Perennial candidate

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A perennial candidate is one who frequently runs for public office with a record of success that is either infrequent or non-existent. Perennial candidates are often either members of minority political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They run not with any serious hope of gaining office, but in order to promote their views or themselves. The most persistent perennial candidate is John C. "The Engineer" Turmel, who has run in a world-record 61 elections.

1 Famous perennial candidates

[edit] Famous perennial candidates

[edit] United States

Eugene V. Debs was a presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party in 1900 and thereafter for the Socialist Party in four more elections: 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. In the 1920 election, while in federal prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 with a speech opposing the draft, he received 913,664 votes, the most ever for a Socialist Party presidential candidate.

Gus Hall, leader of the Communist Party USA, ran for governor of Ohio in 1940 and for the presidency four times, from 1972 to 1984 inclusive.

Alan Keyes has run for United States Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004, and for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1996 and 2000.

Lyndon LaRouche, a fringe political figure, holds the record for the most consecutive attempts at the presidency. He has run in the last eight elections, beginning in 1976. He ran once as a U.S. Labor Party candidate and seven times as a Democrat. He will tie Stassen's record of nine attempts if he runs again in 2008.

Pat Paulsen, a comedian best known for his appearances on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, first ran for President in 1968 as both a joke and a protest. He ran again in 1972 and in succeeding elections until 1996, one year prior to his death.

Harold Stassen was probably the best-known perennial candidate, at least in the United States. The one-time governor of Minnesota ran for the Republican nomination for President on nine occasions between 1948 and 1992. While Stassen was considered a serious candidate in 1948 and 1952, his attempts were increasingly met with derision and then amusement as the decades progressed.

Norman Thomas was the Socialist Party's candidate for President of the United States on six occasions from 1928 to 1948 inclusive. Unlike most other perennial candidates, Thomas influenced American politics to a considerable degree, with many of his policies being appropriated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.

Al Sharpton ran for the United States Senate from New York in 1988, 1992, and 1994. He also ran for Mayor of New York City in 1997 and for the Democratic nomination for President in 2004.

[edit] United Kingdom

Bill Boaks contested general and by-elections for a period of 30 years under various descriptions, most famously "Public Safety Democratic Monarchist White Resident". Boaks's main concern was public safety on the roads and believed that pedestrians should have the right of way at all times. In the Glasgow Hillhead by-election in 1982 he received only 5 votes, one of the lowest recorded in a modern British Parliamentary election. He died in 1986 from injuries sustained in a car accident two years earlier.

David Sutch ran in 39 general elections and by-elections under the name Screaming Lord Sutch for the British House of Commons, as well as one election for the European Parliament, never winning much more than 1,000 votes. He first ran in 1963 on the National Teenage Party ticket for the seat left vacant by the resignation of John Profumo. He founded the infamous Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 1983 and led it until his suicide in 1999.

[edit] Canada

Michael Baldasaro of the pro-marijuana Church of the Universe has run on numerous occasions for positions at various levels.

Douglas Campbell has run as a fringe candidate for federal parliament in the 1960s, the leadership of both the Ontario and federal New Democratic Party in the 1970s and 1980s, and Mayor of North York, Ontario. He ran for Mayor of Toronto in 2000, 2003 and 2006.

Henri-Georges Grenier ran 13 times for the Canadian House of Commons between 1945 and 1980 on the tickets of a variety of political parties, for each of which he was the sole candidate.

Ben Kerr, a street musician, ran for Mayor of Toronto seven times between 1985 and his death in 2005. He was best known for his country music performances and for advocating the medicinal benefits of drinking a concotion that has cayenne pepper as its main ingredient.