Citizens Party (United States)

The Citizens Party was a political party in the United States. It was founded in Washington, D.C. by Barry Commoner, who wanted to gather under one umbrella political organization all the environmentalist and liberal groups which were unsatisfied with President Carter's administration. The Citizens Party registered with the Federal Elections Commission at the end of 1979. Commoner, a professor of environmental science at Washington University in St. Louis, was the head of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems in St. Louis and editor of Science Illustrated magazine.

The Citizens Party platform was pro-environmental in nature. Some have claimed that it was possibly socialist as well, but this claim arose from a misunderstanding of the economic democracy platform of the party, which appears to be a form of corporatism. Commoner clearly stated repeatedly that socialism for parts of the economy other than essential infrastructure was a disastrous idea. His economic democracy idea stated that the business of business is to do business, but that the business of government is to regulate business to prevent abuses.

In all, the party was founded around four essential platforms, including economic democracy.

History

1980 election cycle

§The first Citizens Party National Convention met in Cleveland 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 for President, and La Donna Harris (then, at that time, the wife of Democratic U.S. Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma) for Vice President. 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.^[1]

As the party's candidate for President 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 California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania.

In addition to the national ticket, there were 22 other Citizens candidates 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 election.

1982 election cycle

In 1981, the Citizens Party had its first successful election of a candidate running under the Citizens Party label, with the election of Terry Bouricius to the Board of Aldermen in Burlington, VT. In 1982, the Citizens Party offered two candidates for Governor (PA and Texas), three candidates for the Senate (PA, Texas, and VT), 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 MN 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 designed to encourage the legislature of IL 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).

In spite of the two additional endorsements, the Citizens Party suffered serious setbacks during 1984. It ran fewer candidates for office: one for the Senate (IL), one for Governor (VT), and two for the U.S. House. Johnson appeared on the ballot in thirteen states under the Citizens banner, two as an Independent, one (AR) as the Citizens Group nominee, and one (PA) as the Consumer nominee. The Citizens Party vote fell by two thirds – to 72,153 although Johnson significantly improved upon Commoner’s totals in PA and in LA.

1986 election cycle and party dissolution

In the 1986 election, the Citizens Party once again offered four candidates: two for Governor (PA and RI), one for the Senate (PA), and one for the U.S. House (MN). Two of these four candidates were actually Consumer Party candidates in PA.

After the disappointing number of votes cast in favor of the Citizens Party nominees, the Party disintegrated. The 1987 Socialist Party National Convention nominated its own Presidential ticket of Willa Kenoyer (a former co-chair of the Citizens Party) and Ron Ehrenreich for 1988, while the Consumer Party in Pennsylvania resumed its separate existence, picking up the remaining pieces of the Citizens Party.

Presidential election summary

The Citizens Party nominated two candidates for President of the United States:

• 1980: Barry Commoner and running-mate LaDonna Harris; running-mate Wretha Hanson in Ohio. The party received 234,294 of 86,515,221 votes cast, or 0.27%.
• 1984: Sonia Johnson and running-mate Richard Walton. The party received 71,947 of 92,641,042 votes cast, or 0.08%.

See also

• U.S. presidential election, 1980
• U.S. presidential election, 1984
• Citizens Party of the United States (2011–Present)

Further reading

• Bullshit: The Media As Power Brokers in Presidential Elections by Jeffrey Gale 213 pages Publisher: Bold Hawk Press (July 1, 1988) ISBN 0-9620243-0-9.

• New York Citizens Party. The Citizens Party salutes Gay Pride Week; vote for Barry Commoner for President and LaDonna Harris for Vice-President in 1980. the Party, New York. 1980.

• James T. Havel, U.S. Presidential Candidates and the Elections (NYC: Mac-Millan Library Reference USA, 1996)

• Citizens’ Party in Earl R. Kruschke, ed., Encyclopedia of Third Parties in the United States (Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO, 1991), p. 45.

• Charles S. Hauss, Citizens Party, in L. Sandy Maisel, ed., Political Parties and Elections in the United States (NYC: Garland Publishing Inc., 1991), p. 147.

• Citizen’s Party (CP), in Edward L. Schapsmeier and Frederick H. Schapsmeier, Political Parties and Civic Action Groups (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1981), p. 96.

References