1980 election cycle The first Citizens Party National Convention met in
Cleveland,
Ohio, in the Cleveland Plaza Hotel from April 10 to 13, 1980. There were 260 delegates from 30 states present. The "proposals presented at the convention reportedly numbered some 300 items, a list largely irreducible to a manageable platform ... Units of the party organization on the state level thus became more or less responsible for delineating their own briefer versions of the list of goals" (Kruschke, p. 46). The party nominated Barry Commoner and
LaDonna Harris (then, at that time, the wife of
Democratic senator Fred Harris of
Oklahoma) for president and
vice president respectively. La Donna Harris was "a leading
feminist and a
Comanche Indian [who] labeled herself as 'a woman of color.'" In order to increase public awareness of its existence, the Citizens Party ran a commercial on 600 radio stations which used profanity (the advertisement began with an actor exclaiming: "
Bullshit! ... Carter,
Reagan and
Anderson, it's all bullshit!"). Several of the radio stations tried to remove the profanity, but the
Federal Communications Commission forbade them to do so. As the party's presidential candidate in 1980, Commoner achieved ballot status in 29 states (22 and DC under the Citizens Party label, six as an Independent, and in
Pennsylvania with the
Consumer Party), although his major activity was centered in the large states of
California,
Illinois,
Michigan,
New York, and Pennsylvania. In addition to the national ticket in the
presidential election, twenty-two other Citizens candidates appeared on the ballot in various states, including three for the U.S. Senate and eleven for the
U.S. House. Commoner received 221,083 votes. Although Commoner did not garner more than one percent in any state, the party received enough support to be the first
minor party to qualify for federal matching funds (about $157,000) for the
1984 elections.
1982 election cycle In 1981, the Citizens Party won an election for the first time when
Terry Bouricius was elected to the board of Aldermen in
Burlington,
Vermont. In 1982, the Citizens Party fielded two candidates for governorships (Pennsylvania and
Texas), three candidates for the Senate (Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont), and 15 candidates for the U.S. House.
1984 election cycle In 1984, the Citizens Party held its second national convention at
Hamline University in
St. Paul,
Minnesota, from August 10 to 12, 1984. There were 125 delegates from 30 states present. The convention nominated
Sonia Johnson of
Virginia, “a radical feminist,” for president and
Richard Walton of
Rhode Island for vice president. Johnson had been excommunicated from the
LDS Church in 1979 as a result of her outspoken support of the
Equal Rights Amendment. In 1982 Johnson undertook a publicized 37-day fast which was meant to encourage the Illinois legislature to ratify the ERA. Two other minor parties endorsed the Citizens ticket in 1984. The
Socialist Party USA National Convention in
New York City from September 3 to 5, 1983 voted to try to run a joint ticket with the Citizens Party, and the
Peace and Freedom Party in California endorsed Johnson for president (although it ran Emma Wong Mar for vice president). Despite the two additional endorsements, the Citizens Party suffered serious setbacks during 1984. It ran fewer candidates for office: one for the Senate (Illinois), one for Governor (Vermont), and two for the U.S. House. Johnson appeared on the ballot in thirteen states as the Citizens candidate, two as an Independent, one (
Arkansas) as the Citizens Group nominee, and one (Pennsylvania) as the Consumer nominee. The Citizens Party vote fell by two thirds, to 72,153, although Johnson significantly improved upon Commoner's totals in Pennsylvania and
Louisiana.
1986 election cycle and party dissolution In the
1986 election, the Citizens Party once again offered four candidates: two for governor (Pennsylvania and Rhode Island), one for the Senate (Pennsylvania), and one for the U.S. House (Minnesota). The Pennsylvania candidates used the Consumer Party label. After the disappointing number of votes cast in favor of the Citizens Party nominees, it dissolved. The 1987 Socialist Party National Convention nominated its own ticket of
Willa Kenoyer (a former co-chair of the Citizens Party) and
Ron Ehrenreich for
the 1988 presidential election, while the
Consumer Party in Pennsylvania resumed its separate existence, picking up the remaining pieces of the Citizens Party.
Presidential election summary ==See also==