The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has this interesting article about the reactions of various political figures to the idea that Governor Charlie Crist may run as an independent for the U.S. Senate this year. Among the figures quoted is John B. Anderson, who appeared on the ballot in all 50 states in 1980 as an independent presidential candidate. Anderson has a home in Florida and is 88 years old. Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the link.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Anderson pretty much said the same thing about his Indpendent/National Unity Party campaign in 1980, and he ended up getting only about 7 percent of the vote. He didn’t have anything to say to the voters except he was a third choice. Carter believed the same way on the same issues and got most of the liberal votes. Anderson faded away and so should Crist.
Too bad Harold Stassen is no longer around to give his viewpoint on the candidacy of Charlie Stassen– I mean Crist.
Marco Rubio will win in November.
Well, Anderson was more of the old school Republican that was pro-business, hawkish foreign policy and moderate to liberal on social issues. Reagan signified a rightward shift within the party.
To his credit he did actually spend some time and resources with Fair Vote USA (Center for Voting and Democracy) to work on serious election law reforms.
Anderson was opposed to school prayer and ‘pro-choice’ on abortion.
He said that he became more liberal after the assassination of Martin Luther King. It must have been 1978 when Anderson had a tough Republican primary challenge for his House seat from a conservative, and Jack Kemp went in and helped him to survive.
In 1980, Anderson proposed a 50-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax hike to pay for rescuing Social Security.
In the early ’80s, as I recall, Anderson explored the possibility of starting a new party.