Anderson, John B. (1922-)

JOHN BAYARD ANDERSON was a 10-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois and was a third-party candidate for president in 1980 after dropping out of the Republican primaries. He was born in Rockford, Illinois. He entered the University of Illinois in 1939, receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1942. In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as a staff sergeant in an artillery unit until the end of World War II. He received his law degree (J.D.) from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1946, and entered private practice in Rockford. He then entered Harvard University's Law School, receiving a LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree in 1949.

From 1952 to 1955, he worked on the staff of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. In 1956, he was elected the state's attorney for Winnebago County in Illinois, becoming the county's criminal prosecutor. In 1960, Anderson ran for the House of Representatives from Illinois' heavily Republican 16th Congressional District, winning the first of 10 terms. A liberal Republican, he served on the Rules Committee and became Chairman of the House Republican Conference in 1969. During the Watergate scandal, Anderson was the first Republican House member to call for President Richard M. Nixon's resignation.

Anderson sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980. After finishing behind Ronald Reagan and George H.W Bush in a number of early primaries, Anderson dropped out of the Republican contest to seek the presidency as an independent candidate. Anderson made this decision based on the premise that he had done well among independent and liberal Republican (so-called Rockefeller Republicans) voters in some of the early states that allowed independents to vote in Republican primaries. Anderson believed that Reagan's social conservatism and the Democratic Party's excessive spending did not represent American values. He hired David Garth, a New York-based political consultant, to manage his campaign. Shortly after entering the race as an independent, Anderson was favored by about 25 percent of the respondents in pre-election polls. However, as Mark Bisnow wrote, “Instead of rising to something on the order of 30 percent, he fell. Steadily, about one percentage point every week and a half, down to 22 percent, then 20 percent, then 18 percent, and progressively worse.”

Among Anderson's supporters were the writer Gore Vidal and the cartoonist, Garry Trudeau, who wrote a number of his popular “Doonesbury” comic strips where Anderson's campaign was favorably depicted. Campaigning as a “moderate,” Anderson hoped that his campaign would gain momentum when disaffected Democrats, alienated from the party by the fractious primary contest between President Jimmy Carter and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, deserted the ticket following Carter's re-nomination. Anderson hoped to attract a prominent public figure (it was even suggested that CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite might be asked to join the ticket) or Democrat to the National Unity Campaign. The expected defections did not occur, and the failure of Anderson's strategy was evident when, on August 25, 1980, he selected Patrick Lucey, who had been governor of Wisconsin for 6 years and Carter's first ambassador to Mexico, as his running mate.

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