Write-Ins are Personal: Wayne Morse

 How fascinating that during the month of February we learn the origin of the 'Write-In Wayne Morse The Dark Horse' for President bumper sticker I picked up a few years ago on ebay from a seller in Washington State. If you are patient, with the massive digitizing of older media, you will eventually stumble upon some answers. 

Richard Neuberger Bumper Sticker

Picked up this bumper sticker from the successful 1954 campaign of Richard Neuberger. He was the first Democrat to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Oregon since 1914. He won by a little over 2,000 votes out of half a million cast in the election.

He served along side Wayne Morse, and their famous feud is well documented. A noted journalist of America, the Pacific Northwest and politics. Nueberger was a natural storyteller. He wrote many articles for dozens of publications during his life. Some were even collected into books. I have not had great luck finding Neuberger for Senate items over the years. This was the first thing on Ebay I think I have ever purchased for Neuberger.

Most of the time you can find the Conservationists for Neuberger items. There is a seed pack that was designed for sportsman to disperse in the wild to make up for the grass they trample on while hunting. The other item that has been seen frequently in collections is the Conservationists for Neuberger tab. Blogger Andy Kerr has written a little bit about Neuberger's conservation work at his blog.

WRITE-IN MORSE Found

It has been a really slow year for finding new Wayne Morse items. I really haven't picked up much since January. That all changed the other day. I was getting ready to leave the house for a long day of activities and I randomly decided to login to ebay and look for some political items. That's where I stumbled upon this bumper sticker.

First Official 2020 Items!

Well I made my first official donation to a 2020 Presidential candidate to get some buttons this month. Andrew Yang is probably a long shot of long shots, but at least he has a campaign store!

There are buttons and stickers for the traditional collectors and other items like shirts and tech stickers (smaller stickers for your laptop or phone case). 

For 10 dollars I got two buttons and two stickers. They are pictured below. His campaign site is here: www.yang2020.com and his STORE

Another Good Friend of Bonamici

As is often the case campaigns run out of swag between elections. Members of congress run for office every two years and go through lots of bumper stickers, buttons and campaign literature. In 2014 the campaign of Suzanne Bonamici issued some great 'Another Good Friend of Bonmaici' buttons and matching bumper stickers. They also have t-shirts with the same logo.

They ran out between the 2014 and 2016 campaigns of the buttons and stickers and re-ordered more for this year. It turns out they must not have used the same place to order pins as you can see from the photo below the two union bugs are different.

September Finds: Morse, Throop, & More

Turned up several neat items in antique and thrift shops around my area. The first is a Wayne Morse bumper sticker from his 1956 re-election campaign. Really neat item, and a first for me.

As most know, Morse had recently switched from the GOP to the Democrats after growing increasingly frustrated with party leadership and the direction the party was going on many policy fronts. He would win in 1956, by defeating former Oregon Governor and then Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

More Des Connall Items Found

This last winter we did a post remembering former Multnomah Co. District Attorney Des Connall. He had passed away in 2013. It turns out I had two more items from his DA campaigns.

Both of these bumper stickers were found while cleaning out a box of items that had gotten lost in the mess of the garage. Here they are now to supplement the previous post.