Background
Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lyndon LaRouche formed a variety of political organizations, including the U.S. Labor Party and the National Democratic Policy Committee. These organizations served as the platforms for presidential campaigns by LaRouche starting in 1976, and by his followers in scores of local races. According to one candidate, supporters viewed LaRouche as "the greatest political leader and economist of the 20th century, and they're proud to be associated with him. They feel he's leading the battle to save Western civilization." The Survey of Jewish Affairs, 1987 called the LaRouche movement one of the two most prominent "extremist political groups" of 1986.
The movement's greatest electoral success came in 1986 when two supporters, Janice Hart and Mark J. Fairchild, won the Democratic Party nominations for Illinois Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor. Both lost in the general election. Also in 1986, the "Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee" (PANIC) got an initiative on the California ballot, Proposition 64 (also known as the "LaRouche Initiative"), which attracted widespread opposition and was defeated that November.
Read more about this topic: LaRouche Criminal Trials
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