Earl Dodge
 | This article is currently being heavily edited because its subject has recently died. Information about their death and related events may change significantly and initial news reports may be unreliable. The most recent updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2007) |
Earl Farwell Dodge Jr. (December 24, 1932 – November 7, 2007) was a long-time temperance movement leader and a politician of the Prohibition Party, from the U.S. state of Colorado.
Dodge was born in Revere, Massachusetts on 24 December 1932.[1], and joined the Prohibition Party at age 19. Dodge was appointed Chairman of the Prohibition Party in 1979 while the party was operating under the name of the National Statesmen Party; the party name was re-instated following the 1980 election. A perennial candidate, he was active in the party until his death.
The Prohibition Party underwent a split before the 2004 election amid concerns of some members over Dodge’s alleged financial relationships with the party and its foundations. [2] One faction selected Dodge as its presidential candidate, who subsequently received 140 votes in the 2004 presidential election. The larger faction selected Gene Amondson, who garnered 1,896 votes. For the 2008 election, the two factions re-nominated the same candidates. [3]
The two groups within the Prohibition Party have continued to fight over the right to use the party name and funds. [4] One faction alleges that Dodge illegally held a private invitation-only nominating convention in his living room and that his nomination as the 2004 candidate by family and others was illegitimate. [5]
Gene Amondson has been identified as chairman of the Prohibition National Committee [6] although the Dodge faction’s website claims to be the official website of the Committee. [7] Even though Dodge is now dead, divisiveness may continue because of the Amondson faction’s contention that the Dodge family controls most of the assets held by the party and its foundations.[8]
In addition to his work with the Prohibition Party, Dodge was active in various other temperance organizations, as well as the Right to Life movement, and in several political memorabilia collecting organizations. In his later years, Dodge began to make a living producing political items.
Campaigns
The following is a list of his candidacies:
- 1966 - United States Senate from Kansas - 9,364 votes [9]
- 1968 - Presidential Elector from Michigan - 60 votes as write-in on E. Harold Munn slate [10]
- 1974 - Governor of Colorado - 6,419 votes [11]
- 1976 - Vice President of the United States - 15,934 votes [12]
- 1978 - Governor of Colorado - 2,198 votes [13]
- 1980 - Vice President of the United States - 7,212 votes [14]
- 1982 - Governor of Colorado - 3,496 votes [15]
- 1984 - President of the United States - 4,242 votes [16]
- 1986 - Governor of Colorado - 8,183 votes [17]
- 1988 - President of the United States - 8,002 votes [18]
- 1990 - United States Senate from Colorado - 11,801 votes [19]
- 1992 - President of the United States - 935 votes [20]
- 1994 - Governor of Colorado - 7,722 votes [21]
- 1996 - President of the United States - 1,298 votes [22]
- 2000 - President of the United States - Candidate in the Independent American Primary - 480 votes [23]
- 2000 - President of the United States - 208 votes [24]
- 2004 - President of the United States - 140 votes [25]
- Dodge was re-nominated in 2007 by his faction for a seventh run for President [26]. However, he died of a heart attack nearly a year before the election, at the Denver International Airport while waiting to board a flight. [27][28]