John Anderson and the Election of 1980
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 09:16AM For my "Presidential Electoral Politics" class, I was tasked with picking a presidential candidate from any election in the 20th Century to do an analysis on - primarily judging whether the candidates's success or failure was a function of the electoral enviornment or the campaign strategy.
Keenly interested in third party politics, I chose to look at John Anderson in 1980. Like many others, I had always assumed that his finish with 7% of the vote indicated that he never really had a shot. Not so. To the contrary, Anderson had a real opportunity to present himself as a viable alternative to President Carter, but his campaign succumbed to the idea that any vote for Anderson would be "wasted."
It's exciting to think how a candidacy such as his could be much more viable today: no worries about ballot access (thanks to the efforts of Americans Elect), greater ability to get a message out aside from the traditional media, greater public dissatisfaction with Washington and both parties, the ability to raise money more online, the ability to more quickly build a grassroots network of support, etc.
Paper after the jump.
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