Campaign Buttons

Do you remember back in the day when political candidates had all sorts of swag to get their name out among the public? Bumper stickers, buttons, t-shirts, yard signs, tie pins, I've even seen scarves! With the growth of instant media, the public no longer needs these items to know what their candidates look like or the issues on which they stand. Supposedly.
I had intended to use these buttons for a Vintage Thingies Thursday, but I have so much Halloween that it is going to bring me right up to the election. So here are my campaign buttons, all but one of which are BLUE! They are actually my mom's, shoved into the bottom of her jewelry box. I thought I'd tell you a little about these guys, and 1 gal, since many are local, or you may be too young to remember.
This button would be held on by folding the little clip over a collar. It could only be worn a few times because the clip would break off, but these are cheaper to manufacture than actual pins. The image on the button is the Charter Oak, the same image on the Connecticut state quarter. In 1990 Lowell Weicker and Eunice Groark were elected on the A Connecticut Party ticket as Governor and Lt. Governor.Lowell P. Weicker served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and Governor of Connecticut, and unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President in 1980. Although he was a Republican during his time in Congress, he later left the Party and became one of the few independents to be elected as a state governor in the United States in recent years. Since his retirement he has moved more towards the Democratic Party.

Remember the Duke? I do! He ran for President when I was in college. His wife spoke at my college that year and Secret Service were all over the place. One of my fondest memories of Mike Dukakis is when he visited General Dynamics and rode around in a tank. What a goonie-bird! Dukakis was Governor of Massachusetts, and is also cousin to Olympia Dukakis the actress.Well, we all know who won this election, I hope! LBJ finished out JFK's term and ran for President with Hubert Humphrey as his running mate in 1964. In 1968 he spoke his famous line, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.Since Johnson was no longer in the running, the Democrats chose Humphrey as their candidate in 1968. His running mate, Edmund Muskie, was a former Governor of Maine and served in the Senate until 1980. We all should know how this election turned out! Can you say Tricky Dick?This is the complete collection, so you can see a couple of buttons I didn't write about. The tiny green one is actually very significant, even tough it's not BLUE! Ella Grasso was the first female governor of Connecticut, serving from 1975-1980. Grasso was the first woman in the country who was elected governor "in her own right," without being the wife or widow of a past governor. She was very popular and probably would have continued in serve as governor if she did not have ovarian cancer. She died six weeks after resigning office. I remember when she died and lay in state at the CT State House. My family waited in line for hours to pay our respects. It was February and really cold, but it was very important to my parents that we do this as a family!

That's it for my Blue Monday! I hope you take some time to visit Sally and the other participants!