Politics1 - Guide to the 2004 Prohibition Party Presidential Candidates

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PRESIDENCY 2004:

GENE AMONDSON of Alaska
Concerns of People (Prohibition) Party
Presidential Nominee

GENE AMONDSON'S BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS:

POLITICAL: None.

PROFESSIONAL: Temperance Lecturer (reenacts early-1900s evangelist Billy Sunday's "Sermon Against Alcohol"). Landscape Painter. Minister.

EDUCATION: B.S. (Zoology), Warner-Pacific College. M.Div., Asbury Seminary.

PERSONAL: Born 1943 in Morton, Washington. Divorced. Four children. Church of God.

LEROY PLETTEN of Michigan
Concerns of People (Prohibition) Party
Vice Presidential Nominee

Leroy Pletten -- a historian and anti-alcohol advocate -- first joined the Prohibition Party in 1998. Since then, he's become State Chair in Michigan and the National Secretary of the party. Pletten, 58, was originally from Minnesota. He each his B.A. degree in history from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and later served as a civilian employee of the Army. He lost a race for local school board in 2003 as the party's nominee (6%) -- but notes in party literature that he's "been elected twice to the board of directors of his condominium owner's association."

LINKS:

GeneAmondson.com - Official Site.
Seattle-Tacoma Christian Singles: Gene Amondson - Personal Ad
Prohibition Party - National Site (Dodge Faction).
The Crime Prevention Group- Pletten's Official Site
Prohibition Party 2004 Platform - Official Platform.
Partisan Prohibition Historical Society - Party-Affiliated Educational Site.
Ohio State University: Temperance & Prohibition - University Site

ANALYSIS:

For years -- despite declinig results -- Prohibition Party National Chairman Earl Dodge was repeatedly the party's nominee for President. In fact, Dodge ran on the party's national ticket seven times beginning in 1976. After Dodge captured just 208 votes in the 2000 election -- the party's worst finish in nearly 130 years -- a faction within the party wanted new leadership. They argued that Dodge ran the party like a personal fiefdom and seemed to be using the party to promote his personal business activities (i.e., selling campaign buttons). The anti-Dodge faction -- which grew out of activists within the Partisan Prohibiton Historical Society (linked above) -- called a national meeting and wrested control of the party's national committee away from Dodge in September 2003. The Prohibition National Committee elected Don Webb of Alabama as the new National Chairman and retired Dodge to "Chairman Emeritus." However, that came too late to stop Dodge from calling a Presidential Nominating Convention in August 2003. Dodge's "convention" consisted of eight people -- most of whom were Dodge relatives -- who met in Dodge's living room and nominated Dodge again for President. The party's new leadership later voided that convention as improperly called and demoted Dodge to "provisional nominee" pending a new vote of the Prohibition National Committee. When the vote was held in February 2004, the party nominated anti-alcohol minister Gene Amondson for President. They tried to pacify the Dodge faction by offering the VP spot to Howard Lydick -- who was Dodge's designated 2004 runningmate and also a member of both the old and new Prohibition National Committee -- but Lydick refused to run with anyone except Dodge. Dodge, FYI, refuses to recognize the new leadership and maintains that he still leads the party and is the party's official 2004 Presidential nominee (see below). Now the party has to contend with the rival Amdonson-Pletten ticket and Dodge-Lydick ticket both seeking ballot status as the "official" nominees. Dodge subsequently ignored the party's decision and filed the Dodge-Lydick ticket as the Prohibition Party candidates in Colorado. The Prohibition National Committee originally vowed they would go to court to disqualify Dodge from the Colorado ballot and have him replaced with Amondson. In June 2004, the tiny Concerns of People Party in Colorado offered their Presidential ballot line in the state to Amondson -- thus helping to avoid the court fight that neither Dodge nor the anti-Dodge group within the party could afford. "The [Prohibition Party's national] officers believe that by making the Colorado election a de facto Prohibition Party primary and soundly defeating Dodge, we can keep Dodge from further disrupting the work of the new leadership in revitalizing our party ... Using a different label in Colorado is a strategic coalition with a local group and does not represent any change in our platform or in our goals," explained Webb. Webb also explained that the Prohibiton Party hopes to qualify Amundson for ballots in 1-2 more states.

OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN CONTACT INFORMATION:

Gene Amondson for President
P.O. Box K
Vashon Island, WA, 98070
206-463-6333
E-mail: genegenegene@webtv.net

THE PROHIBITION PARTY LIBRARY:

Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition by Norman Clark (1995). This book details the history of the prohibition movement in the United States -- including the rise and decline of the Prohibition Party. Clark also traces the roots of the cause back at least three centuries -- and shows the significance of the urban-versus-rural split in the 19th Century that gave rise to the political movement. Overall, a very good introduction to the politics of the prohibition movement. List: $15.65. (Paperback.)