John B. Anderson, a ten-term Republican Representative from Illinois, ran for president as a moderate independent in 1980. Campaigning for the National Unity Party, Anderson had broad appeal, and exploited public dissatisfaction with the two major parties and their candidates, incumbent president Jimmy Carter and Republican challenger Ronald Reagan.
Anderson's success in the 1980 campaign and his profound affect on American politics are more evident today, 20 years after the fact, than they were on election day. His centrist platform was a sign of American politics' future, his battles access to presidential debates set precedent and foreshadowed the difficulties that many third party candidates would face in elections to come, and many of his policies were either successfully adopted or ignored at the president's peril.
Anderson won repeated congressional elections as a Republican, and, in 1980, he campaigned against Ronald Reagan and others for the Republican presidential nomination. In the primaries, Anderson campaigned as a centrist against Reagan's conservativism, which emphasized decentralized government, a hands-off economic policy, and a return to "traditional" cultural values. Reagan trounced Anderson, who withdrew from the race.
But he was back before too long, this time campaigning as a National Unity candidate. Anderson felt that neither party, nor its candidates, represented American ideals: the Republicans were too socially conservative and intolerant, he said, and the Democrats' tax-and-spend, social welfare agenda seemed to ignore economic realities. The ongoing oil crisis, which had manifested itself in terms of long gas lines and rampant inflation, was a serious problem, and Carter's only response was to blame the public's "crisis of confidence." And Anderson feared that Reagan's hawkish defense attitudes and social conservatism were bad for America.
In that context, Anderson carefully crafted a platform which emphasized his centrist ideology and straight-forward, honest demeanor. He consistently reinforced his image as the "man in the middle," with liberal social and foreign policies and conservative economics.
Anderson's honesty and realism were perhaps his downfall. For example, his advocacy of a fifty cents per gallon hike in the gas tax, which would simultaneously have reduced the demand for gas and shored up the quickly-dwindling Social Security fund, was met with harsh criticism from both candidates. Anderson's opposition to defense expenditures like the M-X missile and the B1 bomber, and his opposition to reducing personal income tax levels, were ammunition for Reagan. His business tax cuts drew Carter's wrath.
To a large degree, though, his proposals were prophetic. After winning the election, Reagan adopted Anderson's business tax cuts and incentives, which arguably rejuvenated the economy. All candidates in 2000 echo Anderson's concern about the shrinking Social Security fund. Reagan's pursuit of complicated defense programs, particularly the Strategic Defense Initiative, the M-X missile, and the B1 bomber, was a primary cause of the deficits of the 1980's, and the multi-trillion dollar public debt that burdens America and politicians today.
During the summer of 1980, Anderson's approval ratings were above 20 percent in several national polls. On August 25, he named ex-Wisconsin governor Patrick Lucey as his running-mate. Lucey, a two-term Democrat, was disgusted with Carter's politics and his renomination, and abandoned the Democrats in search of fiscal discipline. In 1972, Lucey was on the Democrats' short list for Vice President. In 1977, Carter appointed him ambassador to Mexico, a post he held for two years. Lucey's inclusion on Anderson's ticket increased the campaign's viability, because it drew more support from Carter's Democratic base.
In September, the League of Women Voters set-up a preliminary three-way presidential debate between Carter, Reagan, and Anderson. Carter, however, refused to participate in a debate with Anderson, because he deemed Anderson a "creation of the media," and so Reagan and Anderson debated alone (see above photos) once in September. But Anderson's poll numbers dropped, and the LWV excluded him from further debates, which were closer to the November election.
Anderson's exclusion from the debates drew harsh criticism from many loyal Republicans, Democrats, and independents, as well as the media. During the 1976 campaign, Eugene McCarthy and three other independent candidates tried publicly, but unsuccessfully, to convince the LWV, the FEC, and finally the courts to allow them to debate, arguing that their exclusion meant their downfall. Anderson, too, put up a limited fight, but to no avail. Many attribute his mediocre showing in the election to his absence in the two late October debates.
The debate issue took on additional importance, because Anderson was the first credible third party candidate in an election with televised presidential debates. (Presidential debates were not held consistently until 1976.) Anderson's rejection set precedent. Only one third party candidate, Ross Perot in 1992, has participated in presidential debates since.
On election day, Anderson received nearly six million votes. They were distributed fairly evenly among numerous states, however, so he won no electoral votes; as a result, his candidacy is typically seen as a failure. But Reagan's reelection in 1984, Perot's success in 1992, and Clinton's reelection in 1996, and several candidates' tactics in the unfolding 2000 race can largely be traced to the centrist strategy that Anderson pioneered.
Anderson has remained active since his 1980 defeat, working on voting issues at the Center for Voting and Democracy. He is allegedly considering a run for the Reform Party's hotly-contested 2000 nomination.