Charles E. Collins

Charles Edwin Collins was an independent candidate for President of the United States in the 1996 presidential election and sought unsuccessfully to run again in 2000.

Bay County, Florida book censorship

In 1986, Collins, who was a former Bay County, Florida school board official, challenged the use of I Am the Cheese and other books at the Mowat Junior High School his granddaughter attended. He wrote letters to the parents of all the students, and placed an advertisement in the Panama City News-Herald. At a school board meeting Collins submitted what he claimed was about 9,000 signatures petitioning the use of the book, though a television reporter later found the number to be 3,549.^[1]

The case's first national coverage came from The Washington Post, which in the cover story of the Sunday magazine section reported on the case and the death threats that had been received by the teachers and parents defending the book and by the television reporter, Hill. Hill's apartment was attacked by arson and a bomb threat placed on her car required the summoning of a police bomb squad, though the device proved to be a fake one. Commenting on the attacks, Collins dismissed the dummy bomb as a "joke" and the fire as "a good way to get your apartment painted by the landlord."^[2]

1996 Presidential election

Mother Jones, a political magazine, called Collins the "consummate internet candidate," in their opinion appealing to an online population of "isolationists, alarmists, and conspiracy theorists."^[3] His campaign advocated abolishing the Federal Reserve and the Internal Revenue Service and other pledges noted to be similar to that of the U.S. Taxpayers Party ticket of Howard Phillips and Herbert Titus.^[4]

He initially sought the Republican Party nomination, qualifying for and receiving some votes in the Republican presidential primaries. He received a mere forty-two votes in the New Hampshire primary and still fell far behind the other candidates in other states where he did better; e.g. 628 votes in Texas^[5] and 451 in Oklahoma^[6] Collins withdrew from the Colorado primary after the ballots were printed.^[7] The Republican National Committee barred him from debates.

Collins also sought, and failed to receive, the nomination of the United States Taxpayers Party. Collins decided to run as an independent, receiving the endorsement of a group called C.U.R.E. led by the former Republican governor of Arizona Evan Mecham. C.U.R.E. endorsed Collins over other potential choices including former California State Assemblyman and State Senator Don Rogers, who would later be the Presidential candidate of the American Party in the 2000 presidential election and John Yiamouyiannas, formerly a candidate of Take Back America who had won 2,199 votes in the 1992 presidential election.^[8]

On August 21, 1996 Collins attempted to have the United States Supreme Court declare all state ballot access laws to be unconstitutional.^[9] They declined his motion.^[10]

Continuing to run as an independent candidate, Collins chose as his Vice Presidential running mate Rosemary Giumarra of Porterville, California.^[11] Collins and Giumarra won 8,952 votes in the election.

2000 Presidential election

In 2000, Collins attempted to win the nomination of the Reform Party. He fell far behind the frontrunner Pat Buchanan in the party's important Missouri primary with 295 votes versus 2,214, though he beat John Hagelin. In California, Collins fell in last place with 1,681 votes.^[12] He thereafter attempted to win the party's nomination for Vice President. The convention split into two factions: Buchanan and Hagelin. In the Buchanan convention, Collins won 23 votes versus the winner of the nomination Ezola B. Foster.^[13]

Notes

1. ^ Green 249-252.
2. ^ DelFattore 105.
3. ^ "Charles Collins."
4. ^ Koli 1996.
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ [2]
7. ^ "1996 Boulder County" 1999.
8. ^ [3]
9. ^ Winger 1996.
10. ^ Collins v. Alabama, 519 U.S. 803 (1996).
11. ^ [4]
12. ^ [5]
13. ^ Winger 2000.

References

http://www.politics1.com/reform.htm

"1996 Boulder County Election Results" Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's Office archived from the original on 5 May 1999 http://web.archive.org/web/19990505140055/http://co.boulder.co.us/clerk/elect/prim1996.htm 

Abrahamson, John (4 August 1996). "Commentary: An alternative platform that bears looking into". The Washington Times: p. B5. 

Alexander, Kathey (16 August 1996). "Taxpayers Party fails to attract GOP dissidents". Atlanta Journal and Constitution: p. 20A. 

Briggs, Bill (15 December 1997). "Right-wing Airwaves in Americana Johnstown broadcaster preaches Patriot revolution". The Denver Post: p. F1. 

Carlson, Peter (4 January 1987). "A Chilling Case of Censorship". Washington Post Magazine: p. W10-17, 40–41. 

"Charles Collins" Mother Jones archived from the original on 22 August 2004 http://web.archive.org/web/20040822090004/http://motherjones.com/news/special_reports/election_96/coll.html. Retrieved 4 February 2011 

DelFattore, Joan (1992). "Theme and Variations". What Johnny Shouldn't Read: Textbook Censorship in America. Yale University. 

Green, Jonathon; Nicholas J. Karolides (2005). "I Am the Cheese (1977)". In Nicholas J. Karolides. Encyclopedia of Censorship. Facts on File. pp. 249–252. ISBN 0-8160-4464-3. 

Hendricks, Mike (20 February 1996). "'Other' contenders find their own followers". Kansas City Star: p. A2. 

Hendricks, Mike (21 February 1996). "Collins wins convention nomination". Kansas City Star: p. A2. 

"Identity crisis: name of independent candidate remains on Republican ballot". Atlanta Journal and Constitution: p. 16A. 29 February 1996. 

Koli, Anuradha (1 November 1996). "Independent Candidates Offer Alternative to Major Party Nominees". Colgate Maroon-News. Archived from the original on 9 October 1999. http://web.archive.org/web/19991009134756/http://kendrick.colgate.edu/maroon/ArchivesF96/nov0196/koli.html. 

Manual for the General Court Concord, NH: New Hampshire Department of State 1997 

Linzer, Lori; David Rosenberg (1997). Vigilante Justice!: Militias and "Common Law Courts" Wage War Against the Government. NY: Anti-Defamation League. ISBN 978-9998078031. 

Michael, George (2008). Willis Carto and the American Far Right. University Press of Florida. pp. 173. ISBN 9780813031989.  citing "Reform Party Hopeful Charles Collins Discusses Restoring the Rights of the People". The Spotlight: pp. 12–13. 14 February 2000. .

"Prominent 'Patriots'". False Patriots: The Threat of Antigovernment Extremists. Southern Poverty Law Center. 1996. pp. 49. ISBN 9780788131325. : Serrano, Richard A. (22 February 1996). "Militias See Buchanan as Their Kind of Candidate". The Washington Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-22/news/mn-38761_1_militia-movement/3. Retrieved 4 February 2011. 

Smydo, Joe (21 August 1999). "Reform candidate vows not to undermine morality". Observer-Reporter (Washington, PA: Observer Publishing Company): p. B1. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EmleAAAAIBAJ&sjid=L2ENAAAAIBAJ&pg=1810,959081. Retrieved 4 February 2011. 

Vejnoska, Jill (21 December 1995). "Georgian to fight omission from presidential ballot". Atlanta Journal and Constitution: p. 4D. 

"Who is he - or was he? Obscure GOP candidate for president quits party". Atlanta Journal and Constitution. 26 January 1996. 

Winger, Richard (9 September 1996). "Collins Thinks Big". Ballot Access News 12 (2). http://www.ballot-access.org/1996/0909.html#13. Retrieved 5 February 2011. 

Winger, Richard (1 September 2000). "Reform Conventions: Vote for President, Vice-President". Ballot Access News 16 (6). http://www.ballot-access.org/2000/0901.html#14. Retrieved 4 February 2011. 

Further reading

• "Charles E. Collins for President," The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Brown University Library. OCLC 46319142.

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