William Harvey

[Meeker]

Curious about this fellow. Ran for President in 1932 on his self-founded Liberty Party ticket (which seems to be rooted in some of his wacky bimetallism ideas).

0.13% nationwide.

4.93% in Washington. (57% of all votes nationwide)
2.52% in Idaho.

20.96% in Thurston County, Washington.
20.46% in Clallam County, Washington.
17.30% in Mason County, Washington.
14.99% in Cowlitz County, Washington.
14.78% in Lewis County, Washington.

10.52% in Gem County, Idaho.
7.74% in Canyon County, Idaho.
6.91% in Kootenai County, Idaho.
5.94% in Payette County, Idaho.

The distribution of votes was relatively uniform in Idaho (with the notable exceptions mentioned above), but in Washington he pulled 15-20% in many Olympic Peninsula and Southwestern counties while getting low single digits virtually everywhere else.

The man has no connection to Washington State (or Idaho) as best I can tell.

So what gives?

[Meeker]

Bump?

[Marokai Backbeat]

Best I can figure it was just a matter of Populism. Washington, Idaho, and the rest of the west was fairly receptive to Populist ideals and generally anyone who ran on those ideas got a decent portion of the state-wide vote.

Why he got only a reasonable size of the vote in those two states is confusing, but Washington was a Populist state. (Once or twice have Populists and Populist Democrats Governors of the state.)

(It looks like he got 1.16% of the vote in South Dakota and .7% in North Dakota and Montana. Small numbers, but it does seem like the Populism had alot to do with it. His support in Washington could just be to more urban areas in Washington state than other western/midwestern states or just different economic conditions.)

I'm not sure if that helped or if I'm just ranting. But you did give me an idea for a Washington Senator in my timeline.

[RBH]

Coin Harvey was big into free silver.

Perhaps he got a lot of votes in pro-silver/silver mining areas

[Meeker]

The coinage debate and even populism were pretty much dead as topics by 1932 though. It also doesn't really explain the lack of consistency in his results across the region (or state).

I think I'll contact some sort of history professor at one of the local universities and see if they know anything more.

[RBH]

An NYT article from 1932 mentions a few Harvey stances

1) Government ownership of banks and utilities
2) A monetary system without a metallic standard

Wonder how much of an overlap there is between Christensen and Harvey in Washington

[Meeker]

Finally figured this out. The Liberty Party's gubernatorial candidate was a Methodist minister from Kelso named L.C. Hicks. He actively campaigned in Southwest Washington and did pretty well for a third-party candidate (6.8% statewide). His strength carried upwards to the Presidential ticket, even though Harvey made no effort to campaign in the state.

http://olyblog.net/ungovernor-1932-luvern-clyde-hicks

[Dr. Cynic]

Old Coin Harvey was once a big name in Democratic Party politics. He managed much of the Bryan campaign in 1896 and his name was probably still pretty well thought of in those days. Of course by that time, Harvey had become a serious eccentric.