1996 Candidates

WARNING: We don't update candidates' pages after an election is over. So these pages are frozen at November 1996 and that's not going to change, unless they run again. OK, we threw in some Lewinsky stuff when that erupted, so that part is frozen at 1998.

Bill Clinton: Where do we begin? With Monica Lewinsky, of course. But there's other stuff besides adultery: admitted pot smoking, draft dodging, shady failed Whitewater development. His wife Hillary has the more significant scandal: the miracle $100,000 commodities profit. Bill's character: The ultimate baby boomer, just wanna go along with the crowd guy. Wilder accusations - involvement in murder of Vincent Foster, cocaine use, supporting CIA drug/money laundering operation at Mena, Arkansas?CLICK HERE for details.

Bob Dole: Money Laundering & Illegal Campaign Contributions, Campaign Sleaze: Fraudulent Attack "Polls", numerous political favors for big money campaign contributors, sweetheart deal on his exclusive luxury condo, huge payments to his wife by lobbyists ($875,000 for "speeches"), close ally of sleazemeister Senator Alfonse D'Amato. His character. Quotes.CLICK HERE for details.

Phil Gramm: Savings & Loan scandal payoffs, laundered illegal campaign contributions to Bob Packwood, "family values" hypocrite divorced his first wife and funded an "R" rated movie, pro-military draft dodger, helped drug dealer get out of jail, petty abuses of power (illegal hunting of baited ponds, getting a staffer out of the army) numerous political favors for his wealthy contributors. His character. Quotes. CLICK HERE for details.

Arlen Specter: Specter suspended his race, not so much because of his skeletons, but because there isn't room in Republican primaries for a pro-choice candidate. Ask the right wing activists who attacked Colin Powell before he withdrew.

Morry Taylor: Blowhard vanity candidate, left a superfund toxic waste site in his old home town, which taxpayers are cleaning up. Ridiculed a school girl for stuttering in front of a large crowd. A history of failures that he blames on others. Quotes.CLICK HERE for details.

Richard Lugar: Actually, he seems to be a pretty upstanding guy: more conservative than he lets on, but open minded and not dogmatic. He actually served in the military (Navy) AND is happily married to his first wife. Some question his involvement in the consolidation of Indianapolis with the surrounding county. Quotes.CLICK HERE for details.

Libertarians
Harry Browne -- Rick Tompkins -- Irwin Schiff

Newt Gingrich: Newt quit Congress, but he remains stubbornly convinced that he should run for president. If he does, he'll face plenty of allegations:

Adultery and public sex, blatant hypocrisy on Clinton's affairs, admitted pot smoker, divisive demagogue who loves to vilify his opponents, bounced 22 checks on the House bank, pro-military draft dodger, pressured his first wife to sign divorce papers while she was in hospital with cancer, under investigation for numerous ethics violations, got lucrative book contract from rich businessman Rupert Murdoch -- and another one years earlier, used taxpayer subsidies to fund his partisan campaign course, refuses to reveal who funded his GOPAC committee. His character. Quotes. Wilder accusations: Sexual misconduct with a convicted murderer? CLICK HERE for details.

Bob Dornan:"B-1" Bob Dornan is not the crazy far-righter that every one says he is. Well, we can't say that. He's not JUST a crazy far-right winger; he's an Emmy award-winning, surfing spy who's flown dozens of jet fighters and bounced House bank checks for the Virgin Mary. His wife also claimed he beat her the last two times she left him.CLICK HERE for details.

Ross Perot [Reform Party]: Paranoid hypocrite, got rich off of government funding, manipulates his genuinely grass roots supporters, conspiracy theory fan, and "crazy": obsessive, delusional, and never wrong (in his own mind.)

Pete Wilson: Perhaps the most two-faced politician in America, and that's saying something.

Colin Powell: Involved in coverup of the My Lai Massacre. More bureaucrat than soldier. Let Saddam survive at end of Desert Storm. Rejected ordering more helicopters in Somalia, with disastrous results.

The affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, one of his slaves, has recently been supported by DNA evidence. While the DNA data leaves open the possibility that close relatives of Jefferson fathered Hemmings' children instead of Thomas, a study of other evidence by the foundation that manages Monticello confirmed it was Thomas. The key evidence is that the other potential fathers weren't at Monticello at the time of her conception, while the ex-president was.

According to an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal (9/23/97, pA1), this scandal was reported in the Richmond, VA Recorder in 1802 by James Callendar, a British-born reporter, who didn't have any particular evidence to back up his charges. Callender also reported that Alexander Hamilton had been in an extramarital affair.

Later on, during the 1884 presidential campaign, Grover Cleveland faced allegations that he had fathered an illegitimate son, and did an amazing thing, which helped him win the election. Basically, he admitted it, told the truth and took full responsibility, something we wish more politicians would do. Here is the full story, as told by reader and contributor Steve Ross:

- During the 1884 presidential campaign, a woman named Maria Helpin went public with a story that Cleveland had fathered a child with her. The boy did exist, and he was named Oscar Folsom Cleveland.

- Cleveland did something unprecedented in political history. He sent a telegram to his campaign managers telling them to "tell the truth" and published the entire story, which was:

- Back in 1874 both Cleveland and Folsom, his law partner, had sexual relations with Helpin, a very unstable woman who probably had a case of nymphomania. Cleveland knew of several other men she had been involved with.

- Helpin became pregnant, but there was no way to know who the real father was. There was a chance that Cleveland or Folsom might have been the father. She had no way of supporting herself and a child, and was slipping into mental illness. All all the men in Helpin's life tried to wash their hands of her, and the son she bore, except Cleveland.

- Cleveland took over financial reponsibility for the boy until an adoption could be arranged and named him after his law partner and himself. Oscar was adopted by a couple in western New York and Helpin was eventually institutionalized.

In coming clean Cleveland turned the tables on the Republicans. Corruption and honesty were major issues in the 1884 election, and voters were so impressed by Cleveland's courage in telling the truth, and angry about corrupt favors accepted from the railway industry by Blaine, that he swept New York, the state in which the Republicans had tried to whip up a scandal frenzy. In those days New York held enough Electoral College votes to dominate presidential elections. His take of the popular vote was only 48.5% vs 48.2% for Blaine." [Reader/contributor Steve Ross wrote this section, and cites the following sources:
"Grover Cleveland" , by Richard Neustadt (Professor of Government at Harvard), in the web site of "The American President", a PBS documentary TV series
"A Tale of Two Presidents" by Lawrence Reed, Investor's Business Daily, January 29, 1998
"Grover Cleveland and Bill Clinton" by Dan Roberts, Nando Times News special report, 1998

Two years later, when Cleveland married the much younger Frances Folsom in 1886, newspapers gave them the full celebrity treatment, even following them on their honeymoon and reporting some details.

More recently, Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson have been shown with reasonable certainty to have had extramarital affairs. George Bush Sr. is alleged to have had a long-running affair with Jennifer Fitzgerald, a State Department employee who assisted Bush at most of his posts over the years ("She worked under him in a number of positions," the joke goes.)

Of course, there were many real and more substantial scandals in years past as well. Thanks to reader Tim Weber, here are links to several mudpits from olden times; the mysterious "Whisky Ring" and "XYZ Correspondence" fiascos, and the better known Watergate and Teapot Dome affairs.

Tony Raymond's Page of FEC Info at http://www.tray.com/fecinfo/. Lots of nonpartisan reports and detail on who gives and gets what donations. Lots of good info on soft money donations. Very well organized, a great site.

FEC Raw Data Files at http://www.fec.gov/finance/ftp.htm. Want to see the hard numbers yourself, without someone "explaining" them all to you? Go to the source, the government reports that candidates file under penalty of perjury.

Who is doing this?

Send us your comments, praise, and complaints

Send us dirt, tips, or your personal experience with any of the candidates

This is great! How can I give you guys money?? Thank you to Michael Keller for his web design contribution.

Paid for by Real People For Real Change
and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Copyright 2019 Real People For Real Change