Extremely Unofficial Darcy G. Richardson Presidential Campaign Page

First, I should emphasize that I am not endorsing Darcy G. Richardson for President. I have endorsed Barack H. Obama. But, I thought Richardson's candidacy deserves at least one web page of its own. He was the first person to officially run against Obama for the Democratic nomination— halfway through New Hampshire's filing period. In spite of his name, he is a he. He is not to be confused with President Darcy Richardson, who is a woman and who is the President of Anthem College Online. He is also not to be confused with d'Arcy or with Bill Richardson.

A few weeks before Richardson filed, another Presidential candidate named him as a key campaign staffer. Stewart Alexander of the Socialist Party, USA put out a press release saying that Richardson was going to be his national policy director. (By the way, in spite of what the Republicans keep insinuating, the Socialist Party is a totally different party with a totally different platform from the Democratic Party.) This doesn't make it illegal under New Hampshire law for Richardson to enter the Presidential Primary as a Democrat, as long as he is:

a registered member of the Democratic Party (RSA 655:47)
a real candidate rather than a "straw candidate" (RSA 655:31)
(only an opposing Democratic candidate could bring a complaint under RSA 655:31)

President Obama has the biggest, most ambitious campaign in history going, with the possible exception of his 2008 run. Richardson's campaign is has been minimal. He has, as far as I know, made no trips to New Hampshire, although I have reason to believe he thought about showing up for the November 30 New Hampshire House session day. He didn't come up to Concord to file: he filed by mail.

DarcyRichardson.com defaults to a parking page, which is not owned by him personally or his campaign committee. However, he did manage to buy the domain name Darcy2012.com and he has belatedly put up a web site there. He does have a spiffy campaign logo:

He edits the excellent Darcy Richardson's Battleground Blog, but there is no self-promotional content there. Most of its content is reprints of various progressive newspaper columnists. On October 23, the Providence Journal's Froma Harrop put out a column entitled "Democrats Also Need a Presidential Primary in 2012" and it ran on Richardson's blog. Ironically, his name was not mentioned at all, not even in a sidebar. Richardson also co-edits a blog called "Uncovered Politics" which has covered Fred Karger's candidacy but did not cover Richardson's own until October 25, 2011. On that date he and his partner Austin Cassidy both wrote about the campaign:

Here is Richardson's contact information from the New Hampshire Election Division records:

Darcy G. Richardson, Jacksonville, FL
(7810 Fox Tail Lane, Jacksonville, FL 32219)--- filed by mail
darcyrichardson@comcast.net

He has run for office at least three times previously. He ran for Lieutenant Candidate of Florida in 2010, alongside independent Gubernatorial candidate Farid Khavari. Khavari/Richardson got 0.14% of the vote. Richardson did a little better back in 1988 as the Consumer Party candidate for what was then John Heinz's Senate seat in Pennsylvania: he got 0.25% of the vote. In 1980, he ran for Pennsylvania Auditor General.

He is best known for a series of books called "Others" which is a multivolume history of Third Party Presidential candidacies. The latest volume, Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, is #4 of a projected six or maybe seven volumes. You can buy the first four books from Amazon.com:

He also wrote a book about the 1968 Presidential campaign:

A Nation Divided: The 1968 Presidential Campaign

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