Progressive (Bull Moose)

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_%28United_States%2C_1912%29

Members of the Legislature: 0
Highest Office Won: Governor (1914)
Founded: 1912

NOTE: California has had several Progressive Parties. The first, also known as the Bull Moose Party, existed from 1914 to 1918. The second Progressive Party existed from 1924 to 1942. The final, known in California as the Independent Progressive Party, existed from 1948 to 1955.

After serving his second term, Theodore Roosevelt had supported the Republican nomination of William H. Taft for President in 1908. Disappointed by Taft's policies and appointments during his first term as President, Roosevelt made an effort to win the Republican nomination for President in 1912. With Governor Hiram Johnson as his Vice Presidential runningmate, Roosevelt ran one of the strongest 'third-party' Presidential campaigns in American history.

The Progressive Party won a single congressional seat in 1912. In 1914, the Progressive Party won six of the nine statewide office up for election, as well as a seat on the Board of Equalization and three Congressional seats. By 1918, the members of the Progressive party had reintegrated into the Republican Party, in fact, three of the six Republicans who won statewide office in 1918 had won on the Progressive ticket four years before; Attorney General U.S. Webb, Treasurer Friend W. Richardson, Surveyor General William S. Kingsbury.