusing and somewhat misleading."[2] However, since the advent of the "top-two" blanket primary in California in 2012, all voters may participate in non-presidential primary elections where nominations for public office are to be made. Presidential nominations and elections of members of party county central committees are still restricted to voters registered in the party where such contests are held, but a party may choose to allow voters with No Party Preference to vote in their presidential primary.[24] In addition, voters are able to re-register to the party of their choosing on election day via election day registration, mitigating the issue further.[25]
References
- ^ "Officers".
- ^ a b c John Myers, Would-be independents joining the American Independent Party could blame California's voter registration card, Los Angeles Times (April 19, 2016).
- ^ "History of the American Independent Party". American Independent Party. 2011. Archived from the original on 2018-12-24. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ "American Independent Party Platform of 1968 | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
- ^ Chrostopher D. Rodkey, "Third Parties" in Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices (eds. Roger Chapman & James Ciment: 2d ed: Routledge, 2015), p. 665.
- ^ ""Conservative third parties since the New Deal" in The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History (Vol. 1) (eds. April Kazin, Rebecca Edwards & Adam Rothman: Princeton University Press, 2010), p. 195.
- ^ Tennessee Blue Book, Tennessee Secretary of State, 1971, 1973 "Elections"
- ^ Leip, Dave (2019). "1972 Presidential General Election Results".
- ^ Quirk, Cody. "AIP holds its State Convention, endorses Chuck Baldwin and reaffirms CP affiliation Archived 2008-07-17 at the Wayback Machine", Third Party Watch, June 30, 2008.
- ^ Orange County RegisterHorserace '08. Wednesday, July 2, 2008.
- ^ California Secretary of State - Elections & Voter Information - Qualified Political Parties Archived July 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Quirk, Cody. "Statement from Jim King, AIP Chairman Archived 2008-08-21 at the Wayback Machine", Third Party Watch, July 22, 2008.
- ^ Winger, Richard. "Keyes Wins California Lawsuit on Procedural Issue", Ballot Access News, August 26, 2008.
- ^ Garris, Eric. "California Ballot: Alan Keyes Replaces Chuck Baldwin on American Independent Party Ticket[permanent dead link]", Third Party Watch, July 22, 2008.
- ^ And political party if different from the AIP.
- ^ Wallace and LeMay carried five states, receiving 45 electoral votes, plus one from a North Carolina faithless elector.
- ^ Joseph Sobran was the original vice presidential nominee, but he withdrew from the ticket and was replaced by Frazier.
- ^ Mejia Davis, Edward. "Trump is the nominee of George Wallace's American Independent Party in California". CNN. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- ^ Winger, Richard (August 15, 2020). "American Independent Party Nominates Rocky De La Fuente for President and Kanye West for Vice-President". Ballot Access News. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g John Myers, Christine Mai-Duc & Ben Welsh, Are you an independent voter? You aren't if you checked this box, Los Angeles Times (April 17, 2016).
- ^ a b "Many American Independent Party voters in California are mis-registered".
- ISBN 0-520-22834-0.
- ^ Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross (April 22, 2008). "Newsom's girlfriend stumbles into wrong party". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ "No Party Preference Information". California Secretary of State. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
- ^ "California's primary vote count could take longer than ever". AP NEWS. 2020-02-01. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
Notes
- ^ Nominated Tim Donnelly for the top two primary for governor, not affiliated with the party
- ^ Nominated John Cox for governor, not affiliated with the party
- ^ Nominated Larry Elder for governor, not affiliated with the party