On March 20, Bob Healey died, at the age of 58. See this story. He founded the Cool Moose Party of Rhode Island in 1994, and was its gubernatorial candidate that year, polling 9.08%. That made it a ballot-qualified party. In the 1996 election, it had 18 candidates for the legislature on the ballot, the most any party other than the Democratic and Republican candidates had run for the Rhode Island legislature since 1920. Also in 1996, the party elected two nominees to the Hopkinton Town Council, in a partisan election.

In 1998, Healey again ran for Governor, and again got over 5%, thus keeping the party on the ballot for another four years. His percentage that year was 6.28%.

In 2002, he ran for Lieutenant Governor, and got 18.78%, but the party went off the ballot because only the vote for Governor or President counts.

In 2006, he petitioned onto the general election ballot as the Cool Moose Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and got 13.41%.

In 2010, he again petitioned for Lieutenant Governor as the Cool Moose Party candidate, and got 39.15% in a race that also included the Democratic nominee and an independent candidate.

In 2014, he was the Moderate Party’s gubernatorial nominee, and he polled 21.43%, the highest percentage for any minor party gubernatorial nominee in the nation that year. Thanks to Jack Dean for this news.