Trunk, your distinction between Luther’s tactics and those of the Democrats and Republicans in 1884 is well taken. I think that the Republicans helped cobble together the Peoples’ Party from the old Greenback Party and some labor elements, but it was a bona fide party and Butler was a legitimate, if highly eccentric, candidate. Meanwhile, Bob McCarthy, a reader who lives in Kline’s district, suggests that half of the vote for Garst (the fake candidate) may have come from potential Luther voters. Mr. McCarthy has liberal friends who were outraged by Luther’s actions but couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Kline, “so they decided to vote for the very candidate Luther had created.” I’m a stranger in these parts, so I can’t comment on Mr. McCarthy’s theory, but it seemed interesting enough to pass along.
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