POLITICAL
PARTIES (Z)
Two
Major Parties in the U.S.
The
Democratic Party (D)
originated with the Anti-Federalists or Democratic-Republicans of Thomas
Jefferson.Since Franklin D. Roosevelt and
the New Deal,
the majority of African-Americans support the Democratic Party.It
is currently the majority party of registered voters.
Republican
Party (R) was
founded shortly before the Civil War.It
is also known as the G.O.P.
or Grand Old Party.The first Republican
president was Abraham Lincoln.It
has been the majority party in the number of seats in Congress since 1994.
Six
Minor Parties in California
Reform
Party (Rfm) was
founded by billionaire Ross Perot,
the independent candidate for president in 1992. His
call for deficit reduction and other reforms led to the founding of the
Reform Party which nominated him for president in 1996. It
nominated Pat Buchanan
for president in 2000.
Green
Party (G) was
founded as a social justice movement in 1973.The
party nominated consumer advocate Ralph Nader
for president in the 1996 and 2000 elections.
American
Independent Party (AIP) was
founded for the 1968 election by its first presidential nominee, George Wallace.Wallace
and the party advocated the end of the Vietnam War and opposed abortion.
Libertarian
Party (L) was
founded for the 1972 election to advocate individual freedom and liberties
through the elimination of most laws, government powers, taxes, and tariffs.
Natural
Law Party (NL) was
founded for the 1992 election to apply the principles of meditation techniques
to solve social problems.
Peace
and Freedom Party (PF)
was founded for the 1968 election by people active in the farmworker, civil
rights and anti-Vietnam
war movements.
*Note:A
candidate who runs as an ‘independent’ is not affiliated with any particular
party, but is independent in his
platform
views from other political parties.
Example1: In
the Los Angeles mayoral race, Joel Wachs
is running as an independent candidate.He
is not affiliated with any other political party.He
is the only ‘independent’ candidate running for the mayor of Los Angeles.
Example
2: In the 1992 presidential
election, Texas businessman Ross Perot ran unsuccessfully as an independent
candidate. He was
The
Los Angeles Mayoral Race
The
four Democratic candidates for mayor are James K. Hahn,
Antonio Villaraigosa,
Kathleen Connell,
and Xavier Beccerra.
The
only Republican candidate is Steve Soboroff,
and the independent candidate is Joel Wachs.In
this primary election, each