Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Independence League
POLITICAL PARTY DETAILS
Color    
AbbreviationIL
Website
CountryUnited States
Established1906-00-00
Disbanded1916-00-00
ContributorThomas Walker
Last EditedRBH - December 31, 2015 09:33pm
DescriptionThe Independence Party, or Independence League or National Independence League, was a short-lived minor American political party formed by newspaper publisher and United States Representative William Randolph Hearst in 1906 as the successor to the Municipal Ownership League, which had dissolved after Hearst was defeated in his run for Mayor of New York in 1905 on the Municipal Ownership League's ticket against the incumbent Democrat George B. McClellan, Jr. and Republican William M. Ivins.[1]

The next year, Hearst was defeated in his run for Governor of New York on a Democratic-Independence fusion ticket, but all his running mates were elected: Lt. Gov. Lewis S. Chanler, Secretary of State John S. Whalen, Comptroller Martin H. Glynn, Treasurer Julius Hauser, Attorney General William S. Jackson and State Engineer Frederick Skene.

The party was active in several other states, including California and Massachusetts, where party nomineee Thomas L. Hisgen garnered a significant number of votes in the 1907 election for governor.

The party nominated Thomas L. Hisgen for President of the United States and John Temple Graves for Vice President of the United States at its national convention in Chicago in July 1908. The party platform argued against corrupt machine politics, for the eight-hour work day, for the creation of a Department of Labor, for government ownership of utilities (including railroads), and for the establishment of a central bank. The national party collapsed after the 1908 election, in which Hisgen and Graves won less than one percent of the popular vote.

Hearst ran again for Mayor of New York in 1909, and for Lieutenant Governor in 1910, but was defeated both times. The New York Independence League continued to nominate candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York until the state election of 1914.

BOOKS
Title Purchase Contributor

EVENTS
Start Date End Date Type Title Contributor

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION
INFORMATION LINKS

USERS
None

MOST RECENT RACES
11/04/1980 CT State Senate 11 James J. Valenti Lost 0.73% (-62.97%)
11/07/1916 NY State Senate 47 Frank Todd Lost 0.80% (-54.55%)
11/07/1916 NY Assembly - New York 10 George F. Ficke Lost 2.04% (-32.37%)
11/07/1916 NY Attorney General William A. Deford Lost 0.54% (-52.45%)
09/19/1916 NY Governor - INL Primary Charles S. Whitman Won 71.84% (+43.68%)
09/19/1916 NY Governor - INL Primary Samuel Seabury Lost 28.16% (-43.68%)
11/02/1915 NY Assembly- New York 18 Manuel Reisberg Lost 0.64% (-68.64%)
11/02/1915 NY Assembly - Bronx 33 Ignatz Wolski Lost 4.33% (-52.30%)
11/02/1915 NY Assembly - Bronx 32 Michael H. Busse Lost 1.31% (-53.60%)
11/02/1915 NY Assembly- New York 17 Michael Donnelly Lost 0.60% (-46.55%)
11/03/1914 NY District 2 Lawrence T. Gresser, Sr. Lost 9.38% (-45.09%)
11/03/1914 NY District 24 Benjamin L. Fairchild Lost 1.24% (-42.54%)
11/03/1914 NY Assembly - Queens 03 William Gombichler Lost 0.13% (-55.63%)
11/03/1914 NY State Senate 27 Charles P. Duvergy Lost 0.36% (-57.47%)
11/03/1914 NY Assembly - New York 04 Max Eckmann Lost 7.81% (-44.24%)
11/03/1914 NY Attorney General Edward Richard O'Malley Lost 0.90% (-47.20%)
11/03/1914 NY Assembly - New York 07 William Dwyer Lost 3.76% (-55.60%)
11/03/1914 NY Assembly - New York 20 Madison M. Jones Lost 38.23% (-12.11%)
11/03/1914 NY Assembly - New York 23 Thomas Ward Wasson Lost 0.86% (-44.23%)
11/03/1914 NY Assembly - Kings 02 George M. Perry Lost 0.68% (-68.73%)