Colin McEnroe Show: Get To Know Your Fringe Candidates

The landscape of American history is speckled with obscure and not so obscure political parties.

In 1948, the Vegetarian Party nominated John Maxwell for president, notwithstanding the fact that he was English-born and ineligible to serve. We had the Toleration Party in the 19th century and the Prohibition Party in the 20th. We had the Nullifier Party, the Readjuster Party, the Greenback Party and the almost-generically-named Opposition Party.

Minor parties can become major. In 1990, Lowell P. Weicker formed A Connecticut Party and rode that horse to the governorship with his running mate Eunice Groark. Two years later, the party fielded 16 of it own candidates for office and cross-endorsed many others. Today, that party has vanished, but there are plenty of people taking unconventional roads to public office, and you're about to meet four of them on our show today.

Later in the show, we talk with writer Christopher Buckley. Buckley will speak at the Connecticut Forum Saturday, Oct. 2.

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