George McGovern

Sarah Palin may be the first vice presidential candidate since Sargent Shriver to enter a national campaign without ever taking a campaign contribution from a single New Jerseyan – and that’s because Shriver had never run for office before George McGovern picked him in 1972.  According to reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission (their version of the Election Law Enforcement Commission), Palin received no contributions from New Jersey residents in her bids for Governor, or for Mayor or Councilwoman in Wasilla.

When Ben Goodman of Kennebunk arrives at the University of Maine at Orono in the fall, he’s going to start working aggressively for Barack Obama from the get-go.

See below for the full interview on video, where Goodman talks about meeting George McGovern and Walter Mondale. “It’s amazing for me to see all these people who made history together in one place,” Goodman said. “It’s surreal.”

Orono is in the Second Congressional District, which is perceived by some as a battleground in the Presidential election.

DENVER -- Former U.S. Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, talked about the historic nature of this year's Democratic National Convention and the barriers that U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have broken in his address to the Massachusetts Democratic delegation Wednesday.

McGovern, speaking at the Massachusetts delegation's breakfast, said that, at 86 years old, he never thought he'd see two candidates like Obama (Ill.), an African American, and Clinton (N.Y.), a woman, get as close to the presidency as they have.

"I frankly can't claim that I foresaw in my lifetime the day when this country would finally break the barrier to a woman or a black person reaching the White House," he said. "Hillary Clinton, who worked hard for me along with her young boyfriend, Bill Clinton, came within a step of winning the nomination. Barack Obama, is our nominee, a black man."

DENVER - A glance at the 1972 Democratic National Convention might put things in perspective for those Democrats who think the party is irreconcilably divided between Camp Hillary and Obamaland.

After liberal Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota won his party’s nomination for president that year, primary loser Alabama Gov. George Wallace refused to support him, taking southern segregationists on an embittered exodus out of the party.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) remembers that convention, and he recalls firmly backing McGovern.

"My support for McGovern earned me a spot on Richard Nixon’s enemies list," Lautenberg told PolitickerNJ.com.

Joseph Biden will mark the fourth vice presidential nominee from a state that borders Pennsylvania since Democratic candidate Alton Parker picked former West Virginia US Senator Henry Davis in 1904 to run with him against Theodore Roosevelt.  Davis’ neighboring status had no effect in Pennsylvania which cast their votes for the Republican team that year.  In 1968 Richard Nixon tapped Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew to join his ticket and while the Republicans won the election they lost Pennsylvania to Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie.  Pennsylvania was sure to pick a VP candidate in 1972 when Nixon and Agnew were able to turn the tides and defeat George McGovern and former French Ambassador Sarget Shriver who also resided in Maryland. 

How many times did two Marylanders run for the vice presidency in the same year?

Today in a hit on Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen used the recent endorsement of 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern to decry Obama's anti-Iraq War stance. In the piece, Pullen claimed that Americans desire a "victorious and responsible end to the conflict in Iraq," painting Obama as "out of touch" and "irresponsible" for wanting to withdraw combat forces.

Yet numerous polls indicate that Obama's view is very much in line with the majority of Americans.

Who were the newly elected Senators of 1986? And How many of Barbara Mikulski's freshman colleagues are still there today?