Progressive Party (United States, 1912)
As a member of the Republican Party, Roosevelt had served as President from 1901 to 1909, becoming increasingly progressive in the later years of his presidency. In the 1908 presidential election, Roosevelt helped ensure that he would be succeeded by Secretary of War Taft. After Taft took office, he hewed closer to the conservative wing of the party and this and other actions alienated Roosevelt from his former friend. Progressive Republican leader Robert La Follette had already announced a challenge to Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination, but many of his supporters shifted to Roosevelt after the former President decided to seek a third presidential term, which was permissible under the Constitution prior to the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment. At the 1912 Republican National Convention, Taft narrowly defeated Roosevelt for the party's presidential nomination. After the convention, Roosevelt, Frank Munsey, George Walbridge Perkins and other progressive Republicans established the Progressive Party and nominated a ticket of Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson of California at the 1912 Progressive National Convention. The new party attracted several Republican officeholders, although nearly all of them remained loyal to the Republican Party—in California, Johnson and the Progressives took control of the Republican Party.
Battle of South Street
On 31 March 1930, Charles Bentinck Budd was elected to the Offington ward of West Sussex County Council. Later that year, Budd, who lived at Greenville, Grove Road, Worthing, was elected to the town council as the independent representative of Ham Ward in the Broadwater area of the town. In 1933 Oswald Mosley relaunched his 'New Party' as the British Union of Fascists, following a visit to Benito Mussolini in Italy. One of the first branches of the BUF was set up by Budd in Worthing, who attracted a good deal of publicity through various high profile antics and numerous visits to the town from Mosley and William Joyce. At an election meeting on 16 October 1933, Budd revealed he was now a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Budd was re-elected and the national press reported that Worthing was the first town in the country to elect a fascist councillor. Budd stormed out of the Town Hall when other councillors refused to give him the committee places he desired and attacked the Council for refusing to allow the Fascists to hold open-air meetings at the site of the old fish market near Worthing Pier, a privilege that was allowed for the Salvation Army.