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The Socialist Party USA is meeting this weekend at the Los Angeles International Airport Holiday Inn. Delegates from around the country will be gathering to review the party’s platform and choose candidates for President and Vice-President for the 2012 election.
The two leading contenders for the party’s Presidential nomination appear to be Stewart Alexander of California and Jerry Levy of Vermont.
Alexander was the Socialist Party’s 2008 Vice-Presidential nominee. He also served as the Peace and Freedom Party’s candidate for Lt. Governor of California in 2006 (polling 0.5%) and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party’s nomination for Governor in 2010.
Here is a video interview from Alexander’s 2006 campaign for Lt. Governor on a local marijuana rights public affairs program…
According to Levy’s Facebook profile, he is a “professor and actor, and has been a revolutionary socialist for over fifty years.”
Levy has made numerous bids for public office in Vermont as a candidate of the Liberty Union Party, that state’s affiliate of the SP-USA. He is a professor at Marlboro College and frequently performs in a one man show, playing the role of Karl Marx.
Levy claims, among many others, Norman Thomas as an inspirational figure. He has followed in Thomas’ footsteps of repeated campaigns for the same office. Between 1986 and 2000, Levy ran for U.S. Senate six times. He peaked in 1992 when he finished in third place with nearly 2% of the vote, though he was fortunate to face only one other minor party candidate in that election — and that person was an active Lyndon LaRouche follower.
Levy’s U.S. Senate showings…
1986 – 0.81%
1988 – 1.04%
1992 – 1.79%
1994 – 0.65%
1998 – 0.58%
2000 – 0.51%
Levy is upfront in saying that he wishes there was a better candidate out there running, but that he feels since no one acceptable to him has stepped forward, he will travel to California and enter his name for consideration. In the following video, made specifically to promote his candidacy for President, Levy is interviewed for nearly an hour by the Socialist Party’s 2004 Vice-Presidential candidate Mary Alice Herbert.
“Although I am in my early 70’s,” Levy tells Herbert when asked about his plans for waging an active campaign, “I am computer illiterate, and I have all sorts of other limitations, I would give it my best.”
As to whether or not Levy would be interested in sharing the ticket with Alexander, he is clear in his opposition to the idea of having two male candidates.
“I think the vice-presidential candidate should be a woman,” Levy notes. “We are a feminist party.”
View the full interview here…
Here in Califonia, third parties are being destroyed by Proposition 14 which is in full effect for the 2012 elections. Prop 14, the creation of the discredited former Republican Governer Arnold Schwarznegger and his Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldanado will virtually eliminate all third party candidates for any office other than President. 14 of course has brought in a Top Two system for California similar to Washington state’s which only permits the top two candidates from the primary election to advance to the November General Election runoff. Thus there will be no partisan ticketS to bolster third party presidential candidates in the November runoffs.
Stewart Alexander has not raised a finger or spent a red cent to oppose this destructive Proposition. His ego has had him making bold unrealistic pronouncements about his Presidential bid and his fantasy that he will emerge as some sort of fusion candidate among some smaller third parties spread out across the United States. Ain’t going to happen, Mr. Alexander. You couldn’t even get the handful of signatures required to run for your Peace and Freedom Party county central committee in 2010 and yet you expect as the puppet of California’s craven maven of the Socialist Party, Maggie Feigin, that you will use her financial resources to be the nominee of the S.P. and Peace and Freedom here in the Golden State. AIN’T GOING TO HAPPEN !