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F ulani
I wo weeks ago, Elizabeth
T
Dole announced she was
a candidate for the Re­
publican nomination for Presi­
dent. The New York Times de­
scribed her as America’s “first
serious female presidential can­
didate.” And certainly, if serious­
ness is measured by having a vi­
able shot at the White House, she
may well be.
In 1988, I had the distinction
of being the first woman in U.S.
history to run for President and
appear on the general election
ballot in all 50 states and the Dis­
trict of Columbia. I was also the
first African American to do so.
Of course, it goes without saying
that Elizabeth Dole is closer to
winning the White House today
- not yet on the ballot in a single
state - than I was when I was on
the ballot in all 50 states. I assure
you that when I ran, there were
no feature pieces on 60 Minutes
about what a “feminized” White
House would be like. Nor, for
that matter, were there any ar­
ticles about a potential
“Africanization” of the White
House. Everyone pretty much
knew that I wasn’t a “serious fe-
male presidential candidate” in
the way Elizabeth Dole is. Eliza
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beth Dole is, after all, a Republi­
can and will run for the White
House - if she does - as a Re­
publican with the full weight of
the Republican Party behind her.
This means, of course, access
to significant am ounts of
money, significant amounts of
press coverage, automatic access
to the presidential debates not
to mention the imprimatur of le­
gitimacy that comes with being
a Republican or a Democrat in
U.S. politics.
I, of course, was neither a
Democrat or Republican. And
though I did succeed in achiev­
ing access to the ballot in all 50
states and qualified for federal
primary matching funds - be­
coming the second independent
and first Black woman to do so
- in fact, those achievements
merely magnified the extent to
which presidential politics and
the political arena in general is
a bipartisan and not a nonparti­
san affair, no matter what barri­
ers one breaks or “firsts” one
achieves.
Indeed, this fact of political
life in America, was the reason I
ran for President. In other words,
I was not a “serious” candidate
for the presidency in the sense
that I had any shot at the White
1 All Too Human (Hard
KS
6 The Merck Manual
Centennial Edition
A Political Education
by Robert Berkow (ed.),
by George
Mark H. Beers (ed.)
second presidential run The
Making of a Fringe Candidate.
But as traditional political
alignments and alliances melt
away, and new alliances start to
form, the “fringe” starts to oc­
cupy a more influential political
position. Millions of Americans
- half the electorate, actually -
are on the fringes of American
politics. They don’t vote and
they view the political process as
having little or nothing to do
with them. They’re right. And
th at’s exactly what has to be
changed.Reforming our political
process to make it genuinely
democratic, inclusionary and
easy-to-use is the key. And those
reforms could get us to the point
where we not only could elect a
woman or an African American
to the White House, more impor
tantly, we could elect an indepen­
dent who brings a new way of do­
ing politics, an up-from the-bot-
tom way of doing politics, to the
highest office in the land.
Lenora B. Fulani twice ran for
President of the U.S. as an inde­
pendent, making history in 1988
when she becam e the first
woman and African American to
get on the ballot in all fifty states.
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House. But I was a serious can­ was in anticipation of it.
If my 1988 presidential run
didate for the presidency insofar
detected
a bare murmur of pub­
as helping to expose and break­
lic
discontent
with politics-as-
ing open the barriers to a more
usual
-
it
was,
nonetheless, a
inclusionary and up-from-the-
bottom multi party democracy is clear statement about the myths
a serious concern. In my opinion, of American democracy. My
this concern is ultimately more Democratic and Republican op­
serious than the question of who ponents had to gather about
wins the White House in any 40,000 signatures nationally on
petitions to access the ballot. I
given election cycle.
I polled nearly a quarter of a had to gather 1.2 million signa­
million votes in 1988, or about tures, the result of a patchwork
.25%, not exactly numbers that of state laws all promulgated by
send the R epublicans and bipartisan consent, to make ac­
Democrats running for cover. It cess to the ballot virtually im­
would take a wealthy, white male possible for independents. The
independent and 20% of the vote barriers weren’t just structural,
to do that, an event of tremen­ they were altitudinal. Virtually
dous, and, in my opinion, deeply every time the press mentioned
misunderstood political magni­ me, which wasn’t often, my
tude which occurred just four name was preceded by the words
years later. In some respects, as “fringe candidate.” It was so fre­
I reflect back on my 1988 presi­ quent that I started to use it my­
dential run and all that has hap­ self, sometimes to illustrate the
pened since, I see the years that gap between what I had
followed it as a kind of simmer­ achieved and how I was per­
ing cauldron of political revolt ceived. I would sometimes say,
that exploded in 1992 on several “Hi! I’m Lenora Fulani, the
fronts - not the least of which fringe candidate who qualified
was Ross Perot’s independent for two million dollars in match­
campaign. I do not mean to sug­ ing funds from the United States
gest that my campaign was the Treasury.” I even named my au­
tobiographical account of my
cause
cover)
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by Tom Brokaw
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8 The Testament
by John Grisham
9 What's Heaven?
With Gary Null
by Maria Shriver, Sandra
by Gary Null
Speidel (illus.)
lOBusiness @ the Speed of
Creating a Life of
Thought
Material and Spiritual
Using a Digital Nervous
Abundance
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by Suze Orman
by Bill Gates
N e w Age And
L ig h t World B e a t
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Mt. Hood Community College - Gresham
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